Page 156 - Feasibility Study of New Media Technology on Constructing Online Public Sphere

Feasibility Study of New Media Technology
on Constructing Online Public Sphere

claimed to be a ‘record speed’ for Haicang by the local media (Huang, 2010). As con-

struction began, environmental pollution started to be visible and could not be ignored.
The nearby residents in Wenying village and other neighbourhoods noticed that a sour
smell always hung in the air at night and sometimes it was so pungent that they could
hardly fall asleep. The unpleasant smell was also frequently detected by the faculty
and students in the Haicang School, which was affiliated to Beijing Normal University.

Residents in the adjacent ‘Future Coast’ neighbourhood saw a growing number of giant
industrial chimneys and noticed increasingly stale air. They reported the pollution situ-
ation to the local environmental department, governmental department and news media

repeatedly, but nothing happened. Citizens who spent their lives saving to buy houses
or invest in Haicang District became anxious and angry (ibid).
At the end of 2006, Professor Zhao Yufen of the department of chemistry in Xia-
men University, Yuan Dongxing and other academics started negotiations with Xiamen
city government which lasted for months. The Mayor declared that the project had not

been approved by the current city government, and it had been proposed to the State
Council by three former mayors and the city government. He also pointed out that,
when the Xiamen government was considering the project, Xiamen University and

the Third Institute of Oceanography of the State Oceanic Administration were in full
agreement with the proposal, and Xiamen University even set up a chemical science
institute for it. Ding Guoyan from the municipal Party Committee stated that he was an
outsider to the field of chemical industry, and that he never heard that PX can explode.
The assessment of the project had recognition from environmental specialists. Later,

three academics – Zhao Yufen, Tian Zhaowu and Xu Xun – reviewed issues of toxicity
and hazard and concluded that, due to the sensitive position of Haicang District, they
would like to invite international experts to join the project assessment. The Xiamen

government did not accept the suggestion (Huang, 2010). Academics also pointed out
that plants in Chinese Taiwan and Korea are usually located 70 kilometres away from
residential areas due to the highly toxic petrochemical discharge and the risk of explo-
sion and leaks, and they recommended a distance of 100 kilometres from residential
areas. However, the plant in Xiamen was only 4 kilometres away from two university

140
140