Page 161 - Feasibility Study of New Media Technology on Constructing Online Public Sphere

Chapter 6. The Xiamen PX plant event

‘Did you receive the message?’ became the opening remark when Xiamen citizens

met each other for the following three months. There was a great stir among the citizens
after this information spread and the sentiments of fear aroused by this information af-
fected the normal life of people in Xiamen.
As the call to protest buzzed around the city, the government made an abrupt re-
versal. On 29 May, an emergency meeting was convened, and the provincial party com-

mittee in Fuzhou demanded the leaders in Xiamen report on the project and deal with
the public outcry (Ansfield, 2013). On the early morning of 30 May, the executive vice
mayor announced the decision to suspend construction of the PX plant and to conduct a

more comprehensive environmental assessment of the entire industrial zone (ibid).
By midday of 1 June, thousands of the crowd coursed through the streets, passing
government offices, and shouting the Party motto ‘Serve the people!’ It turned out that
the government’s decision to suspend and further assess the project was not enough
for the public. The protesters’ demand was to expel the plant (Ansfield, 2013). Banners

with slogans, such as ‘Boycott PX, Protect Xiamen’, ‘Stop Construction, No Postpone-
ment’ and ‘Resist the PX Project, Protect City Residents’ Health and Protect Xiamen’s
Environment’, were held up (Hung, 2013).

The demonstration signified the transition from the online campaign to the re-
al-world mass event. During this process, the discussions on BBS/forums, blogs and
online chat groups moved to the state-owned mobile messaging platforms. It facilitat-
ed a form of demonstration in the physical space and the demonstration process was
broadcast and disseminated by the participants and activists through the internet.

In China, an offline campaign is the final step for citizens to express their opin-
ions. It is a collective result of the aggregation of online activities. In terms of media
companies, the main contribution is to provide an online public sphere that enables

netizens to gather together to discuss social events. In online public sphere, as the opin-
ions accumulate and netizens’ emotions reach a peak, they may alter to an offline ap-
proach for greater influence.

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