Fujian Villagers Block Road to Protest Pollution

HONG KONG—Several hundred villagers from the southeastern Chinese province of Fujian have been camping out on a major road since last Thursday protesting pollution from a nearby chemical processing plant, residents said.

The residents of Fuwen village, Shunchang county, were camping in tents on the highway and had set up barricades of timber and rubble, preventing any traffic from getting through.

“We are not asking for money. We are simply saying that we won’t leave until the factory stops polluting our environment,” one villager told RFA’s Cantonese service.

“Our children can’t even get into the army because they all fail the medical. They are in bad health because of the pollution, so they can’t even be soldiers. Not one of them has passed the medical,” the villager said. Read more.