Tenuous calm returned Saturday to a south China town that was the scene of violent clashes between police and protestors this week, after local residents said officials had agreed to a dialogue. Locals of Haimen township who had blocked a highway for a fourth day on Friday to protest a planned power plant expansion – throwing bricks and getting hit by police tear gas – said the peace could be temporary.
“It is quiet today so far, but I don’t know if this will last this afternoon,” a travel agent who gave only his surname, Lin, said. A highway toll gate where the clashes had flared was reopened Saturday and no protests were seen nearby, the official Xinhua news agency said. Haimen residents had complained that the coal-fired power plant was behind a rise in the number of local cancer patients, environmental pollution and a drop in the local fishermen’s catch, Xinhua said.
The crowd dispersed after government officials promised to release detained villagers. State-run local television on Friday night broadcast a message from Shantou Communist Party officials promising at least a temporary stop to plans to expand the plant, which is owned by state-run Huaneng Power, Lin said.