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# Two kinds of protest in China
- URL: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/18876/
- Published: 2005-04-12T15:04:48.000Z
- Updated: 2019-02-14T22:33:08.000Z
- Author: openDemocracy Supporters
- Tags: #en, #Migrated, #Import 2026-04-09 18:15

Many thanks to [China Confidential](http://chinaconfidential.blogspot.com/?ref=opendemocracy.net) and [Riding Sun](http://ridingsun.blogspot.com/?ref=opendemocracy.net) for expanding on [stories heard over the weekend](http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/PEK221959.htm?ref=opendemocracy.net) of riots in and around Huankantou Village, eastern China. The protests against pollution from nearby factories were suppressed by police, and there were two fatalities among the crowd. The environmental degradation caused by China's "economic miracle" is cast as a pivotal political issue by the Chinese deputy director of the State Environmental Protection Administration in our recent interview, [*China's Environmental Suicide*](http://www.opendemocracy.net/debates/article-3-83-2407.jsp).

Meanwhile in Bejing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen other protests, this time [against Japanese targets](http://chinaconfidential.blogspot.com/2005/04/weekend-of-rioting.html?ref=opendemocracy.net) and apparently motivated by a move from Japan to rewrite its history textbooks to downplay the brutal occupation of China by the Japanese in the decades leading up to the end of the second world war, were [seen to be actively encouraged by the Chinese administration](http://ridingsun.blogspot.com/2005/04/good-riots-and-bad-riots.html?ref=opendemocracy.net).