Los Angeles Times
September 3, 2006

Villagers say a few people in China are getting rich by destroying the environment. ‘This whole system is unfair,’ one farmer is quoted as saying, ‘They’re getting wealthy on the backs of poor people like us.’

Huashui, China: The tents are gone, the protesters have dispersed and the police have retreated to the shadows. But villagers remain in jail, local women are still tending deformed babies, and rage burns beneath the surface. With the spread of pollution-related unrest, a contagious source of instability in the world’s most populous country, Huashui stands out as a benchmark more than a year after farmers drew a line in the once-fertile earth. Not only was it one of the largest known protests, with an estimated 10,000 police officers and desperate villagers battling in April 2005, but it also proved a rare case in which citizen outrage prevailed over deeply vested interests.