Posted on 07/29/2007 11:38:38 AM PDT by JACKRUSSELL
(BEIJING) - Chinese farmers besieged a brewery to protest against pollution and being left out in the economic cold -- common complaints in the China's restive countryside -- local people said on Sunday.
Villagers in the southwest province Sichuan blocked the gate of the brewery and a nearby road close to Shifang city on Thursday and Friday demanding that officials and executives resolve their grievances, locals told Reuters by phone.
"There's been a lot of trouble," said one villager who gave her family name as Huang. "They weren't listening and so we blocked the road."
The villagers' complaints could not be verified and the brewery was not taking calls on Sunday.
But the protest was another sign that anger about environmental damage and economic inequality continue to fuel unrest while the ruling Communist Party promises a fairer "harmonious society".
The Kong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, which often reports on unrest, said in a fax that hundreds of riot police dispersed the protest involving up to 5,000 people, with seven arrested and 20 injured.
Villagers told Reuters that protesters and onlookers reached one or two thousand in number despite heavy rain.
"It's basically quelled now," an official at the nearby Yuanshi town government told Reuters. He said several protestors had been detained and already released.
"It was mainly over water pollution. Five villages were polluted," he said. He would not give his name.
Villagers said run-off from the brewery had damaged crops and tainted underground water that supplies wells.
They said there was also anger among farmers and employees about the recent sale of the brewery, which they claim a stake in. "They didn't share the money with the farmers. It's unfair," said Huang.
"The brewery boss is rich now," said another villager surnamed Ye. "But what about the villagers?"
The plant is run by the Blue Sword Brewery group, which is owned by a joint venture of Hong Kong-listed China Resources Enterprise <0291.HK> and SABMiller Plc .
Their joint venture, China Resources Snow Breweries -- in which SABMiller, the world's No. 2 brewer, owns 49 percent -- bought a controlling interest in Blue Sword in January for 2.5 billion yuan ($320 million).
"It was sold off but we didn't get anything," Huang said.
Another local said senior managers received big payments after the sale, but residents who had invested to build the plant in the early 1980s or who worked there had not received their due.
Calls to the brewery and the Blue Sword headquarters were not answered, and nor were calls to China Resources in Hong Kong. A spokesman for SABMiller said the pollution claims were being investigated.
A widening gap between rich and poor, corruption and official abuses have in recent years fuelled growing numbers of demonstrations, riots and other what the government calls "mass incidents".
The government has channelled more spending to the countryside and told officials to defuse discontent over pollution, corruption and lost land.
Officials say this effort is paying off and protests have been falling.
A senior rural policy adviser earlier this year estimated the number of "mass incidents" in both rural and urban areas had fallen to about 23,000 last year from 26,000 in 2005.
"It was mainly over water pollution. Five villages were polluted,"
Polluted with what? wort? Beer is just water,yeast,grain and hops.
Or are the villagers "getting polluted" by overdrinking? ;0)
Pingaling
There aren’t any waste by-products while creating beer?
Anyway, it sounds like there are ~two~ issues here:
* pollution of the water in some way so that it their sources are marred or impaired in some way
* compensation not paid to villagers that invested in the brewery
My guess is that if /you/ tasted the stuff, you wouldn’t want to drink it either. There’s beer and then there’s swill.
Just Wort. It could be used as livestock feed
There is nothing wrong with Tsingtao
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