Free Republic

Hundreds of villagers in eastern China riot against polluting factoryThursday ?June 30, 2005 Hundreds of Chinese villagers have marched on a battery factory which they say is poisoning their children and held 1,000 workers hostage, residents and officials said. About 600 people from Jianxia village in the eastern province of Zhejiang took control of the Zhejiang Tianneng Battery company and barricaded workers inside, resident Han Cheng told AFP Thursday. But a promise made Thursday afternoon by factory managers to stop production and carry out investigations helped defuse the tense five-day standoff. "The problem has been more or less solved this...

China's water crisis -- from severe shortages to heavy pollution -- is the worst in the world and requires urgent action, a top government official says. China was "facing a water crisis more severe and urgent than any other country in the world," Vice Minister of Construction Qiu Baoxing told a conference in Beijing on developing China's urban water supply.