14 DAY TRIAL // Information recently made available to the public indicates that this past Monday numerous Chinese citizens have gathered in the city of Shifang, south-west China, to protests against plans to build a new copper plant there.
Apparently, their main concern is the negative impact that this new project is quite likely to have both on the environment, and on public health.
To be more precise: copper is a heavy metal that, under certain conditions and in some concentrations, can prove to be poisonous to living organisms.
Rumor has it that, as protesters were becoming more and more aggressive by the hour, local authorities had to use brute force in order to somewhat control the sudden outbursts of violence.
Thus, they had to resort to tear gas and several people ended up being injured.
As well as this, it seems that Chinese officials and members of this country's police made it clear that, unless those involved in the riot quiet down within the following couple of days, they will have no choice but to resort to even more dramatic measures.
CapitalFM also speaks about how China's high officials and the local police consider this protest to be an illegal one.
Regardless of whether the protests will end within the established timeframe or not, those who agreed to take part in them are to suffer the consequences of disturbing public order.
Environmentalists and conservationists argue that the Chinese people had no choice but to go out in the streets and voice their complaints, given the fact that the country's rulers more often than not tend to disregard their opinion when taking major decisions such as this one.
All in all, the same source informs us that the citizens involved in organizing and carrying out these protests did in fact succeed in halting the construction of Shifang's new copper plant.
However, it will probably not take long until building operations are resumed.