News – full story

ANGRY protests over fluoride pollution have pushed Chinese authorities to order a halt in production at Jinko Solar’s Haining factory.

According to state media, more than 500 people from the nearby village of Hongxiao gathered outside the plant, which produces photovoltaic panels, cells and wafers. Several days of occasionally violent demonstrations reportedly left a dozen police and company vehicles damaged before protesters were dispersed.

Locals claim that the wave of anger was sparked when the runoff from solid waste stored at the site polluted a nearby river, killing masses of fish. Chen Hongming, a deputy head of Haining’s environmental protection bureau, said that the plant had failed pollution tests earlier this year.

Jinko Solar, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, has apologised for the fluoride contamination, and has agreed to restore the river to its natural state as soon as possible.

The state-run China Daily news service reported that one villager had posted online claims that six of Hingxiao’s 3,300 residents had been diagnosed with leukaemia, and a further 31 with other kinds of cancers. Health authorities denied the claims and the blogger, known only as ‘Sun’, has since been arrested for “dissemination of false information.”

Only last month, a similar wave of public disapproval saw a US$1.5b paraxylene plant in the city of Delian close down, with the threat of having to relocate away from residential areas.