Rise in People's Power

A nondescript plot of industrial land on the outskirts of the southern Chinese port city of Xiamen has become the focus of a new political movement.

The site was supposed to be the home of a new chemical plant, but protesters have forced the city government to put the project on hold.

It is a rare example of people power in a country where government officials are used to doing exactly what they want, when they want.

Ordinary people elsewhere in the country have taken note. There were similar protests over a railway project recently in Shanghai.

The Xiamen saga began when Taiwan's Xianglu Group said it wanted to build a chemical factory on the Haicang peninsula on the edge of the city.

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China is beginning to look more like the "People's Republic." Suprisingly, residents have persuaded officials to put the building plans for the new chemical plant on hold. This could be the beginning of a rise in power for the people of China, and they deserve a little bit. After all, there is over a billion of them.

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