Explosion rocks controversial China plant that sparked protests

A controversial petrochemical plant in southern China - which triggered some of the country's biggest environmental protests when it was first proposed in 2007 - has suffered an explosion, leaving over a dozen people injured.

The explosion at the paraxylene (PX) plant in Fujian built by Dragon Aromatics, an arm of Taiwanese petrochemical producer Xianglu Group, happened on Monday evening and shook homes several miles away.

Activists said the explosion would help shape future policy with environmentalist Ma Jun, who publishes government pollution monitoring data, saying it would have a "profound impact".

"It will refocus the debate on the quality of decision making as well as the management of the chemicals industry," he added.

The building of the plant that manufactures PX - which is used in textiles and plastics - triggered mass demonstrations in 2007 which inspired similar protests in other cities. 'Nimby', or not in my backyard, has become a potent rallying force in a country where overt political organisation outside the ruling Communist Party is banned.

Both the scale and make-up of the anti-PX protests, including the urban middle class, has hampered China's ability to roll out new nuclear power plants, since planners in Beijing fear they will encounter similar opposition.

The plant was built in the poorer seaside town of Gulei near the city of Zhangzhou, after the government of the wealthy port city of Xiamen bowed to protesters' demands not to site it near a residential neighbourhood in Xiamen

Chinese media reported on Monday evening that 14 people were wounded, two seriously, a figure later revised down by official media. The local fire department said photos circulated on social media of dead and injured were fake.

An employee of Dragon Aromatics hung up the phone when contacted by Financial Times.

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Residents of Gulei have repeatedly complained of the smell from the plant and the government had begun to relocate people in the immediate vicinity.

Dragon Aromatics is in the process of expanding the condensate splitter at the Gulei complex, which processes a type of very light crude oil from Iran's South Pars field. The condensate contains high levels of sulphide, which may explain the smell.

The splitter produces liquefied petroleum gas, or LPG, and naphtha which in turn feeds the PX plant.

The condensate is imported for Dragon Aromatics by Zhuhai Zhenrong, the military-linked company that handles most of China's oil imports from Iran.

Additional reporting by Owen Guo

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