Sunday, July 03, 2005

Jianxia Residents Sick of Kids Getting Sick

An ongoing dispute over environmental pollution at a Chinese battery factory reached a boiling point this week when more than 600 local residents took over the plant. The protesters say the plant is poisoning and polluting local rivers and the air they breathe. Protesters say all of the village of Jianxia’s children are getting sick from the pollution which has been going on for years.

“My father is staying there at night and my mother during the day,” Han Cheg told Asia News, a village resident who has a four-year-old daughter. “We will not let the workers go until a solution is found. In the village, there are around 200 children and they all feel ill. The factory has been polluting the air for eight years.”

Clashes between village residents and factory workers resulted in the admission of four people into hospital.

According to PR Web Zhejiang Tianneng Battery Co. Ltd. is the largest producer of electric batteries for bicycles in China with an estimated market share of over 20%. The Company also designs, manufactures and distributes electric bicycle chargers, motors and controllers, which together with the batteries, are commonly known as the four major components of electric bicycles.

At Zhejiang Tianneng Battery factory, a private company with 750 million yuan (90.6 million dollars) in assets that also has Hong Kong and US investment of 12 million dollars, Communist Party officials form part of the management team.

Asia News says financial backers of the company include the New World China Enterprises Projects – a subsidiary of the New World Development, a Hong Kong company – and Prax Capital, a US investment fund. Sources: Asia News, PR Web, Channel News Asia, All Headline News

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