Why Do Chinese People Boycott The PX Project?

PX is xylene. Important chemical raw materials. Not only is it related to people's clothing, it is also a direct access to things, such as drug capsules, PX is one of the raw materials. Mineral water bottles and other packaging materials, the main raw material is also PX. About 10000 tons of synthetic fiber is equivalent to 70 thousand mu of arable land. Spin Fiber. In 2012, China produced about 28 million tons of synthetic fiber. If we produce the same amount of natural fiber, we need nearly 200 million mu of cultivated land.

South Korea is the largest PX producer in Asia, with an annual capacity of about 5 million 840 thousand tons and exports of nearly 1 million 500 thousand tons. In 2012, the largest PX device in the world built in Ulsan was officially put into operation. Its capacity is equivalent to 3 billion 200 million sets per year. clothing 。

　 Unlike China, PX is not a sensitive topic in South Korea.

In the industrial park of Hyundai Group in Ulsan, the PX production base is only 400 meters away from the nearest residential area. At least tens of thousands of residents live side by side with it.

More than half of the 800 thousand tonnes of PX produced by the group are exported to China and are in short supply. In November 2012, Japan's JX energy company and South Korea SK cooperate to build a large-scale PX production plant. After the plant is expected to be put into operation, the annual output of the plant will reach 1 million tons.

But in recent years, with the improvement of public awareness of environmental protection in China, PX Social group incidents triggered by the project continue to erupt. From Xiamen, Dalian, to Ningbo and Kunming, the local people have been fiercely protested without exception. In the end, they were forced to strangle under the intervention of local governments.

This contrast is intriguing. The result is that China is forced to import from abroad and prices rise all the way. In June, China's PX imports increased by 33.5% over the same period last year. According to media reports, China's PX dependence is as high as 46%.

At present, the king of the world's manufacturing industry has become the third country to master core technology after the United States and France. It can reach the level of foreign countries in PX production and achieve safe and harmless production.

Moreover, in accordance with international practice, in the consideration of cost saving and environmental protection, PX projects all over the world tend to follow the principle of "three close principles": close to the oil refineries, close to the downstream PTA factories and close to the big river and the sea. The areas that meet these conditions are usually densely populated and beautifully situated. The JX chemical plant in Japan is only 40 minutes away from Tokyo, only 4000 meters away from the nearest residential area.

　 But China's PX project is difficult and thought-provoking.

First of all, one reason is that the Chinese people are in lack of sufficient scientific knowledge. In 2012, the China Association for science and technology data showed that less than 4% of the people had basic scientific literacy, and the related departments' Enlightenment work was lagging behind, coupled with the increasingly serious environmental crisis in China.

In Ulsan, the SK chemical project staff are interested in the Ulsan big park which has invested 100 billion won for the public in the past ten years. This has become a true portrayal of the corporate social responsibility and the improvement of the urban environment. In contrast, Chinese enterprises are lagging behind in this respect. Especially when monopolized central enterprises are exposed frequently, such as their own spamming benefits, they are indifferent to the people of one of the stakeholders. Besides, the information brought by the system is not open and opaque, and lack of corresponding communication mechanism, which leads to public suspicion and anxiety on them and forms a hotbed of collective boycott.

More importantly, China's large-scale chemical projects are often carried out under the guidance of the government. As the administrative system reform is lagging behind, the operation of power is not transparent and transparent, and the channels of social supervision are narrow and costly. At present, when the credibility of the government is greatly reduced, these projects fail to form an effective consensus between the government and the people, and eventually become a stable event. In South Korea and even Japan, Singapore and the United States, a perfect rule of law environment is often established. Heavy chemical projects from projects to construction and production are carried out under a relatively open and transparent institutional environment, which fundamentally eliminates violent conflicts.

In South Korea, after several years of development, environmental protection technology has made great progress. The EIA system under the rule of law is improving day by day. The general public can have the most basic sense of trust in any chemical project put into operation. Although China's environmental protection industry has made great progress in recent years, under the inertial thinking of GDP, some governments have been perfunctory or even ignored to the EIA, resulting in environmental protection departments being reduced. Recently, people frequently invited the local environmental protection bureau to swim under the river, which is a black humor with Chinese characteristics. Three of them are worth pondering.

It is a fact that China needs PX. There is no winner in this continuous game between the government and the people, but solving the PX crisis in China is a complicated systematic project.

For policymakers, how to speed up reform and establish a more open and transparent decision-making mechanism seems to be a waste of time.