Shanghaied into plan change

Bundled against the cold, the Shanghai businessman made his way down the steps. Coming towards him in blue mittens was a middle-aged woman.

“Do you know that we're going to take a stroll this weekend?'' she whispered, using the latest euphemism for the unofficial protests that have unnerved authorities in Shanghai over the past month.

He nodded.

Behind her, protest banners streamed from the windows of high-rise apartment blocks — signs of middle-class discontent over a planned extension of the city's magnetic levitation, or maglev, train through residential neighbourhoods.

In a minute, the exchange was over, but the news would soon be added to the flow of reports being posted on blogs as well as in housing compounds along the proposed extension — which residents contend will bring noise pollution and, possibly, radiation to their neighbourhoods.

The sudden “strolls'' by thousands of office workers, company managers, young families and the elderly in this sleek financial hub are the latest chapter in a quiet middle-class battle against government officials.

The protesters are going about their mission carefully and many speak anonymously for fear of retribution in a country that stifles dissent.

The Communist Party has a security apparatus that monitors what it views as subversive activity. The party allows public protests if they serve political interests, such as the ouster of corrupt officials.

But the latest protests have been unusual. They are led by homeowners and professionals — whose awareness of their individual rights has grown along with their prosperity.

Police, who have routinely put down rural protests by poor farmers, have found it more difficult to intimidate an affluent, educated crowd in a major city.

Xiamen precedent

The demonstrations do have at least one recent precursor, and it is one Shanghai residents acknowledge using for inspiration.

In the city of Xiamen, thousands of middle-class residents have managed at least temporarily to halt the construction of a $1 billion chemical factory because of environmental concerns.

Demonstrators in that city, in the Fujian province, relied on the net and mobile phone text messaging to organise strolls and other opposition.

As in Xiamen, Shanghai residents have spent countless hours researching their cause.

They have posted fliers sprinkled with such phrases as “electromagnetic compatibility'' and wooed residents and news media with slick PowerPoint presentations that question whether a 55-yard-wide safety buffer envisioned for each side of the rail extension would be sufficient to keep noise and vibration from reaching their apartments.

Armed with knowledge of the law, the Shanghai residents became angry that public officials had neither given proper notice of their plans for the extension nor held a public hearing.

And so they decided they had no alternative but to “take a stroll'' or “go shopping''. They started small and they were careful to say they did not oppose the government.

First, a small group of protesters met at a shopping centre on January 6, shouting “Reject the maglev!'' and “We want to protect our homes!''.

They left after an hour, regrouping later in a neighbourhood near where the extension would be built.

A few days later, hundreds of people went to a mall that is popular with tourists and made an evening stop in another affected neighbourhood.

By January 12, thousands of people were gathering at People's Square and on Nanjing Lu, both high-profile locations in downtown Shanghai.

“We will forestall and defuse social tensions,'' Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng said in his annual government report recently, in what appeared to be a tacit nod to the protesters' concerns.

A victory for the protesters does not seem as likely as the one activists achieved in Xiamen. Proud city officials hope the maglev extension will further cement Shanghai's reputation as the mainland's most advanced city when the train connects the city's two airports and the site of the 2010 World Expo.

Small successes

City officials have already made some concessions. An original plan to extend the train from Shanghai to the city of Hangzhou was scrapped.

The new extension proposal announced on December 29 lops almost two miles off the old plan. But opponents say such concessions are small.

Without the entire city united against the project, residents concede they are not optimistic the extension will be scrapped.

“Our government must respect the law,'' said a protester. “Our action is a way to raise people's awareness of civil rights.''