Shicuo () is a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

in the Quangang District of

Fujian Fujian is a provinces of China, province in East China, southeastern China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capital is Fuzhou and its largest prefe ...

's Quanzhou Municipal Region. It is administered under

Nanpu Town Nanpu () is a town in the Quangang District of Quanzhou municipality, Fujian. Administration The town executive, CPC sub-branch and PSB sub-station (''paichusuo'', 派出所) are seated in Liucuo. The town administers 15 village committees ...

Shicuo in the News

The village neighbours the Fujian Refining and Petrochemical Company (FJRPCo) plant, a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

Sinopec China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation, or Sinopec Group, is a Chinese oil and gas enterprise based in Chaoyang District, Beijing. The SASAC administers China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation for the benefit of State Council of the ...

and the Fujian provincial government on the one hand, and

ExxonMobil Exxon Mobil Corporation ( ) is an American multinational List of oil exploration and production companies, oil and gas corporation headquartered in Spring, Texas, a suburb of Houston. Founded as the Successors of Standard Oil, largest direct s ...

and

Saudi Aramco Saudi Aramco ( ') or Aramco (formerly Arabian-American Oil Company), officially the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, is a majority state-owned petroleum and natural gas company that is the national oil company of Saudi Arabia. , it is the fourth- l ...

at 2% each. By design it refines 4-12 million tons of oil a year. Thousands of Shicuo villagers are poised to move away and settle in

Tuling Town Tuling () is a town in the Quangang District of Fujian's Quanzhou Municipal Region. Administration The town executive, Chinese Communist Party sub-branch and public security bureau sub-station (''paichusuo'') are in Tuling Village. The town adm ...

, whose centre is more than away. Their move pends approval by the Quangang district government. Shicuo is about away from Chengping Village, the centre of the August 31 Fengwei mass incident. In the weeks following, reporters initially drawn to Fengwei Town fanned out over Quanggang District. Residents of Shicuo spoke to a Hong Kong reporter; two of them were quoted translated in an English newspaper published Sept 14. A Ms. Zheng, in her 50s, said of FJRPCo: * "The stench emitted by the nearby `integrated chemical plant' is so vigorous all day long that I can't get rid of it, even though I tightly shut the door and all the windows in my home. With regard to the unpleasant smell, we don't know where to lodge our complaints. We have no way out." * The noise made by the plant is so loud that she and other villagers frequently could not hear one another talk. A Mr. Shi () Bixiang, 46, said: * "The flames, sometimes as high as 20 metres ... were so bright that there was no need for my family to switch on any lighting in the evening for months. Just like many of my fellow villagers, I moved my bed in an effort to hide myself away from the light pollution, or I would never be able to sleep." * The flames also radiate an unbearable amount of heat. During even the hot summers, he has never felt that hot before. "(Since the plant opened) I found myself unable to cool down at home, even when I turned on two electric fans in full swing". * One elderly villager has reached his tolerance level with the "highly disturbing noise and smashed almost everything in his home". * Mr. Shi called the provincial environmental protection hotline in June. "The guy at the other end asked whether I was calling from Quangang district as soon as he picked up the phone. He said that he had already received a large number of complaints about the oil refinery since it began operating in May." The man told him that nothing could be done at that level, as the plant was one of the leading chemical enterprises in the nation. (Approved by

State Council State Council may refer to: Government * State Council of the People's Republic of China, the national cabinet and chief administrative authority of China, headed by the Premier * State Council of the Republic of Korea, the national cabinet of S ...

in 2007)Choi Chi-yuk, ''Fujian villagers suffer myriad pollution problems'', ''South China Morning Post'', 2009 September 14.

Notes and references

{{reflist Quanzhou