video transcript

ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION) More than a thousand people gathered in the eastern Chinese port city of Ningbo to protest against plans to expand a petrochemical plant. Watched over by police, protesters gathered in a central shopping district, wearing masks and giving out pamphlets denouncing the expansion of the plant by a subsidiary of China Petroleum. Police arrested some protesters as scuffles broke out. The day before, protesters overturned a police car and attacked the police. The protests come just two weeks before the Communist Party holds a congress which opens on Nov. 8 and will unveil the country's new central leadership. The past few years has seen a rise in protests over environmental issues. In July, Chinese officials cancelled an industrial waste pipeline project after anti-pollution demonstrators occupied a government office in eastern China.