...[I]n the absence of strong rule of law, China’s environmental management has taken the road of what I call “interaction without rules”...[I]nteraction without rules”... goes through three stages: first, local interest groups and local governments push ahead with a polluting project in violation of environmental regulations. Second...mass protests...And third, in response to the threat to social stability created by the protests, local government halts the project – again, breaching laws. At every stage, the existing rules are lightly cast aside by all participants... We have seen many such cases in China in recent years. BASF’s Methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) plant – the world’s largest – near the sensitive Three Gorges reservoir; PetroChina’s ethylene plant in Pengzhou...; another paraxylene factory in Xiamen...When local governments use unconventional methods to build polluting projects, the public are forced to resort to unconventional means to protect their own interests. This kind of social interaction makes the management of environmental issues an even knottier task....[refers also to Fujua Daiha’s chemical plant in Dalian]