Adventist Students Protest Chinese Industrial Development in the Solomon Islands

by Adventist Today News Team

Students from the Kukum Seventh-day Adventist School picketed the construction site near their campus where China is building a large, commercial bakery. “The students wanted the Chinese investor and responsible authorities to revoke the development,” reported the Solomon Star, the leading daily paper in the islands.
 
The students held up banners and talked with journalists after marching from the school to the construction site. They are concerned about the danger caused by heavy traffic and they feel that the factory will block the “fresh sea breeze” they are used to on campus.
 
Work on the development “has been halted” the newspaper reported, and “it is currently before the courts.” The local city council has fired its planning chief because he allegedly did not follow the law in issuing the building permit for the project.
 
With its booming economy, China has launched many commercial projects throughout the developing nations of the southern hemisphere. There are many reports of local conflicts with environmental and economic concerns of the kind mentioned in this report.