To help in selling the idea that China needs big trash incinerators to be constructed in the mountains of Beijing, Party officials reached out to hundreds of people by asking their opinion and approval through questionnaires.
Shougang Group, a state-owned producer, said that they started constructing the Lujiashan incinerator last November after a survey stated a 92-percent approval from the respondents. However, some people suspect that the results were manipulated by the government authorities in order to get a favorable result.
The attempt to involve the public is contrary to the usual procedures that have been carried in Communist China, where in the past infrastructures were built as the government sees fit, without involving the public. The government's willingness to listen to public opinion this time shows the authorities' seriousness in their environmental campaigns.
The government is balancing the need to minimize public dissent and China's need for rapid development.
The alarming state of growing trash in Beijing had become a challenge for everyone, not only the government. Beijing's target was to build nine incinerators, but so far, only four had been completed.
Director of Beijing's environmental management office Zhang Xiaoguang said: "We have to build more waste disposal facilities, but at the same time, we have to take public opinion into consideration."
Such democratic act was already being practiced in some parts of China, especially the wealthy cities where the bourgeoning population demands better living conditions.
In September last year, the Communist Party committee in Boluo County of Guangdong Province elected not to decide upon the location of a planned incinerator without approval from the public. This was after thousands of residents protested and held a demonstration which eventually led to a clash with the police authorities.