Research On Social Stability Risk Of Para-xylene Project

Due to the construction of PX (para-xylene) project, Xiamen occurred amassive public demonstrations in2007. Thereafter in Dalian, Ningbo, Chengdu,Kunming and other places, people resisted the construction of the project by"walking","kiting" and other forms. Especially in March30,2014, the group eventsappeared once again due to the construction of the PX project in Maoming,Guangdong. Some lawbreakers even smashed the cars and shops, which brought aserious threat to the social harmony and public safety. The social stability risk ofproject come to be an important national issue.It can be found by literature sorting that there are extensive social stabilityrisks in the PX project in China. The trust relationship between the government,chemical industry companies and the public broke to some extent, which caused thehigh risk in the construction and operation of the PX project. Therefore, it shouldanalysis the relationship between the attitudes and behavior of public oppositionand the extent of the public trust and cognition. It used questionnaire survey to dothe empirical research in Harbin and got541valid questionnaires by coincidencesampling method. In the process of data analysis, the chi-square analysis, principalcomponent analysis, logistic regression analysis and other methods were used tointegrate the data by advanced statistical software SPSS17.0.The results of data analysis show that: first, most people are against theconstruction of PX project. And people have strong herd mentality and theirbehavior is susceptible to be induced by external demonstration. Second, the levelof public cognition on PX and PX project is very low. Though the integral publiccognition of the PX project has no effect on the public opposition of PX project, thecognition of PX’ toxicity and supply has a significant impact on it. Third, the extentof public trust in government and chemical industry companies are both low. Andthey both have significant effect on the public opposition of PX project.Combined data results with relevant literature we can consider that there arehigh social stability risks in the PX project in China, which is determined bycognitive biases and confidence crisis. PX project is "demonized" in China due tothe cognitive biases. Confidence crisis improve people’s perception of the PXproject risk, and reduces public psychological bearing capacity of risk. Therefore,the media should play a role in the popularization of knowledge of PX as a platform.The government should rebuild public trust and establish a system to protect theright of people. What’s more, it is important to strengthen the sense of responsibility of chemical industry companies. All these are done to effectively reduce risk andachieve win-win situation.