Lake Tai is located just west of Shanghai. It's China's third largest fresh water lake. Unfortunately factories serving the big city have been dumping poisonous waste into the lake. Wu Lihong grew up next to the lake and is outraged by the dumping and how the government seems to be turning a blind eye to it. So he led a series of protests in 2007 against the factories and the government. The government responded by trowing him in jail with charges of blackmail.
When Wu got out three years later, the government offered him money and benefits to stop protesting. Wu refused. The government put up cameras around his village and prevented him from leaving, even to accept an American environmentalist award. However the biggest outrage yet is that Chinese president Xi Jinping put aside $14 billion to clean up Lake Thai and the effects of this money is still yet to be seen.
Wu Lihong's story tells of a fascist government who jails anyone that doesn't support in the manner of "the only way to make everyone happy is to get rid of the unhappy ones." The government didn't stop there either. They embezzled money for an environmental clean-up. Then, they bribed a citizen with government benefits for a gag order. The Chinese government is corrupt and killing itself by not fixing its environmental problems. As Wu said "They're biting the hand that feeds them".
New York Times' article on Wu Lihong
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