CHENGDU (Reuters) - It was just an afternoon stroll down the streets of his hometown, but every step blogger “Yellow Peach” took was revolutionary. There were no placards or banners, no slogans or matching T-shirts, but by “taking a walk” together for a couple of hours, a few hundred citizens of a laid-back southwestern city were illegally challenging government plans for a new oil refinery.
They wandered in quiet clusters down a route circulated by Internet and mobile phone, watched by uniformed and plainclothes police who knew exactly why they were there and later punished six people for their role. “This was a victorious meeting, a rally. The kindling has already been scattered. What follows now depends on everybody,” Yellow Peach wrote, signing off on a string of messages to a fellow blogger giving a blow-by-blow account of the protest. More
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