Citizens organised strolls and marches of various scales through text messages and social media to demand that the municipal and central governments relocate or terminate the PX projects.

[11] By 2015, Sinopec and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) were the two largest holders, which accounted for nearly 71.3% of Chinese PX production capacity.

In 2015, a number of PX projects in preparation were approved by the National Development and Reform Commission (NRDC),[10] which is a macroeconomic management agency under the Chinese State Council.

[8] In 2004, the Chinese State Council approved the proposal to construct the biggest PX plant in the world in Haicang District, Xiamen city, Fujian Province.

It was estimated to produce 800,000 tons of PX by the end of 2008, and to generate 80 billion yuan annually, one-fourth of Xiamen's GDP.

Zhao Yufen, the youngest woman elected to the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a professor at Xiamen University, also participated in the march.

[13] Earlier anti-PX protests spawned subsequent ones, underpinning a movement continuity against future PX projects in China.

[15] A local propaganda department official attributed the increased difficulty of promoting PX to the influence of preceding protests.

[4][6][12] Fearing PX leakage, residents of Dalian organised a "stroll" (used as a euphemism for "protest" in China to avoid censorship) in People's Square using Weibo microblogs, Twitter, blogs and Internet forums to spread the message.

[17] To stimulate the slowed economy of Ningbo, the municipal government decided on the development of petrochemical and other heavy industries as the new engine of growth.

[17] A 55.9-billion-yuan PX production unit was planned for Zhenhai, a rural town 7.5 kilometres (4.7 mi) from the urban area of Ningbo.

[19] As the news regarding the PX plant spread among more Ningbo residents, it triggered larger street demonstrations in the urban area with more than 5,000 participants on 27 and 28 October.

[15][19][20] In 2008, the CNPC planned to construct a ten-million-ton oil refining plant in Gaopu Zhen of Anning city, 40 kilometres (25 mi) away from Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province.

[21] This news, in combination with the past cases in the other cities including Xiamen, Dalian and Ningbo, aroused citizens' concerns about the environmental and health hazards caused by PX production.

[21] In late April, heated online debates and details of a prospective protest began to occupy social media platforms.

[12] The Kunming case is considered as a "landmark in terms of isolated anti-PX protests developing over time into a sustained movement.

[13] One month before the outbreak of the protest, the local government started to wage campaigns to emphasise the importance of PX for people's daily life and the economic benefit of the project.

[29] Before the protests, these platforms were mostly used to promote PX and pre-empt the emergence of social movements, under the government propaganda department's instructions.

[15] For the first month following the Ningbo protest, the movement received limited domestic media coverage as a result of the government's censorship.

[19] Xinhua News Agency and China Daily initially defended the government by labelling the protest as an "unfortunate incident participated by irrational citizens".

[13][20] In response to the Xiamen protest, the local government initially attempted to censor media coverage, but the event quickly drew international attention due to the participation of elites.

On 8 December, six months after the protest, the municipality opened an online voting system for citizens to express their opinions about the chemical plant.

At the end of December, Xiamen municipality eventually announced the relocation of the PX plant to the Gulei Peninsula in Zhangzhou, another southern Fujian city.

On 29 October 2012, they announced that the project was permanently suspended due to public opposition,[19] and that "all relevant petrochemical enterprises would be removed to Changxing Island Industrial Park".

This strategy appeared to be ineffective, as the protest received significant attention from the global press and created public pressure on the municipality.

[19] In Kunming, the municipality and the provincial government were dissatisfied with the fact that the province had to import large amounts of refined oil from other regions of China.

[13][16] The protesters were frustrated by the municipality's propaganda, having seen the governmental compromises in the other four cities, Xiamen, Dalian, Ningbo and Kunming, through digital media.

[16] Disgruntled with the authorities' silence, in the afternoon some young protesters began throwing eggs and mineral water bottles at the police lined up in front of the government building, and a small number of participants blocked the traffic at the main thoroughfares.

[16] The government responded with anti-riot equipment, tear gas, batons and pepper water to stop the protesters from attacking police and destroying public facilities.

[13] In early April 2014, the Maoming government conceded by offering a vague promise that the PX project would not proceed until "a consensus among citizens is reached".