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The Economist在2007/06/21的『亞洲專題』中，有一則關於中國的新聞評論，也和網際網路等通訊科技對中國政治的影響有關，是Protest in China：Mobilised by mobile.

文章一開始就說：Organised by text messages and internet chats, China's middle classes are daring to protest, and giving the government a fright

也確實，廈門的反PX遊行，讓大家見識到通訊科技及網際網路的發展，逐漸地在中國大陸成為民眾反抗的工具之一，儘管前景未必樂觀，但總歸是一個可能。與此同時，在北京也出現了難得一件的「線上訴願」（an online petition）的公民行動，目的是要抗議山西黑窯奴工事件，此即為所謂的「藍絲帶行動」。

《經濟學人》指出：Chinese officials have had reason to worry before about the rallying power of the internet and mobile phones. Two years ago they helped activists organise protests against Japan in several Chinese cities. But the government, at least initially, sympathised with those protests. By contrast the demonstrations in Xiamen were directed at officialdom, and the slave-labour scandal embarrasses the government.

根據文章的分析指出，廈門反石化遊行有兩個地方值得注意。

首先，是那些參與遊行的人多數都是中產階級，they came mostly from China's fast-growing middle class, a group the Communist Party usually regards as a dependable bulwark of support. In many Chinese cities there have been small-scale middle-class protests over issues related to property rights. But they are rarely directed at city governments.

其次，則是儘管這次遊行面臨官方的諸多阻撓，但參與者仍然不少，群眾甚且喊出了要市長下台的口號，不過最後還是和平落幕。

而廈門遊行的成功，也刺激了其他城市的跟進。

The protests in Xiamen must be worrying to officials in Beijing. Urban environments have been deteriorating across the country. If tolerance for this among the middle classes were to crumble, unrest could spread. Ominously, from the party's perspective, hundreds of Beijing residents rallied outside the offices of the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) on June 5th. Their complaint was about plans to build a waste incinerator in the north-west of the city, which they said could spread toxic chemicals. Two days later SEPA called for a further investigation of the incinerator project as well as of Xiamen's urban development plans.

這些無疑都讓中國政府十分困擾，因為，For all their pro-green rhetoric, China's leaders would abhor this. They remain deeply wary of environmental groups, fearful that if given a free rein they could rapidly mobilise middle-class opinion against government policies. Nick Young of China Development Brief, a newsletter, says that these concerns increased in the wake of democratic revolutions early this decade in several former Soviet states. Although they eased a bit last year, Mr Young thinks the government will remain cautious. Xiamen has only one officially registered non-governmental environmental group. It has kept itself nervously aloof from the paraxylene-plant campaign. In Xiamen as elsewhere, it is China's online civil society that is leading the charge.

全文請見：http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9367055