Chinese blogger 'scared' after appealing to Obama to help save China's environment

A Chinese blogger aged nearly 20 has attracted the regime attention for appealing to President Barack Obama to help save China's environment.

On May 7 the blogger, who goes by the initials B.Y., posted an online petition on the White House website 'We the People', a free forum that promises any petition to receive 100,000 signatures in 30 days will qualify for a White House response.

According to ABC News, the petition asked for support against the state-owned corporation PetroChina's plans to build a new chemical plant.

The plant, located 25 miles outside the capital city of Chengdu, in Sichuan Province, would produce 10 million tons of oil and 800,000 tons of ethylene per year.

Local residents have expressed concern that the future plant's location is dangerously close to a seismic fault line and once production begins it will exacerbate air and water pollution.

B.Y.'s petition has until now received just 2,100 signatures. But before solicitations for support could be widely circulated online in China, B.Y. claims a security agent asked her to delete the petition.

In an interview with the South Morning China Post, an independent newspaper published in Hong Kong, B.Y. said an agent tracked her down using 'registration information on Weibo' and invited her to 'tea', an euphemism for a police interrogation, the report added.