public hearing

On many occasions, public hearings were more symbol than substance; key dissenting voices, interest groups and academics were either not invited, informed too late or barred access form the venue by large police deployments. In some cases, as with the controversy over InfraVest Corp's wind turbine project in Yuanli, Miaoli County, police inside a public hearing would turn their cameras on the villagers and activists, but did not do so when company representatives or government officials were making their case, measures that were regarded as intimidating.