China's secretive state security police have set up a special task force to clamp down on students and political dissidents in the run-up to the 15th anniversary of the June 4 Tiananmen Square massacre, sources said yesterday.
"The universities are under strict control and there are several kinds of restrictions and regulations dealing with the anniver-sary," a Beijing academic said.
"For the universities, there is a special organ run by the State Security Ministry. They are responsible for a wide range of monitoring in the university district," said the academic, who has been warned not to speak with foreign media.
The 1989 massacre in the streets of Beijing killed hundreds, some say more than a thousand, unarmed students and citizens and has remained a highly sensitive topic, with students on the capital's campuses strongly discouraged from discussing the issue, he said.
"The students don't dare to speak about this because they know they will get in trouble. They can discuss these things in an abstract way, but specific discussion will only lead to trouble," the academic said.
While the security police are monitoring Beijing campuses, they have also placed a group of known dissidents under house arrest or strict surveillance.
The 70-year-old leader of the Tiananmen Mothers, Ding Zilin, whose son was killed in the 1989 massacre, has been put under surveillance and told not to accept visitors in the lead-up to the anniversary.
She is followed by police even when she leaves her home to buy food and daily necessities.
Ding's 15-year effort demanding the Chinese government give a full accounting of the massacre and find out who was responsible for ordering the military to fire on unarmed civilians has led to her nomination for this year's Nobel Peace Prize.
Other members of her grouping, like Huang Jinping, whose husband was shot and killed in the crackdown, are also facing similar police harassment.
Leading dissidents and social critics like Bao Tong (鮑彤), Liu Xiaobo, Hu Jia and Jiang Qisheng are all under police surveillance, they told reporters in recent days.
Their visits and meetings with others have been recorded and their phones tapped since the National People's Congress met in March.
"I don't think it is a very good idea to come and visit me right now," Liu said. "It's probably better to wait until after June 4."
The police harassment has been condemned by the US and human rights groups, who have blasted as ineffective new constitutional amendments adopted in March that aim to safeguard human rights.
"We oppose any efforts to limit freedom of speech and urge China not to restrict its citizens from engaging in debate on important and sensitive issues of public interest," US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said on Thursday.
Boucher said Washington was particularly troubled by reports indicating that some actions had been taken to prevent Chinese citizens from meeting with US officials.
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