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Beijing police taught to tackle problem foreigners

Police in Beijing have been given English phrase books which teach them how to deal with troublesome foreigners in the run-up to the 2008 Olympics, a news report said yesterday.

The 252-page Olympic Security English training manual has been issued to officers to prepare them for the city's hosting of the games and includes situations on how to deal with nosy overseas reporters and foreigners claiming their human rights are being violated.

One section headed "How to stop illegal news coverage" has a policeman confronting a wandering reporter who tells the officer he is working on a story about the Falun Gong, the outlawed meditation group, according to the South China Morning Post.

The policeman tells him: "Falun Gong has nothing to do with the games ... it's beyond your permit." He then criticizes the journalist for breaking Chinese law and takes him off to the Public Security Bureau to clear the matter up.

In another role play, a British woman from Hong Kong is stopped in the street and taken to the police station. When she protests: "You're violating my human rights. I protest" the policeman responds: "No tricks. Don't move."

In other sketches, an Afghan man is treated sympathetically but arrested when he is caught breaking into an American's hotel room in revenge for the American bombing of Afghanistan and a man from China's western Xinjiang province, which has a large Muslim population, is arrested over a bomb threat.

Two million foreigners are expected to visit Beijing for the Olympics and officials have launched a city-wide campaign to raise English standards ahead of the games.
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