Hundreds of Chinese police fanned out across Beijing yesterday, trailed dissidents and swept out-of-town petitioners away from government offices to boost security a day before the annual session of parliament.
Civilians wearing red armbands helped to keep order near the Great Hall of the People, venue of the March 5-14 session of the National People's Congress, and extra police were deployed at almost every nearby bus stop.
Officers and bomb-sniffing dogs patrolled opposite the Great Hall in Tiananmen Square, the focus of the student-led protests that ended in bloodshed in 1989, and extra precautions were taken at the dozens of hotels where the 3,000 deputies are staying.
PHOTO: AFP
Officials in the capital boosted a crackdown on petitioners and on the Falun Gong sect to ensure the safety of leaders and delegates and to prevent bombings, shootings or other terror attacks, Hong Kong's Beijing-backed Wen Wei Po newspaper said.
"Destabilizing factors that affect the capital's stability still exist," the Beijing Daily quoted the city's Communist Party chief, Liu Qi (
Violence is not unknown before the parliament session.
Beijing was rocked by bombings at two of the country's most prestigious universities in February last year. The blame was put on a man seeking publicity who was subsequently jailed for life.
A bomb exploded on a public bus in a busy shopping district in February 1997, wounding about 10 people and police suspected Muslim Uighur separatists from the far northwest.
The Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said China had closed down some Internet chatrooms before the session.
In a landmark move, parliament will amend the Constitution and add a proposal by the Communist Party, which has ruled with an iron fist since 1949, to "respect and safeguard human rights."
But pro-democracy activist Jiang Qisheng saw no sign of change. He has been put under round-the-clock police surveillance since Feb. 24 and tailed by more than a dozen plainclothes police in two cars, one motorcycle and two bicycles.
"They told me: `Wherever you go, we go,'" Jiang said. "This is a violation of my human rights.
"They used to post their men at the entrance downstairs. Now, they're on the 13th floor outside my home," said Jiang, who was freed last year after serving four years in prison for incitement to subversion.
He was jailed for one-and-half years for his role in the 1989 protests.
Stability is the watchword. Police view disgruntled petitioners as a security threat.
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