Security was tight yesterday as world leaders prepared to fly into Shanghai for the opening of the World Expo, an opportunity for China’s financial capital to show its face to the world.
Police were stationed on nearly every corner of the downtown area of the city and every bag and package had to go through X-ray machines at all subway stops.
The increased security preparations come before Saturday’s opening of the marquee event expected to draw 70 million visitors during its six-month run. It will showcase pavilions from every country.
PHOTO: PHILIPPE LOPEZ
Besides Chinese leaders such as Chinese President Hu Jintao (錦濤), other leaders, including French President Nicolas Sarkozy, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, will be in Shanghai for an opening ceremony tomorrow night.
For some, the increased security was tolerable, but there were worries it might become more inconvenient as the leaders start arriving over the next two days.
“Right now, things are not too bad, but we think in the next couple of days it will get more tense,” said Zhong Zhiti, a 62-year-old grandmother taking her six-year-old grandson for a walk in a park at the base of the Nanpu bridge, which leads to the expo site.
A giant expo mascot Haibao, a plump sky blue cartoon figure shaped like a stick person, was on display in the middle of the park.
At the entrance to the expo site, people were lined up to get in, but there appeared to be some confusion over passes. The people were volunteers and workers at the pavilions and food stands on the site.
Border officials have said that China will temporarily close its borders with Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan starting tomorrow, in an apparent bid to tighten security ahead of the expo opening.
An official at the Dulata Entry Port with Kazakhstan, surnamed He, confirmed that the borders would be closed for five days, from tomorrow through Tuesday.
An employee at the Torugart Entry Port, one of the two with Kyrgyzstan, said he didn’t know the reason for the closure.
“I just heard it will be closed for May 1st Labor Day [holiday],” the employee said.
Kyrgyzstan has been wracked by political turmoil after Kyrgyz president Kurmanbek Bakiyev was deposed in a violent April 7 uprising that left 85 people dead in the capital.
MEDIA COMPLAINT
Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s Apple Daily, known for its strong pro-democracy views alleged yesterday that the Chinese government had banned it from covering the expo.
The newspaper reported in yesterday’s edition that its more than 10 applications for press credentials still hadn’t been approved — even though journalists from other Hong Kong news outlets had already received confirmation letters.
It said it had separately applied to the Chinese government’s liaison office in Hong Kong for accreditation to cover a delegation of Hong Kong legislators visiting the expo next week, but hadn’t heard back.
Repeated calls to James Zhang, a publicity official for the expo, went unanswered.
A woman who answered the phone at the publicity office at the Chinese liaison office in Hong Kong said she would look into the matter and asked a reporter to call back, but repeated follow-up calls went unanswered.
Founded in 1995 by Hong Kong businessman Jimmy Lai (黎智英) — a staunch democracy advocate — Apple Daily has long been viewed with suspicion by Beijing. The paper is a strong supporter of reforms in China and the territory.
The Chinese government traditionally refuses to accredit Apple Daily journalists for official events on the mainland, Hong Kong Journalists Association chairwoman Mak Yin-ting (麥燕庭) said.
Two of its journalists were accredited for the Beijing Olympics in 2008 — but one was initially turned away at the Beijing airport and had his China entry document confiscated, Mak said. The travel document was later returned and he was able to enter the country on a second try, she said.
Apple Daily’s failure to get press passes for the expo is “a clear restriction of freedom of press and Hong Kong people’s right to know,” Mak said.
“I don’t know what they are afraid of,” opposition legislator and former journalist Emily Lau (劉慧卿) said. “This is laughable and sad.”
Also See: Sarkozy seeks to bury hatchet with China
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was