The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) paranoia is on full display for its congress in Beijing in a security squeeze extending from police swarming Tiananmen Square to elderly sentinels watching street corners.
The capital has 1.4 million “public order volunteers” — retirees, street cleaners, firemen and low-paid private security guards — on the lookout for anything that could upset the sensitive gathering, even in the quietest residential neighborhoods.
However, despite their patriotic armbands, many grumble about being roped in as foot soldiers for China’s massive police state.
“Volunteer? They made me volunteer,” said Zhang Weilin, 25, a security guard at a central Beijing shopping mall who wore a camouflage jacket bearing a “US Army Airborne” patch and that was a size or two too large.
“My security company gave us the uniforms and made all of us [other security guards] volunteer during the congress,” he said.
Increasingly worried about rising social unrest and acutely aware of public unhappiness over a lack of democracy, Chinese authorities have dramatically escalated the state security apparatus under Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤).
At the end of the congress next week, Hu is widely expected to hand leadership of the party to Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping (習近平) after 10 years in power.
Under Hu, security budgets have exploded — US$111 billion was allocated last year for “stability maintenance,” exceeding China’s stated defense budget.
Authorities frequently buttress security by tasking ordinary citizens with maintaining order in their patch and reporting potential threats, particularly during important events such as the congress.
“If we see anything out of the ordinary, like a petitioner trying to protest, we report immediately to the neighborhood committee, who call the police,” said retired teacher Huo Huihua, watching a Beijing street corner.
Under an age-old system from imperial times, Chinese across the country are officially granted the right to petition to Beijing authorities against local injustices.
However, petitioners and rights groups claim complainants are routinely jailed, beaten or otherwise persecuted into silence.
Rights groups say petitioners are being detained and ejected from the city during the congress.
“It doesn’t matter if the petitioner has a legitimate beef or not. That will be up to the police to decide,” Huo said, adding a sad grimace that acknowledged routine police brutality.
Zhang Yaodong, a petitioner from Henan Province, was beaten to death by unknown thugs on Tuesday ahead of the congress, a rights group said.
Such incidents are common in China and often trigger violent demonstrations.
Although reporters have witnessed numerous petitioners being dragged away by police since the congress began, none of the nearly 20 “public order volunteers” interviewed said they had seen anything that merited a report to police.
The security clampdown in Beijing has many of its practical-minded residents involved in the effort wondering why none of the huge security spending has trickled down to them.
“If any ‘stability maintenance money’ is handed out, it will surely go to the neighborhood committee. We will never see any of it,” a retired worker said.
Instead, rewards for “volunteers” included uniforms, jackets, soap powder and cooking oil in exchange for the hours spent on street corners in the chilly November air.
Chinese dissident Bao Tong (鮑彤) said the huge domestic security build up of recent years indicates the CCP has lost its ruling legitimacy.
“No country in the world makes its own people the biggest enemy,” Bao, who was the highest official jailed following China’s 1989 Tiananmen Square protests that were suppressed by the army, said before the congress opened. “In a republic, the people should be the masters. ‘Stability maintenance’ takes the people as the enemy. This is an insult and a disgrace.”
Chen Huili, a house cleaner who said she was pressured into acting as a neighborhood sentinel, has her own reasons for grumbling.
“I didn’t volunteer. My company is making me do this,” Chen said, as she swept up cigarette butts in a Beijing housing complex wearing a red “public order volunteer” arm band.
“They didn’t give me anything but extra work to do,” she said.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
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
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