Mothers with babies frisked near the National People's Congress
Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) Some 15,000 police officers are on duty outside the meeting hall where the National People's Congress (NPC) is underway to prevent possible protests by farmers, migrant workers, Falun Gong followers and human rights activists.
A campaigner for Tibetan rights, Wangpo Tethong, unfurled today a banner near Beijing's Tiananmen Square that read "Hu: You can't stop us"a direct reference to Chinese President Hu Jintao and Tibetan demands for greater autonomy. After a few seconds, he put the banner away and left the area on a bicycle before the police could intervene.
Shortly thereafter, another demonstrator was tackled by police and bundled into a car and taken away.
Police are checking passer-bys' bags and detaining anyone with leaflets. A woman holding a child had her purse snatched with force, an action which frightened the child. The police found a milk bottle inside. Onlookers reacted heckling them.
Despite mishaps, the authorities are bent on squashing any protest, concerned by a rising tide of unrest that is being fuelled by growing social problems.
Since the NPC began its proceedings on March 5, dozens of small demonstrations have been stopped. The police have been so fast that many an eyewitness has been left wondering what people were protesting about.
Streets around the Great Hall of the People, where the PNC is meeting, are closed and cordoned off.
Students have been "advised" not to talk to foreign media in English.
Hundreds of dissidents and human rights activists have been under house arrests for several days now. But they are not the only ones. According to Human Rights in China, Liu Xinjuan, a woman from Shanghai who travelled to Beijing to complain about the demolition of her house without compensation, was shipped back home where she was packed into a mental hospital. (PB)
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