Heavy-handed reaction to China's 'Jasmine' protests
Chinese police and plain-clothes agents barricaded one of Beijing's main pedestrian shopping streets on Sunday in response to calls for a "Jasmine revolution".
A rally in support of reform in Taiwan Photo: REUTERS........................................................................................................................
Protest organisers had called for ordinary citizens to "take a stroll" yesterday at 23 sites across China, often busy areas in city centres, to express their displeasure at the country's lack of political reform.
"We invite every participant to stroll, watch or even just pretend to pass by," said a letter published on Boxun, a foreign-based website that is banned in China. "As long as you are present, the authoritarian government will be shaking with fear". It was the second weekend in a row that protests were planned.
But while there was little response to the call from the public, with at most a few hundred people milling around in Shanghai, the Chinese government has taken the threat extremely seriously.
"We invite every participant to stroll, watch or even just pretend to pass by," said a letter published on Boxun, a foreign-based website that is banned in China. "As long as you are present, the authoritarian government will be shaking with fear". It was the second weekend in a row that protests were planned.
But while there was little response to the call from the public, with at most a few hundred people milling around in Shanghai, the Chinese government has taken the threat extremely seriously.
In Beijing, the Wangfujing pedestrianised shopping street was occupied by squads of policemen with dogs, plain-clothes officers, and members of the People's Armed Police, a division of the army.
The local branch of McDonald's, the meeting point designated by the organisers of the protest, was shut down, with customers briefly locked inside.
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