China gets tough before protest anniversary
Beijing authorities detain critics to avoid disruption 25 years after massacre
Beijing authorities put extra police on their city’s streets and detained government critics last night as part of a security crackdown before today’s 25th anniversary of the crushing of prodemocracy protests in Tiananmen Square.
Police manned checkpoints and officers and paramilitary troops patrolled pedestrian overpasses and streets around the square in the city centre.
The increased security comes on top of heightened restrictions on political activists, artists, lawyers and other government critics. Dozens have been detained, forced out of Beijing or confined to their homes in other parts of the country.
“June 4 has come again and the plainclothes officers are here to protect us. I can’t leave the house to travel or lecture,” said Jiangsu province-based environmental activist Wu Lihong in a text message.
Artist and former activist Guo Jian was also taken away by authorities on Sunday night, shortly after a profile of him appeared in the Financial Times newspaper in commemoration of the anniversary. Guo, an Australian citizen, told an Associated Press reporter he would be held until June 15.
A writer and officer of the Independent Chinese PEN Centre, who goes by the pen name Ye Du, was also taken from his home in the southern city of Guangzhou to join in a forced “tour trip”, his wife, Wang Haitao, said by phone.
Such compulsory trips are a common method of keeping government critics under 24-hour watch without initiating a legal process.
Several Google websites had been blocked in China, a censorship monitoring service said.
China prevents access to a host of websites including YouTube and Twit- ter using a system known as the “Great Firewall”, and restrictions are tightened before dates the government considers sensitive.
Overseas versions of Google, accessible in China after the technology giant withdrew from the mainland in 2010, have been blocked.
“The block is indiscriminate as all Google services in all countries, encrypted or not, are now blocked in China,” said the Greatfire.org site.
Affected services include Gmail, images, and the search and translation service, as well as country-specific versions of Google homepages.
“Because the block has lasted for four days, it’s more likely that Google will be severely disrupted and barely usable from now on,” the website said.
China allows no discussion of the events of June 3-4, 1989, when soldiers accompanied by tanks and armoured personnel carriers fought their way into the heart of the city, killing hundreds of protesting citizens and onlookers.
The Government has never issued a complete, formal accounting of the crackdown and the number of casualties.
Beijing’s official verdict is that the
student-led protests aimed to topple the ruling Communist Party and plunge China into chaos. Protest leaders said they were merely seeking greater democracy and freedom, and an end to corruption and favouritism in the party.
Authorities always tighten security before June 4, but this year’s suppression has notably harsh.
Activists who in past would receive no more than a warning have been taken into custody and police have told foreign journalists they would face serious consequences for covering sensitive issues before the anniversary.
A French broadcaster said its journalists were interrogated for six hours by Beijing police when they were found interviewing people on the street about the events 25 years ago.
Despite China’s discouragement, the crackdown is recalled with rallies and commemorations in Chinese com- munities worldwide, especially in Hong Kong which retains its own legal system and civil liberties.
Thousands marched through the city on Sunday in remembrance of the crackdown, and organisers expect about 150,000 people at a candlelight vigil in a city park today.