China floods Beijing with security before planned protest

[Turborama]

Source: CNN International

By Jo Ling Kent, CNN
February 27, 2011 7:51 a.m. EST

Beijing (CNN) -- For the second weekend in a row, anonymous calls by organizers for a pro-democracy demonstration in Beijing were overshadowed by heavy security presence.

Hundreds of Chinese police officers along with more than 120 vehicles flooded Beijing's central pedestrian shopping area, Wangfujing, around the site of a second attempted "jasmine" rally inspired by pro-democracy protests in Tunisia.

There was no sign of protest as the police deployed unusual tactics to prevent demonstrations.

At least three foreign press photographers at the scene were reportedly beaten by police officers and detained. Other foreign journalists, including CNN, were manhandled, detained and escorted away from the site.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/02/27/china.jasmine.protests/index.html?eref=mrss_igoogle_cnn

[BanzaiBonnie]

1. Calling forth the spirit badger

Cunning badger of the forest,
Guide me to wisdom, truth and light.
All injustices against me,
Wipe clean the slate and set them right.

[Turborama]

6. Nevermind

I've found it.

[bloomington-lib]

2. This might be their alternative to the usual public protest

Call it in, get a bunch of police to show up in a popular area and remind people that they're unhappy citizens out there being silenced by the government.

[David__77]

3. Funny that the Western media ignore the common Chinese protests of workers and farmers.

There are protests ALL the time in China, often tolerated by police. Sometimes they turn into violent protests too.

The workers and farmers have been protesting regressive economic policies for a long time.

[Jkid]

4. As long as it doesn't happen where the big decisions are made. They tolerate them.

[Turborama]

5. US journalist was punched and kicked in the face and more than a dozen other journalists manhandled

China's jasmine revolution: police but no protesters line streets of Beijing
Major show of force from Chinese authorities following anonymous call for peaceful protests


Tania Branigan, China correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 27 February 2011 18.30 GMT

Police in Beijing and other cities mounted a major show of force following an anonymous call for protests inspired by the Middle East uprisings.

A US journalist was punched and kicked in the face and more than a dozen other journalists manhandled, detained or delayed as they covered the events which revealed official anxiety over similar protests against authoritarian rule in China.

Few expected Chinese citizens to answer the "jasmine revolution" appeal, which urged them to express their desire for reform by "strolling" past a McDonald's on Wangfujing shopping street and spots in 22 other mainland cities.

In addition to the heavy police presence, street cleaning vehicles and men with brooms swept back and forth along the designated streets in Beijing and Shanghai, preventing pedestrians from slowing down. A construction site appeared on Wangfujing earlier this week, blocking off a stretch outside the hamburger bar.

Full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/27/china-jasmine-revolution-beijing-police

I saw a BBC report earlier with footage of the BBC crew being violently manhandled into a van. I'll see if I can find footage of it and post it later.

[Turborama]

7. BBC: Calls for protests in China met with brutality

By Damian Grammaticas
BBC News, Beijing
February 28 2011 Last updated at 01:45 GMT

The time was about 13:30. Lines of Chinese police stood at the entrance to Wangfujing, Beijing's most famous shopping street.

The authorities' anxiousness was palpable.

Dozens of police vans were parked on the roadside, uniformed men with dogs patrolled up and down, street cleaning vans drove up and down spraying water to keep people away, and a sudden rash of suspiciously unnecessary street repairs meant big hoardings had been put up.

It would have been farcical if it hadn't turned so brutal.

Full article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12593328