Social Stability - 172. page

A series photos posted on Boxun showed that there are two types of security guards on Beijing streets: neighborhood security personnel and militia. Neighborhood personnel range from barbers, seniors, rest room maintenance people, workers who deliver gas tanks or guard bicycle parking lot. They make 10 yuan on a four-hour work shift. Militia consists of workers from various factories or companies who are on an eight-hour shift making 50 yuan a day.

Xinhua reported that in addition to 150,000 professional security personnel, there are 290,000 of volunteer security guards patrolling Beijing street during the Olympics – the so called “Chinese style Mass Security Strategy”.

Source:
Boxun, July 22, 2008
http://www.peacehall.com/news/gb/china/2008/07/200807221049.shtml
Xinhua, July 22, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2008-07/22/content_8745179.htm

A picture taken at Beijing’s street was posted and widely circulated on the Internet with a big banner saying “Reduce Going Out to Leave A Smooth Open Road for Foreign Friends.” Google search with Chinese slogan returned over 800 items, many with numerous Internet users’ postings. For example, in Tianya (one of the most popular Internet forum in China), a user from Beijing posted his experience and feeling of the inconvenience brought to him due to the heightened level of security check and various regulations in the preparation of Olympics. In the last sentence, the user sarcastically says, “…We should be civilized and obedient host, like the slogan ‘Reduce Going Out …’ on the street.”

Source: BBC, July 16, 2008
http://news.bbc.co.uk/chinese/simp/hi/newsid_7510000/newsid_7510100/7510144.stm http://cache.tianya.cn/publicforum/content/free/1/1377188.shtml

Beijing Railway Police declared security level upgrade on July 21, 2008 for the safety of Olympics. Anything entering the railway stations will subject to various security checks. Liquid will have to go through the “machine” from the date announced. Special police equipped with rifles are patrolling in all the four railway stations in Beijing. Detecting dogs are randomly checking goods round the clock.

Source: Xinhua, July 21, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/olympics/2008-07/22/content_8742800.htm

On July 14, 2008 Jia, aged 31, was arrested in Shanghai on charges of criminal defamation. He was accused of fabricating and distributing a defamatory article on the Internet saying that the killer in a July 1st crime had been tortured by police and therefore lost his reproductive capacity. On July 1, Yang, age 28, killed six policemen in Shanghai. A large volume of postings on the Chinese Internet showed support and sympathy for his actions viewing him as a hero challenging State authorities.

The prosecution charged that Jia’s conduct had “seriously damaged the reputation and public image of the police, law enforcement and public security organs,” thus violating the Criminal Law, Article 246.

According to the police, Jia has admitted to having committed defamation. One commentator on a State TV program suggested that a forensic test be conducted to determine wheter Yang’s reproductive capability had indeed not been damaged. “It would speak louder than an admission [by Jia].”

The Criminal Law of the People’s Republic of China, Article 246 states: “Whoever, by violence or other methods, publicly humiliates another person or invents stories to defame him, if the circumstances are serious, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years, criminal detention, public surveillance or deprivation of political rights. The crime mentioned in the preceding paragraph shall be handled only upon complaint, except where serious harm is done to public order or to the interests of the State. “

Source:
Xinhua, July 14, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2008-07/14/content_8545047.htm
China News, July 17, 2008
http://www.chinanews.com.cn/sh/news/2008/07-17/1314986.shtml

A Boxun (U.S.-based independent Chinese news website) reader posted pictures of  large Chinese character  slogans hung in various cities in mainland China. The slogans are being hung up as banners over the streets as part of a campaign to suppress petitions ahead of the Olympics. The slogans use wording such as “’Illegal ‘ Petitions Will Be Sentenced and Penalized;” “Firmly Crack Down on Criminal Activities Committed in the Name of Petitioning.” The author describes his anger at seeing a board saying “striking against illegal petitions” in front of a municipal government office.

Source: Boxun, July 14, 2008.
http://news.boxun.com/news/gb/pubvp/2008/07/200807141034.shtml

On July 1, 2008, the 87th birthday of the Chinese Communist Party, Yang Jia, a 28 year old Beijing resident went to the Police Headquarters of Shanghai’s Zhabei District and killed six policemen and injured four with a knife.

According to stories posted on the Internet, Yang was tortured by the police last year over a bicycle theft charge. He was later found innocent and released. Later a doctor told him that his reproductive organ had been permanently injured by the police. After his attempt to seek compensation failed, he went on to the rampage. He was selective and targeted at middle aged men while sparing women and younger men. 

A majority of the Chinese Internet surfers cheered his action. They called him a hero who was seeking justice for the people. Some compared him to Rambo.

Source: China News Digest, July 7, 2008 
http://my.cnd.org/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=20022

Shen Guirong, the former chief of Wengan County Public Security Bureau, said in an interview after being demoted that his police forces were often pulled in to do non-police duties such as suppressing social unrest.  In the past several years, on five occasions Shen had to dispatch hundreds of police to suppress social unrest arising from public discontent over government abuses and corruption.

Shen was demoted on July 3 because of "serious dereliction of duty” during June 28 protests in which tens of thousands of local residents trashed and set fire to the buildings of the Party, the police, the courts and the secret police, over the death of a female middle school student.

Source: China Newsweek, July 9, 20008
http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2008-07-09/040115896453.shtml

In an exclusive interview with Xinhua magazine Outlook Weekly, Tian Yixiang, chief of the Army Department of the Beijing Olympic Security Coordination Group, says that preventing terrorist attacks is the primary focus (of the security work). Tian says terrorist attacks are the main threat (to the Olympics) and names “East Turkestan,” “Tibetan Independence,” and Falun Gong groups as the sources of the threat.

Source: Outlook Weekly, Issue 27, 2008
http://lw.xinhuanet.com/htm/content_3492.htm