Mid-east revolutions makin' China gov't. nervous

waltky

Wise ol' monkey
Feb 6, 2011
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Okolona, KY
China squelchin' democratic dissent...
:eek:
China Cracks Down on Call for 'Jasmine Revolution'
Feb 19, 2011 - Chinese authorities cracked down on activists as a call circulated for people to gather in more than a dozen cities Sunday for a "Jasmine Revolution" apparently inspired by the wave of pro-democracy protests sweeping the Middle East.
The source of the call was not known, but authorities moved to halt its spread online, and police detained at least 14 people, by one activist's count. Searches for the word "jasmine" were blocked Saturday on China's largest Twitter-like microblog, and the website where the request first appeared said it was hit by an attack. Activists seemed not to know what to make of the call to protest, even as they passed it on. They said they were unaware of any known group being involved in the request for citizens to gather in 13 cities and shout, "We want food, we want work, we want housing, we want fairness."

Some even wondered whether the call was "performance art" instead of a serious move in the footsteps of recent protests in Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain, Yemen, Algeria and Libya. Always on guard to squelch dissent at home, China's authoritarian government has appeared unnerved by the events in the Middle East. It has limited reporting, stressing the instability caused by protests in Egypt, and has restricted Internet searches to keep people uninformed.

Authorities appeared to be treating the protest call seriously. Families and friends reported the detention or harassment of several activists, and some said they were warned not to participate Sunday. Police pulled Beijing lawyer Jiang Tianyong into a car and drove away, his wife, Jin Bianling, said. She told The Associated Press by phone that she was still waiting for more information Saturday night.

Su Yutong, an activist who now lives in Germany, said that even if Chinese authorities suspect the call to protest wasn't serious, Saturday's actions showed they still feared it. "If they act this way, they'll push this performance art into the real thing," she said in an e-mail. In a Twitter post, Su listed at least 14 people who had been taken away and called that count incomplete.

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China Reacts Cautiously to Events in Egypt
February 12, 2011 - Communist Party calls for stability in Egypt after fall of President Hosni Mubarak - saying foreign powers should not interfere
China's authoritarian government has reacted with caution to the ousting of Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak. China's ruling Communist Party called Saturday for stability in Egypt after the fall of President Hosni Mubarak - saying foreign powers should not interfere. Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ma Zhaoxu repeated in an online statement China's guarded response to events in Egypt since pro-democracy protest began 18 days ago. He did not mention Mr. Mubarak's resignation or how he was toppled from power, instead he repeated the same words from a press conference held last Thursday.

Ma says China has been closely following the changing situation in Egypt and hopes the latest developments will help Egypt to restore national stability and normal order as soon as possible. China's state media also gave a cautious reaction. The China Daily underscored the government's key slogan that stability is important above all else. It also said in an editorial Saturday foreign powers should not intervene. The editorial was the first extensive comment from China's state-run media on Mr. Mubarak's ouster on Friday after nearly 30 years as Egypt's ruler.

State television news reported on Mr. Mubarak's fall without comment - and did not show pictures of pro-democracy crowds in Cairo. Many observers say China's cautious response may reflect concern among officials in Beijing for maintaining internal control. Chinese Internet sites have restricted public comment on the unrest in Egypt. But discussion of the Egyptian leader's fall could nonetheless be found on blogs. One Chinese blogger wrote: "The impact of this event will go beyond the Arab world. Faraway China will also feel its consequences."

Other reactions in Asia/Pacific region
 
Jasmine Revolution protests in China...
:cool:
Protest organisers in China call for second round of demonstrations
Saturday 26th February, 2011 - Protest organisers in China are making another attempt to rally local communities almost a week after efforts to incite a “Jasmine Revolution” came apart.
An anonymous Facebook page is calling for protestors to show up at central points in several major Chinese cities to “go for a walk” together on Sunday. The protest attempt last Sunday was a flop as only a handful of protesters showed up in various cities and were heavily outnumbered by police and casual observers.

The Chinese government, eager to prevent a Tunisian, Egyptian or Libyan-style uprising, has blocked most social networking sites, including Facebook, Twitter and You Tube, all of which have been instrumental in rallying the public in countries across North Africa and the Middle East.

Words such as ‘jasmine’ and ‘protest’ have been blocked on the Internet by Chinese authorities and protest organisers are now using terms such as ‘liang hui’ to circumvent censorship. The term refers to meetings held each March by the political leadership of China and will therefore be difficult to block. Protest organisers on Facebook, as well as various popular Chinese micro-blogging sites, have encouraged participants to be peaceful and cooperate with police if they are arrested.

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China not gonna let its people peacefully protest...
:eek:
Calls for protests in China met with brutality
27 February 2011 - The police response was brutal and totally out of proportion to the situation
The time was about 1330. 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.

The reason for all this nervousness was the call that had gone out over the internet for Chinese people to stage their own "Jasmine Protests", copying the wave of democratic revolutions in the Middle East and north Africa.

The police were monitoring everyone going into the pedestrian zone. But unable to distinguish the protesters, who'd been called to "stroll" peacefully and silently past McDonald's restaurant at 1400, from genuine shoppers they focussed on picking out foreign reporters and cameramen.

Targeted campaign
 
No freedom of the press in China...
:eusa_hand:
China Muzzles Media to Prevent Mideast-Style Protests
March 04, 2011 - Chinese authorities appear to be nervous about the spread of protests that have toppled and threatened Middle Eastern and North African rulers in recent weeks.
The government has threatened to revoke visas and expel foreign journalists who report from certain busy areas of the country without prior approval. Last Sunday, about 16 foreign journalists were detained and harassed by security forces in the Beijing shopping district of Wangfujing. The journalists were there to document a small gathering of people who responded to Internet calls for public gatherings to support the "Jasmine Revolution" in the Middle East and to call for reform in China. One American journalist was beaten so badly he was hospitalized.

Press freedom

Freedom of expression in China is already severely curtailed. Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter and many foreign broadcasters, like the Voice of America, are blocked, as are many foreign news Web sites.

Spreading protests

But since the protests in the Middle East and North Africa shook long-entrenched governments there, China has stepped up efforts to prevent similar protests. Gilles Lordet, research coordinator for Asia at Reporters without Borders in Paris, says China has increased its control over the media and government critics since human rights activist Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October.

"It shows the nervousity [nervousness] of the government about demonstrations, about the possibility of that the demonstrations in the Middle East can have an impact on [a] network of human rights defenders, journalists and defenders of freedom of expression in China," Lordet said. "We see that it is a policy that’s more and more strict since the attribution of the Nobel Prize to Liu Xiaobo in October. The situation of the Middle East increased the nervosity of the government on this subject."

Track record
 

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