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Beijing (AFP) March 7, 2011 China's foreign minister on Monday dismissed suggestions of heightened domestic tension following calls for anti-government protests inspired by the "Jasmine" uprisings in the Arab world. "I haven't noticed any signs of tension (in China)," Yang Jiechi told reporters during a press briefing at China's annual parliamentary session. Chinese authorities have been on edge following political uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East, detaining activists and placing restrictions on foreign journalists attempting to cover proposed public rallies in China. Those behind the anonymous online calls in China for "Jasmine" rallies each Sunday have tried to bring attention to public dissatisfaction with widening income disparity, corruption and misrule. But Yang, touting China's economic success, said its people were busy "focusing their attention on pursuing domestic development". "This is what I have seen, and I don't want to see anyone making something out of thin air," Yang said. The foreign minister's comments, however, contrasted sharply with remarks by Premier Wen Jiabao, who on Saturday noted "great resentment" in China over the hot-button issues. No obvious protests have been reported but designated sites in Beijing and Shanghai have been blanketed by police the past two weekends, and foreign journalists have been obstructed, detained, or roughed up. A Bloomberg News reporter was repeatedly punched and kicked, by what appeared to be plainclothes security personnel on February 27 at a designated location in a busy Beijing shopping street. He required medical treatment. Yang denied police beat anyone. "There is no such issue of Chinese police officers beating foreign journalists," he said. A Beijing city government official said at a news conference Sunday that reporters must now obtain government permission to report in the city's "commercial districts". No approvals have yet been granted. In Shanghai, foreign journalists have been told they cannot report at all near the city's "Jasmine" site. Police stepped up pressure on journalists over the weekend, detaining at least 15 reporters -- from France, Germany, Spain and Japan -- in Shanghai on Sunday for about three hours near the designated protest site. The Foreign Correspondents' Club of China said Monday that at least 14 journalists had been phoned or visited by police at their homes, and several were being tailed or had their residences monitored by plainclothes security. Many visits were unannounced -- and sometimes late at night -- with police checking documents. An AFP journalist was visited on Saturday at his home by police who asked to see his residence papers.
earlier related report The message -- carried by the Beijing Daily, a mouthpiece of the city government -- came as Premier Wen Jiabao noted the public's "great resentment" over a number of issues in his speech to open the annual parliamentary session. Authorities in China have shown increasing nervousness about the Internet's power to mobilise ordinary citizens in the wake of unrest in the Arab world, and the subsequent online call for anti-government "Jasmine" rallies at home. "This turmoil has brought a massive calamity to the people of these countries," the Beijing Daily said in a commentary. "It is worth noting that at home and abroad some people with ulterior motives are trying to draw this chaos into China. They have used the Internet to incite illegal gatherings," it said. Citizens have been urged to gather for subtle "strolling" demonstrations -- but take no overt protest action -- each Sunday afternoon at designated locations in cities across China to highlight public anger with the government. The anonymous campaigners behind the so-called "Jasmine rallies" have said their movement has support in dozens of cities, though security have turned out in force at the rally sites in Beijing and Shanghai to prevent such gatherings. On February 27, several foreign journalists were roughed up in a popular shopping area of Beijing, and police have since threatened reporters that they could lose their permission to work in China unless they follow new rules. As the United States, the European Union and rights groups have criticised the treatment of foreign journalists and called for an explanation, state media on Thursday accused those same reporters of "fabricating news". The Beijing Daily urged citizens to "conscientiously protect harmony and stability" rather than allow a small group of people both at home and abroad to "exploit the problems existing in our development to provoke trouble". "Everyone knows that stability is a blessing and chaos is a calamity," the newspaper said.
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Tibet closed to foreign tourists in MarchBeijing (AFP) March 7, 2011 Chinese authorities have closed the troubled Tibetan region to foreign tourists, travel agents said Monday, ahead of the third anniversary of violent anti-government riots there. "The tourism bureau will not give permission to foreigners to come to Tibet in March," an employee at the Xizang Tourist General Company in the region's capital Lhasa told AFP by phone. "They can't come to Tibet ... read more |
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