Political News from Beijing

Here's a news article about the political environment in China right now. With two major meetings of government officials coming up, there have been several episodes of "personal protests" performed with the hopes of garnering the government's attention - it definitely caught mine.

"Helicopters scan capital as protests gear up ahead of major meetings of political elite"
by Al Guo (Updated on Feb 27, 2009)

Police in Beijing have started to send helicopters to patrol the capital daily in the lead-up to two important meetings of the national political elite next week.

The openings of the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference have become lightning rods for people hoping their grievances will get an airing and injustice corrected.

Over the past few days, small-scale protests have already broken out in Beijing. Perhaps the most eye-catching happened on Wednesday, when three people set themselves on fire near Tiananmen Square.

Yesterday a man managed to evade tight security and staged a protest in front of more than 100 journalists outside the State Council's press office. The middle-aged man climbed on top of a traffic-sign pole as the journalists walked out of the building after a government press conference, a witness said.

Shouting "give back my political rights" and "give back people's political rights," the man waved a cardboard sign with slogans to the crowd. Police removed him after 50 minutes.

The incident occurred just one day after three people tried to burn themselves inside a car near the bustling Wangfujing shopping area near Tiananmen Square. Police stopped the protest swiftly and sent two injured people, a 59-year-old man and a 58-year-old woman, to Jishuitan Hospital.

A Beijing police spokesman said the trio's extreme action was an attempt to make an unspecified "personal complaint."

In both cases, the participants appeared to be well prepared, with the trio choosing crowded Wangfujing and the pole-climber doing so in front of international journalists, both guaranteeing media exposure.

"I think their goals were just to attract public and government attention. In that sense, those two protests were quite successful," said Zhang Dajun, a Beijing-based analyst.

Apart from a few lines from Xinhua about the burning car, mainland media largely ignored both protests.

Mr. Zhang said mainland authorities managed to keep dissidents and discontented people quiet last year for the Beijing Olympics, but it would be hard to maintain the same level of "social harmony" this year.

"The bottom line was that people's problems were not solved," he said. "When people become desperate, they try extreme measures, like the burning incident in Beijing, to have their voices heard." (END)

A hero in some eyes, a fool in others.

[This year also commemorates the 50th anniversary of the "Liberation of Tibet" (from the PRC's point of view), aka the uprising that resulted in the exile of the Dalai Lama. In fear of potential protests and mobilization that often occurs on the anniversary of important events in China, the Chinese Government has restricted access in the region, shutting of Tibet from foreigners and journalists. Another story appeared in the news last week of a man in Tibet who set himself on fire in protest against the Chinese Government; not as fortunate as the three in the car, he was supposedly shot and killed by Chinese police forces.]

It's an interesting time to be in Beijing.