China rushes to avert 'Jasmine' protest ; Outsize response to call for action on social media reflects officials' jitters

ANDREW JACOBS
International Herald Tribune
02-21-2011
China rushes to avert 'Jasmine' protest ; Outsize response to call for action on social media reflects officials' jitters
Byline: ANDREW JACOBS
Type: News

A massive response by security officers to a call for action by social media reflects Beijing officials' jitters. There were no reports of large demonstrations.

Skittish domestic security officials organized a massive show of force across China on Sunday after anonymous calls for protesters to stage a Chinese "Jasmine Revolution" went out over social media and micro-blogging outlets.
Although there were no reports of large demonstrations, the outsize response highlighted Beijing's nervousness amid spreading unrest in the Middle East aimed at overthrowing authoritarian regimes. The word "jasmine" was blocked on Twitter-like blogging sites, cellphone users were unable to send multiple text messages, and the streets of many cities were flooded with uniformed and plainclothes police officers.

More than a dozen lawyers and rights activists have been rounded up in recent days and scores of dissidents have reportedly been placed under varying forms of house arrest. At least two lawyers are missing, family members and human rights advocates said Sunday.

In Beijing, a huge crowd formed outside a McDonald's in the heart of the capital after messages went out listing it as one of 13 protest sites across the country. It is not clear who organized the campaign, but the call first appeared Thursday on Boxun, a Chinese- language Web site based in the United States, and spread through Twitter and other micro-blog services. By 2 p.m., the pre-announced start of the protests, hundreds of police officers had swarmed the area, a major shopping district popular with tourists.

At one point, the police surrounded a young man who had placed a jasmine flower on a planter outside the McDonald's, but he was released after the clamor drew journalists and photographers. In Shanghai, three people were detained during a skirmish in front of Starbucks, The Associated Press reported. One post on Twitter described a heavily armed police presence on the subways of Shenzhen and another claimed that college officials at Peking University in Beijing had urged students to avoid any protest activity, but they were impossible to verify Sunday evening.

The messages calling people to action urged protesters to shout, "We want food, we want work, we want housing, we want fairness," an ostensible effort to tap into popular discontent over inflation and soaring real estate prices.

In a sign of the ruling Communist Party's growing anxiety, President Hu Jintao addressed top leaders at a special "study session" Saturday and urged them to address festering social problems before they become threats to stability. "The overall requirements for enhancing and innovating social management are to stimulate vitality in the society and increase harmonious elements to the greatest extent, while reducing inharmonious factors to the minimum," he told the gathering, according to Xinhua, the official news agency.

Human rights advocates said they were especially concerned by the crackdown on rights defenders, which intensified Saturday after at least 15 well-known lawyers and activists were detained or placed under house arrest. Several of those reached by telephone, including Pu Zhiqiang and Xu Zhiyong, said they were in the company of security agents and unable to talk, while many others were unreachable Sunday evening. Two of the men, Tang Jitian and Jiang Tianyong, remain missing.

Many of those subjected to house arrest had met in Beijing on Wednesday to discuss the case of Chen Guangcheng, a blind lawyer under a draconian form of house arrest in rural Shandong Province. The plight of Mr. Chen and his family gained widespread attention last week after a video he and his wife made emerged on the Internet.

One of the missing lawyers, Jiang Tianyong, was forced into an unmarked van Saturday night, his second abduction in recent days, his wife, Jin Bianling, said by telephone. She said the police had also searched the couple's home and confiscated his computer and briefcase.

After this first detention, on Wednesday, Mr. Jiang said that he was taken to the police station and assaulted.

Most of those who thronged outside the McDonald's said they had no idea what the hubbub was about. Some thought that perhaps a celebrity was nearby. But a young man, a Web page designer in his late 20s who gave only his last name, Cui, acknowledged that he was drawn by word of the protest.

"It's very difficult to do this in China, but this is a good start," he said. "I'm thankful to be able to participate in this moment in history."

Keywords: and Riots (Des)

Copyright International Herald Tribune Feb 21, 2011