Monday, August 18, 2008

Protest Permit Applications, 77; Protests Approved, 0

Xinhuanet(!) Article
BEIJING, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- Beijing authorities have received 77 applications for demonstrations since Aug. 1, a spokesperson with the municipal public security bureau said here on Monday.

These applications involved 149 people, including three persons from overseas.

Most of the applicants applied to protest in public for issues like labor disputes, medical disputes or inadequate welfares, the spokesperson said.

Seventy-four applications have been withdrawn so far, because the problems those applicants contended for were properly addressed by relevant authorities or departments through consultations, added the spokesperson.

I guess it comes down to how you define "consultation" with the government. To the CCP, the fact that you want to protest is the problem so by arresting and detaining applicants... problem solved.

[8/18/08 - 1:04 PM]

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I just saw a story on NBC news about the lack of protests. The reporter talked to Zhang Wei's son; she was detained for "disturbing the peace" after applying for a permit. NBC then went to the office taking applications and were chased away to the Beijing police headquarters. There, police officers took photos and videos of the NBC reporters (why do they always do this?) then said they would look into it, while denying that anyone has been arrested for simply applying for a permit. Finally, NBC went to the detention center where the prison director verified they were holding Zhang Wei but would not let anyone speak to her. Of course, there was no trial nor was she even charged with a crime, just detained until the Olympics are over.



MSNBC Article
But Wang Wei, vice president of the Beijing Olympics organizing committee, on Monday defended the protest plan to journalists, some of whom have pressed Olympic officials to show how China has improved human rights as it promised to do while bidding to host the games.

“This is not realistic,” Wang said. “We think that you do not really understand China’s reality. China has its own version and way of exercising our democracy.

Yeah, China's version is called "Communist dictatorship."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

i was thinking about protesting the 07/30/2008~08/30/2008 country-wide stoppage of projects to be hooked up to the electrical grid. the decree set us back a whole month. there is no appeal process. no public hearing.

despite all the BS things are still happening faster in China than in the US.

China; what a country.

i genuinely feel bad for those caught up in the 2008 version of the Hundred Flowers Movement. 52 years ago Mao was able to round up all those dissidents which probably got alot worse treatment; even death compared with today. shame on the world for looking the other way while and giving the chinese authorities a pass on this.

i think the world is still in a state of awe for what the chinese have pulled off. it has been close to a "perfect" games but from the perspective of the ruling elite.