China police swarm sites of stealth protests

BEIJING  A heavy police presence blunted protests in China that were modeled on demonstrations across the Middle East.

The crackdown highlighted China's resolve to deter any would-be protesters from responding to an online call for "Jasmine Rallies" in China's capital and other cities.

Echoing protests in the Arab world, the U.S.-based website boxun.com last week posted a call for citizens to gather every Sunday at specified locations in each city, including a Beijing McDonald's. This was the second Sunday of scheduled protests.

By "strolling, watching, or pretending to pass by," Chinese people can support demands, including an independent judiciary and a curb on corruption, the rally organizers' anonymous letter said.

The letter expanded on an earlier statement carried by the Chinese-language website, which is blocked in China.

In Beijing, hundreds of people did stroll by, until roadblocks cut numbers reaching the area, but there were no overt displays of protest such as banners or shouted slogans.

Others stood briefly to watch, until moved on by police. Given the popularity of Wangfujing, Beijing's most famous shopping street, it was impossible to gauge how many people present were responding to the rally call.

There was no mistaking how seriously the Chinese government is responding to the challenge, after days of increased Internet censorship. Outside the McDonald's, and in all approach roads, uniformed and plainclothes security personnel, many with video or still cameras, monitored and controlled the crowds.

Police detained several Chinese, at least two in Beijing and four in Shanghai. Several foreign journalists also were detained.

In Shanghai, at one end of the city's People's Square, uniformed police blew whistles non-stop and shouted at people to keep moving. China's one-party system does not permit anti-government protests.

Before the 2008 Summer Olympics, Beijing bowed to international pressure and announced three "protest parks." Yet local police approved no applications to hold protests and detained some applicants.

Since the first call to protest, Chinese police have detained several dissidents and restricted the movements of at least 100 people, in "one of the harshest crackdowns on activists in recent years," said Wang Songlian, a researcher for China Human Rights Defenders, an organization based in Hong Kong.

At least five individuals currently face subversion charges, she said.