Exodus on main street: China’s clean-up begins

Mary-Anne Toy
TheAge
Monday, July 21, 2008

THE clean-up of Beijing’s streets has begun in earnest. Not just rubbish, but unwanted people who could be a source of embarrassment for the Chinese Government as the world arrives for the Olympics.

About 10 kilometres south of the Olympic Green, where thousands of smiling volunteers and officials are waiting to greet the first wave of tourists, hundreds of so-called “petitioners” who had journeyed to the capital to complain about corruption or other injustices were removed on buses yesterday.

Last Wednesday, when The Age visited this same petition office, up to 500 complainants from around the nation were queueing in a largely peaceful atmosphere under the watch of half a dozen young policemen. An older officer in a golf cart moved down the queue, patiently copping abuse from people angry about delays. The Age was able to interview people discreetly.

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Yesterday the office was almost deserted and the atmosphere was tense. When The Age arrived soon after 11am, we saw why: two busloads of petitioners were being driven away as part of the Olympic clean-out of potential troublemakers.

A Hunan provincial official, sent to Beijing to identify and bring back Hunan petitioners, said proudly that six busloads of people had already been taken away that morning.

As The Age tried to interview the few dozen die-hard protesters remaining on the footpath, plain-clothes security men and uniformed police intervened repeatedly – in flagrant breach of China’s Olympic pledge to allow foreign reporters to work freely.

Age photographer John Donegan was detained by two policemen as he stepped out of a taxi. Another officer filmed him while police were interrogating him.

A burly man in a striped T-shirt physically forced The Age’s Chinese translator into the security guard’s office and tried to close the door when we began asking questions.

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