07:45 am
Controlympics: Protest-Free Zones
So as you’ve probably heard by now, the ChiComs have not allowed a single protest to take place in the three designated zones. Not one. Here are some of the details:
- Chinese officials, by their own admission, have received 77 applications to hold protests. They have not approved a single one, stating that 74 had been withdrawn because their concerns had been “properly addressed by relevant authorities or departments through consultations.” The other three were rejected for “incomplete information” or violating Chinese law.
- At least six and as many as eight people have been detained for attempting to organize protests after the government announced that it was settng up the zones. The families of several of them have not heard anything since their arrests.
- Two elderly women, aged 79 and 77, have been sentenced to a year of “re-education through labor” for “disturbing the public order,” after they repeatedly applied for a permit to demonstrate in one of the offical zones. They were objecting to what they felt was insufficient payment for the demolition of their homes. When one women’s daughter attempted to apply for a permit to protest the arrest, officials refused to give her the forms.
- Gao Chuancai, a farmer from northeast China, was forcibly escorted back to his hometown and remains in custody after he attempted to organize a demonstration against public corruption.
- Five Americans were arrested for an unauthorized protest after they used LEDs to spell out “Free Tibet” near the Bird’s Nest. The display lasted for a grand total of twenty seconds before police took it down. Three other protesters were arrested after trying to use lasers to project the same message on a downtown landmark.
- In response, the IOC made the following statement to The Financial Times: “The IOC is not in a position to dictate to city authorities how to run their affairs. However, protest zones are a best practice from previous Olympic host cities for dealing with peaceful protesters who use the platform of the Olympic Games. We continue to ask for greater transparency from Beijing city authorities concerning the official protest zones in parks near Olympic venues and would like to see them genuinely used in Beijing.”
What’s so sad about all of this is that it was completely unnecessary. For argument’s sake, let’s say that the ChiComs let all 77 protests go forward. In zones that average Chinese are avoiding like the plague. Nobody would have noticed and the IOC wouldn’t have complained.
It’s not like the Chinese haven’t done this before: in 1995, they hosted the World Conference on Women. They set aside protest zones. It was messy, but for the most part it went by unnoticed by the average Chinese.
So what has changed this time around? What are their spies telling them? Is there something more to this, or is it about face?