Posted on 07/19/2008 2:00:56 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Candid Camera: Severe Atmosphere, Beijing Police Patrol with Assault Weapons for First Time
By Boxun
Jul 18, 2008 - 3:09:14 PM
With less than 20 days until the Olympics, Beijing's streets have seen an increase in Peoples Armed Police in full riot gear, police with special duties and regular beat police. The police are carrying semi-automatic assault weapons for the first time. From the grim expressions on these policemen's faces, it is clear that they are prepared for a surprise attack. Beijing citizens expressed to Boxun that not even after the military crackdown in Tiananmen Square in 1989 did police take to the streets with machine guns, it feels like they are confronting a mortal enemy and has the feeling of a war zone like Iraq.
According to our news sources, in the whole-hearted commitment to hosting a safe and secure Olympics, these police are given an opportunity to play with these guns. At different times Beijing has declared that they would host a "Green Olympics," "Humane Olympics," "Science and Technology Olympics," and "Good Luck Beijing." None of these slogans were ever raised again. A "Secure and Peaceful Olympics" has superceded all, with slogans about security dominating streets. For all these years, the mainland's masses have become accustomed to expecting the opposite of the propaganda in mainstream media. These phenomena indicate that the Olympics may be anything but secure and peaceful.
In a related news item, it has been reported that in order to accommodate all these armed police, scientific institutions have been cleared out. In one scientific research institution, more than 800 armed police are being billeted.
In my experience the “guys running around with automatic weapons” also carry sufficient ammunition for their autos. That’s a pretty reliable indicator of what a man is carrying.
What does the sign say?
First, welcome to FRee Republic!
Second, you are protesting that you are a Reagan Conservative.
Real conservatives usually don't label themselves as a "Reagan conservative" -- generally they argue positions on the issues in such a way that observers can figure out that they are Reagan conservatives.
Third, inveighing against deregulation of airlines, and pushing for Amtrak subsidies, somehow goes against the spirit of Reagan conservatism -- think of PATCO...
Fourth, your diction is a little *too* crisp, each sentence reads as though it came out of an English primer.
Methinks I smell something a little bit off about your posts.
But I'll reserve judgment for now.
Cheers!
Well, thanks. I guess. I used the term Reagan conservative to indicate my admiration for him; one of the 2 or 3 greatest American presidents of all time. But I guess in hindsight I may have changed my mind on a few points over the years.
I love what he did with PATCO, but air travel in the US today is simply terrible compared to what’s available in much of the rest of the world. Is it ok for us to disagree on some of these things?
Thanks.
People are suspicious because of past troll coming in here. So, please don’t take it personally. It seems like whenever something big happens in China, there are people relatively new on here touting the Chinese line.
Welcome to FR. Just out of curiousity, what led you to Reagan conservatism. Were you a Democrat first?
I for one appreciate your reporting and don’t believe for a second you are a Chinese troll.
I was in Beijing in late May, early June, staying in a Hutong near the Drum Tower and saw minimal security. That of course is the thing with communist countries, you never know “who is security”. That being said, it doesn’t surprise me that as we get closer to 8/8/08 you see more public displays of security for a number of reasons.
If I could find the article, there was a good writeup on why train travel will never be tenable in the US as it is in Europe or Japan (in a word, distance).
Train travel might be good for a few "short-hop" routes -- LA to San Diego or Santa Barbara, Portland-Seattle, New York-Boston, that kind of thing.
But mass-transit in the US (including light rail) has typically needed gobs and gobs and oodles of taxpayer subsidies to work: and often, a disproportionate share of those on mass transit tend to be, well, what the press calls "youths" when they riot in Paris.
As far as the air travel, I think they put something in the water in the C-level suites at airlines and at US auto manufacturers. It's not deregulation, it's stupidity. And have you seen (sorry, I looked for > 10 min and couldn't find it) a story that many air carriers are forced to run short-hop routes with occupancy rates of 10-20% (e.g. Minneapolis to Mesabi, MN) in return for an (inadequate) subsidy, directly by Federal Law?
Cheers! Cheers!
“I don’t wish to convince you or anyone. I’m just reporting what I’ve seen and experienced over the past month.”
So you’re on vacation in China and just HAD to come to Free Republic, create an account on June 29th, and begin reporting? We’re so lucky you have nothing better to do.
I'll bet they aren't semi-automatic. And thus they are not assault weapons. They'd be assault rifles, unless they fire a pistol caliber cartridge, in which case they'd be submachine guns, but I don't think they are anything other than a standard PLA ,type 95 (QBZ95) 5.8mm assault rifle. Like this:
Those are not AK-47s, nor the Chinese equivalent type 56. Or the follow on type 03 either, but rather the type 95, a bullpup style firing a 5.8x42 mm cartridge bullet, rather than the 7.62x39mm of the AK-47 type. The 5.8mm would be more akin to the NATO 5.56x41 mm.
A lot of security guards wear official-looking uniforms (including cammies). Unless you can read Chinese, you can't really tell they're cops or soldiers. I've noticed that some bank security guards carry guns, which sticks out, given how few *cops* carry them.
I've seen paramilitary troops with magazine fed rifles manning night-time road blocks with a dozen or more armed cops years before the Olympics. (I have no clue what they were going to do with those rifles - having running firefights with motorists?) Maybe the unusual thing is personnel in cop uniforms - as opposed to army camouflage uniforms - with magazine-fed rifles.
It seems strange to me to want to always attach ulterior motives to things we disagree with. I’ve been a lurker, reader, fan of FR for a while now, before I came to China. I finally got up the gumption to open an account. I’ve made a few posts on other topics, but since I am in China, I thought, “why not give some first hand accounts?”
Many Freepers seem to appreciate my posts, even if they don’t agree with everything I say.
“Just out of curiousity, what led you to Reagan conservatism. Were you a Democrat first?”
When I was young, I tended to vote Dem. When Reagan first ran, I was still voting Dem., but feeling a bit guilty about it, especially because of the Iran hostage crisis and the weak ineffectual way Carter played with it. In a nutshell, Reagan won me over, mainly due to foreign policy. But I also was listening to a fellow on the radio back then, a guy named Mark Scott in Detroit. Couldn’t stand him at first, but gradually he persuaded me to read more Ayn Rand. That was the turning point. I’ve never voted for or trusted a Dem. since then.
Reading that, I do recall an armored car parked at a bank, with guards holding riot shotguns. I do not read Chinese, so I do not know exactly who they were, but the vibe they gave off was "high grade private security" not "cop."
I also recall being a bit surprised that they needed three guys holding shot riot shotguns to guard an armored car.
Thank goodness those photographs weren’t taken in Tennessee—they would be illegal.
Chinese cops are great at intimidating individual civilians. They're not good for much else. This is why everyone has private security.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.