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[China] Candid Camera: Severe Atmosphere, Beijing Police Patrol with Assault Weapons for First Time
Boxun ^ | 07/18/08

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 A "Secure and Peaceful Olympics" has superceded all, with slogans about security dominating streets.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.


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: assaultweapon; china; olympic; security
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To: Pilsner

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.


41 posted on 07/19/2008 6:58:15 AM PDT by B4Ranch (Having custody of a loaded weapon does not arm you. The skill to use the weapon is what arms a man.)
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To: compound w
See my FR home page. Ex-pat married and living here for almost 5 yrs.
Have a good trip.
42 posted on 07/19/2008 7:15:50 AM PDT by Tainan (Talk is cheap. Silence is golden. All I got is brass...lotsa brass.)
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To: TigerLikesRooster

What does the sign say?


43 posted on 07/19/2008 7:18:54 AM PDT by Dustbunny (Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged. The Gipper)
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To: TigerLikesRooster
The world should back off China and give this crap a rest.
The Chinese overlords have the same rights to oppress the masses as all the other socialist c'suckers.
Come on comrades, don't be Olympic envying haters, give it a break for a couple of months and then everybody can get go back to plotting the downfall of capitalism, 5 year plans, secret executions and all the other fun stuff.
44 posted on 07/19/2008 7:23:02 AM PDT by MrBambaLaMamba (Hussein Obama for Caliph 2008!)
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To: compound w
I checked your entire posting history...being bored this morning.

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!

45 posted on 07/19/2008 7:51:49 AM PDT by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
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To: grey_whiskers

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.


46 posted on 07/19/2008 8:01:12 AM PDT by compound w
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To: compound w

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?


47 posted on 07/19/2008 8:12:31 AM PDT by rbmillerjr ("bigger government means constricting freedom"....................RWR)
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To: compound w

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.


48 posted on 07/19/2008 8:25:14 AM PDT by rightisright (E Tan E Epi Tas)
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To: compound w
Air travel does suck: and so does train travel.

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!

49 posted on 07/19/2008 8:38:46 AM PDT by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
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To: compound w

“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.


50 posted on 07/19/2008 9:32:36 AM PDT by Owl558 ("Those who remember George Satayana are doomed to repeat him")
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To: TigerLikesRooster
The police are carrying semi-automatic assault weapons

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:


51 posted on 07/19/2008 10:10:38 AM PDT by El Gato ("The Second Amendment is the RESET button of the United States Constitution." -- Doug McKay)
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To: TigerLikesRooster
I think it is not so much about them carrying it as being posted at every street corner with AK-47 visibly drawn.

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.

52 posted on 07/19/2008 10:20:08 AM PDT by El Gato ("The Second Amendment is the RESET button of the United States Constitution." -- Doug McKay)
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To: Pilsner
I saw a lot of cops, and a few Army troops, but no weapons beyond handguns. In fact I noted that the Army troops did not wear covers (hats) unless they were armed.

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.

53 posted on 07/19/2008 11:17:12 AM PDT by Zhang Fei
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To: TigerLikesRooster
So do you think the report is highlighting the fact that police(at least some of them) started to brandish assault weapons openly for the first time?

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.

54 posted on 07/19/2008 11:27:10 AM PDT by Zhang Fei
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To: Owl558

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.


55 posted on 07/19/2008 5:14:32 PM PDT by compound w
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To: rbmillerjr

“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.


56 posted on 07/19/2008 5:23:25 PM PDT by compound w
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To: Zhang Fei
I've noticed that some bank security guards carry guns

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.

57 posted on 07/19/2008 7:46:49 PM PDT by Pilsner
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To: TigerLikesRooster

Thank goodness those photographs weren’t taken in Tennessee—they would be illegal.


58 posted on 07/19/2008 7:49:54 PM PDT by DeaconBenjamin
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To: Pilsner
I also recall being a bit surprised that they needed three guys holding shot riot shotguns to guard an armored car.

Chinese cops are great at intimidating individual civilians. They're not good for much else. This is why everyone has private security.

59 posted on 07/25/2008 7:21:19 PM PDT by Zhang Fei
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