Beijing Increases Security Ahead of Sensitive Anniversary

In Beijing police are preparing for the sixtieth anniversary of the Communist takeover of China—with increased street patrols, checkpoints and searches of individuals. They’re specifically targeting short-term residents of the city, ethnic minorities and expatriates, state-run China Daily said.

The paper also reported that police had been told to beef up their so-called “anti-terror” efforts, likely to a higher level than during last year’s Beijing Olympic Games.

According to human rights organization Amnesty International, in the lead up to the 2008 Olympics, Minister of Public Security Zhou Yongkang ordered the regime to “strike hard” against what he called “ethnic separatists,” “religious extremists,” “violent terrorists,” and so-called “‘heretical organizations’ like the Falun Gong.”

Yet international observers see many of these groups not as threats, but as victims of the Communist dictatorship.

The Falun Dafa Information Center, an organization that provides information about the Chinese regime’s persecution of Falun Gong, said that almost 2,000 adherents of the spiritual practice were arrested in the lead up to the Olympics.

This year’s October 1st anniversary could be seen as even more sensitive to the regime.

(NTDTV)