As the Communist Party’s 71st anniversary approaches, the grass is always greener across China. Netizens in Beijing said intermittent segmentation of the Internet has occurred recently, and most businesses have taken vacations. The Qingdao Education Bureau informed teachers and students that the Internet would be disconnected from the night of the 29th to the early morning of July 2. Independent scholars and media professionals in Beijing, such as Gao Yu, Cha Jianguo and Ji Feng, were put on police duty or travel.
With July 1 approaching, more and more preventive and control measures around the world, Beijing knife store regulations to line online shopping, mail to the customer’s home measures. In Beijing’s Forbidden City Donghuamen Street, a resident posted on WeChat that the local gas supply had been stopped and meals were delivered by community organizations until July 4, when normalcy resumed.
The authorities’ control over dissidents is even tougher than ever. Veteran media personality Gao Yu was put on guard this Tuesday (29), and dissident Cha Jianguo told the station Wednesday that he has been on guard for two weeks and that police have been added to monitor him, in addition to security guards.
“Yesterday there were police officers on duty, one police officer with two security guards, three people on duty at the entrance. The June 4th anniversary day was on duty in front of my house for six days. The July 1st Party Day has been 16 days from the 15th to today. The day before yesterday I said to the police that your party’s celebration is a day of suffering for those of us who are here. Even a basic human right, freedom of movement, is gone.”
Officials came to the house and took away the gas bottles used for cooking
Monsoon, a 1989 dissident, was taken out of Beijing last week by Guizhou state security and is now “traveling” in a room at a resort in Baiyangdian, Hebei. Ms. Wang, who lives in a “petition village” in Daxing District, told reporters that security guards from her hometown in the northeast are guarding a petitioner and forbidding him to go outside.
“The police are not only in front of the house, but also in front of the house. The petitioners are almost checked, and the village is knocking door to door, and these people (foreign security guards) seem to be thieves in Beijing. They check your ID card, go out to travel are to catch you back, you do not do anything, at home to guard you.”
Ms. Zhang, a visitor, added that recently, officials have also come to her home to seize gas bottles for cooking.
“We have been checking on our side, knocking on doors door to door, and when we see liquefied gas, we are robbed, and when we see battery trucks, we are robbed. Beijing has been on holiday since the afternoon of the 28th and will only be able to work on July 2. All businesses and construction sites are closed. Beijing has had a bad signal for the last three or four days, basically there is no network, anytime there is, anytime there is not.”
In addition, the WeChat group circulated a notice from the Qingdao Education Bureau to teachers, students and parents under its jurisdiction that the Bureau will uniformly disconnect the Internet from the evening of June 29 to July 2 because July 1 is around the corner. At that time, it will not be possible to recharge and check students’ consumption through this public number.
A netizen told reporters that a large number of WeChat groups were recently blocked.
“Beijing is blocking groups, non-stop blocking WeChat groups during this time, and our groups are almost one a day.”
The Beijing Municipal Government earlier issued a notice to implement radio control in some areas on the day of July 1. The use of radio equipment as well as large non-radio equipment that radiates radio waves is prohibited.
Mr. Zhao, a resident, told the station that from 8:00 to 12:00 that day, communication signals will be blocked within the security area of the July 1 celebration on the Dongdan to Xidan section of Chang’an Street and parts of the Second Ring Road in front of Tiananmen Square. A foreign correspondent based in Beijing told Radio Free Asia that cell phone signals have been erratic in recent days and that he suspects they are being monitored.
Recent Comments