China Works To Clear Country Of Protesters Day Before Olympics

On the same day that China condemned President Bush's speech on its human rights policies, the country tried to hide an undercurrent of protest ready to burst in the limelight of the Olympics.

Read below about the documented arrests and deportations that occurred yesterday:

From The Washington Post:

China's intense efforts to block any protest that would mar the Olympic Games were challenged Wednesday by foreign activists equally bent on diverting attention to issues as varied as Tibetan independence, the crisis in Darfur and religious freedom.

Two American and two British protesters slipped through a smothering Olympic security net, climbed a pair of lampposts and unfurled banners demanding freedom for Tibet near the new stadium where the Beijing Games are to open Friday night. In Tiananmen Square, three American Christian activists spoke out against China's rights record and protested its population control policies. The four pro-Tibet protesters have been deported, while a second demonstration by Christian activists on Thursday was disrupted when plainclothes police removed the protesters from Tiananmen Square.

The AP reports on more action by China to clear the country of protesters:

At least two women who have protested being evicted from their homes ahead of the Olympics were taken to a police station amid ramped up efforts by activists to use the games to spotlight their causes.

Zhang Wei and Ma Xiulan, who have been vocal about the pain of losing their family compounds near Tiananmen Square to make way for Olympic construction, were taken from their homes late Wednesday and early Thursday, according to Ma.

Also Thursday, a Hong Kong lawmaker said immigration officials deported three U.S.-based Chinese pro-democracy activists after denying them entry to the territory, which is hosting the Olympic equestrian events.

Comments

[berrycooda]

What would we do with protesters if B. Obama was going to make a speech and the KKK was making a huge protest....

Would we just let it happen. I don't think so.

Remember the serenity prayer.
God help me to accept the things I cannot change.
Courage to change the things I can...
And WISDOM to know the difference.

Some protests are useless and just cause agony for the people who do not start them.
Many people in Tibet were satisfied with their life, but protesters caused a lot of trouble for them.

[GarColga]

Ha! One of those protesters is Brandi Swindell from Boise Idaho. Only she's not a protester she's an activist gadfly, completely insincere and interested only in publicity.

[henrydavidthrow]

Those danged hard-line Communist Chinesers need Toby Keith to go over their and straighten 'em out.

[McLaren76]

Again, huffpo censors truth and the real voice of the people.

[McLaren76]

I watch the huffpo blogs often. I see every one bashing bush-mccain, which is fair, the past 8 years have been miserable. However, I never see how it is that O is gonna fix anything? I see no plan, I see lots of money being spent, but I really see just alot of talk and a pretty face, whose just as bought-off by lobbyists and bankers and corporations as the next candidate. Its really six of one half dozen of the other. My personal opinion; it will be close but Obama wont win. He just wont win. People, please, WAKE UP!

Rally for the Republic

[Economike]

I'm not really a sports fan but I don't see how anybody could enjoy being in this kind of environment.
It just seems like you'd be waiting for somebody to detain you or check your papers or something.

[kellygrrrl]

having gone to the Winter Olympics in Utah, I can tell you, it was not at all an enjoyable experience, and I was with Wayne Gretzky and/or Steve Garvey or their wives the entire time and had VIP access -- it just was NOT fun

[Economike]

Utah's strict but not as bad as Bejing I would imagine

[TJRich]

If foreigners came to my country under the pretense of attending an event and proceeded to become political and disruptive, I'd throw them into a cell until I felt better. Anyone who did this should immediately be thrown out of the country. They must be told they do not represent America, just their own agenda whatever that is.

[wvinvent]

Let's be clear. What this TJRich is supporting is summary arrest, and detention without trial, of people who he does not agree with. This Chinese apologist hates the idea of free expression, liberty, and due process. Trial? Throw them in a "dirt cell". Dissent? Throw them in a "dirt cell." Protest? Expel them from the country. A perfect description of China today.

Of course, you have to explain to these Chinese totalitarians what "Freedom" means. In China they tell you them that "Freedom" means "oppression." Just like in Orwell's upside down world of 1984. This is nothing but totalitarian garbage. Recognize it? It has been here before. Nazi germany, Fascist Spain and Italy. Burma.The USSR, and every other dictatorship.

To be blunt, this person and his Chinese government masters are the enemies of every freedom loving person in the world. Period. Take a good look and remember their totalitarian obscenities. They are apostates of liberty. The fight is coming. Fight for liberty or lay down and kiss the boot of totalitarianism as they tell you to do.

To be blunt, this person and his Chinese government masters are the enemies of every freedom loving person in the world. Period. Take a good look and remember their totalitarian ideas. The fight is coming. Fight for liberty or lay down and kiss the boot of totalitarianism.

[macintoshsauce]

BULLSHIT!

The free world has a moral obligation to speak out against the atrocities that China commits regularly.

[totaldisbelief]

Are you going to include the Atrocities that the USA commits?
How do you stand on the treatment of Palestinians by Israel?

[omahkohkiaayo]

What "free" world would that be? What are those atrocities and what direct investigation have you done and what concrete evidence do you have? Have you been in China and do you speak Mandarin? How do you feel about wars like Vietnam and Iraq built on lies, cherrypicked intelligence and contrived pretexts? How do you feel about the historical genocide against Indigenous peoples in the Americas? How do you feel about a long list of very brutal and ugly dictators (that no American would want to live under) installed, maintained and protected by the U.s. Government? How do you feel about various minorities used for medical experiments or 27 U.S. states with sterilization laws designating Indians, epileptics, African Americans and poor people in general as "feeble minded" to be sterilized?

And do you think any of these provable crimes going on at present as well as in the past are inside the Americas any of these narcissists and self-appointed/annointed saviors have protested against?

[Awakenedcitizen]

Do we not pride ourselves on freedom of speech? Even if we don't like it?

[Clevelanded]

What about the CHINESE protesters?

[realityczech4u]

What about them. China is a sovereign nation. What business is it of yours?

[yappnmutt]

wrap your head around this. what they do with chinese protesters is their business. not yours.

[yappnmutt]

don't you know its white man's burden to save all these yellow, brown and black people from themselves? its called manifest destiny and they are called the yellow peril and you are not american unless you know how to run another country better than the owners of that country.

[macintoshsauce]

Are you bloody serious? You need some professional help...

[tpow]

doesn't sound so different then New York during the Republican Convention 4 years ago, we don't have to look too far to see where protestors are contained. Give me a break -
I know China violates several human rights but I think it's wrong for us to blind ourselves to the atrocities of our own country, we torture, we suppress, we censor too.

[totaldisbelief]

Just wait to see how "protesters" are treated at both Conventions right here in the Good Old US of A.

[demdan07]

Someone PLEASE explain to me how China was ever picked to hold the Olympics in the first place. If there is ever a time to boycott them, I think this would be the time. The government there is going to crack down on every person that even thinks about disagreeing with them, and with the smog over there, the athletes probably aren't going to be able to give peak performances. Everyone should have just stayed home.

[SwingingFromCenter]

I find it funny that you lefty loons talk about smog--like Los Angeles or Atlanta were beacons of clean air.

[RunMeloRun]

It was voted. They got more votes.

There's one thing you need to know, there are a lot of other countries in the world, other than US and EUs. They actually like China.

[wvinvent]

Yes, the totalitarian governments of the world LOVE the Chinese tyranny. It sets an example they support: Suppression of dissent, elimination of liberty, economic success without those troublesome human rights....

[gmlaster]

No they don't. They just like China's money.

[andvoodoo2]

The Chinese own everything now, including the U.S..

[totaldisbelief]

I like their food.

[wvinvent]

Anyone who is confused about what the Authoritarian Capitalist government in China is doing to its people only need read Naomi Klein's article in this issue of HP. Chinese tyranny is a danger to every freedom-loving person in the world. It exercises a complete control of a society that makes Orwell's world of "1984" look positively free.

There is no excuse for complete subjugation of a population. There is no excuse for eliminating every avenue of dissent and free thought. There is no excuse for providing support to a regime that sees its people as nothing more than a means to an end- power, riches, and total control.The Beijing Olympics will go down in history along with the Berlin Games of 1932 as a sad event supporting a despicable dictatorship.

[newworldman777]

"There is no excuse for complete subjugation of a population."

Hey wvinvent, have you ever heard of that "peculiar institution" called American slavery? It only lasted fron 1619-1863 -- 244 years. Try telling the posterity of that American "population" that their ancestors had the freedom of dissent or free thought.

And don't try labeling me a "Chinese plant" (evidently a clue revealing your delusional mindset). I am a Native American, probably more American than you could ever hope to be.

[wvinvent]

I DO condemn China's government for their lack of liberty, their summary courts, their arrest and detention of legitimate domestic and foreign protesters, their unaccountable "leaders", their lack of protective labor laws, their duplicitous foreign policy, their censorship of the internet, their censorship and control of all newspapers and TV, their uncompensated confiscation of farms and private homes, their "communist party" corruption, the arbitrary relocation of millions of people, their environmental catastrophe, their underhanded efforts to crush Hong Kong democracy and self-rule, the silencing of grieved parents over kids killed in poorly constructed schools, and on and on and on.

There is no "moral equivalency" that allows the Authoritarian Capitalists in China to commit crimes against their own people just because others may or may not have done similar things in the past. Since no one or country is perfect, then that argument means no one may criticize China or work to effect change. Sorry- that just will not happen no matter how many Chinese shills are hired to post on the open and free discussion boards in the FREE west. Try posting criticism of the Chinese government in China. Yeah, we know that gets you 5 years minimum.

[newworldman777]

"There is no excuse for providing support to a regime that sees its people as nothing more than a means to an end- power, riches, and total control."

Sounds like you are describing your own government under the Bush administration. Clean up your own backyard before you criticize others.