Beijing’s “protest parks” are empty and unused, and activists say demonstrations are overtly discouraged.

BEIJING, China (RUSHPRNEWS) AUGUST 19,2008—Authorities in Beijing have turned down dozens of groups with grievances who wish to use the officially sanctioned Olympics “protest parks” in the capital, activists said. Map of Beijing showing Olympic venues and protest parks. Authorities say 77 applications were received, representing 149 people. 74 were withdrawn, two needed additional paper and one remains “in process.”

“When we went to submit our application…they made inquiries about the situation and wanted me to sign those instead, and they refused to take the form from me,” a spokesman for a group of 32 people from Linyi city in the eastern province of Shandong said.

“The staff member said that our application was not accepted because they cannot grant it the first time [we apply],” said Zhang Feng, whose group is complaining about forced evictions by their local government.

“Instead, we should wait to see if we can mediate the issue and if that doesn’t work we can try to submit an application a second time,” he said.

Little hope
Four group members traveled to the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau last week to deliver the form by hand. Zhang said he was interviewed by a clerk who took notes, a practice forbidden by China’s law on public demonstrations.

Zhang was told that if an application is submitted for a permit to protest on Aug. 20, the Public Security Bureau should reply by sometime around the Aug. 18, but he acknowledged he had little hope.

Protest parks have appeared in past Games, including Salt Lake City and Athens.
China threw open its parks on July 23, but several people said their applications to demonstrate in Purple Bamboo Park in the west of the capital and Temple of Heaven park in the south had been turned down.

An employee who answered the phone at the Purple Bamboo Park confirmed that no demonstrations had been held since the announcement in July, but he said they didn’t know why.

The official in charge of protest parks at the Beijing municipal public security bureau declined requests for a interview.

From this perspective, the system is really just a means to supervise demonstrations.”

Lawyer Li Xiongbing

Detainees
Among those detained for attempting to demonstrate during the Olympics were Hunan petitioner Tang Xuecheng and Fujian civil rights activist Ji Sizun, according to petitioners and foreign media reports.

Repeated calls to Tang and Ji’s cellphones went unconnected Friday.

Beijing-based human rights lawyer Li Xiongbing said he had also found that applications for protests were extremely hard to have approved; this was true both during the Olympics, and before.

“From this perspective, the system is really just a means to supervise demonstrations,” Li said.
Paid not to protest
Shanghai-based civil rights lawyer Zheng Enchong said several petitioners were still in detention in the city after more than 10 of them traveled to Beijing to demonstrate individually after their application was turned down by police.

The petitioners were detained after being brought back from Beijing, Zheng said.
“In some districts they may have been paid 2,000 yuan (U.S. $290) to pledge that they will not protest during the Olympics, but in others they may have to report in once a week to collect their payment,” Zheng said. “Still others may have to report every afternoon to prove that they have not left Shanghai and receive 50 yuan.”

I followed the standard procedure. They refused to take our application. Then they told us to withdraw our submission.”

Shan Chan

Hunger strike
Shanghai petitioner Shen Peilan has been under 24-hour surveillance by authorities since Aug. 1.

On the morning of Aug. 6, Shen planned to go to the official complaints office in Shanghai but was intercepted by authorities and beaten, Zheng said. Local police wouldn’t accept her complaint and she has decided to stage a hunger strike in protest.

Shan Chun, a representative of a group of retired Beijing police officers, has applied twice for a permit to protest in the Olympics’ designated protest zones.
“On Aug. 7 I went to apply but was immediately refused. On Aug. 8, which was the day of the opening ceremonies, I thought perhaps there would be a change,” Shan said. “I went again to apply, but I was simply told that I couldn’t hold a demonstration about this issue.”

Shan said officials told her that the issue would have to be referred to higher authorities, but soon afterwards they simply told her that she could not stage a protest.

“They said that I shouldn’t speak about this complaint, and that it was not a matter of it being accepted or not, but that it would be treated as a non-issue,” she said.

“At long last our country now has this policy whereby we can protest…we have to take advantage of this one opportunity to voice our own opinions,” she said.

“We can do this and stay in accordance with regulations. But instead they are refusing to entertain the idea, and so it is like a vase on a table, pretty to look at but useless,” she said of the protest parks. “Chinese people are not afforded this human right. If these promises were true, they would truly be accepting applications for complaints.”

The Beijing Public Security Bureau has said 74 of 77 protest applications submitted have been withdrawn because their issues had been resolved.
Shan disputed that assertion, saying, “It’s a lie. I know it’s a lie because I myself submitted the applications. A lot of people can bear witness to that fact. I followed the standard procedure. They refused to take our application. Then they told us to withdraw our submission.”
Original reporting in Mandarin by Yan Xiu, Fang Yuan, Qiao Long, and Xin Yu. RFA Mandarin service director: Jennifer Chou. Translated and written for the Web in English by Joshua Lipes and Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.