China clears streets for the Olympics
COUNTDOWN TO BEIJING
Petitioners -- those taking their grievances to the government -- are swept away for a few weeks.
BEIJING — On a hot summer night about 10:30, the many men and women living under an elevated section of highway were trying to nod off, swatting the mosquitoes at their ears, shifting their hips uncomfortably on sheets of newspaper and cardboard strewn on the pavement, when someone shouted, "Police!"
By the time most could rouse themselves, it was too late. Police had blocked the routes of escape with large buses they would later use to cart away their quarry.
The bedtime bust was part of a massive Olympic cleanup, in which thousands of Chinese citizens are being booted out of the capital like gate-crashers at a party.
The underpass raid that began July 13 and continued for two days netted about 1,000 people. All were petitioners who had come to protest mistreatment in their home provinces.
Petitioning dates to the time of the earliest Chinese emperors and is enshrined in Chinese law. It is the most basic form of protest in China, with ordinary citizens pressing bread-and-butter concerns over unfair firings and arrests, misconduct and corruption by local Communist Party officials.
As part of its bid to host the Olympics, China promised to improve its human rights record. Last month, the government announced that it would go so far as to designate space in city parks where protesters could exercise free speech.
But such pledges come at the same time as the unprecedented crackdown in the streets. Along with beggars and pickpockets, the petitioners appear to top the list of the personae non gratae whom Beijing wants out before Friday.
The petitioners are living in the streets largely because the Chinese government, citing concerns over Olympic security, has in recent weeks closed down thousands of cheap hotels and basement apartments where rooms could be rented for less than $1 a day. The government has also demolished housing in entire neighborhoods where petitioners have lived.
"They are trying to drive us out of Beijing. They say we create a negative image. They treat us like refugees and criminals," said Wang Lijun, 37, who is petitioning to get a military pension for his father, a Korean War veteran who was stripped of all benefits after being accused of being an "anti-revolutionary" in 1958.
Wang was kept awake by the heat of the night on July 13 so he was able to jump to his feet quickly enough to escape by running onto the highway.
