Security crackdown as Beijing prepares to celebrate

Stephen McDonnell, Beijing

Last Updated: Fri, 25 Sep 2009 10:35:00 +1000

Beijing is gearing up for next week's mass military parade and pageants to mark 60 years since the founding of the People's Republic of China.

The Chinese are looking forward to the public holiday but for people in Beijing it's a matter of putting up with all the extra security, with many thousands of extra police and paramilitaries being mobilised to make sure nothing goes wrong.

Travelling on the Beijing subway at the moment, it is common to pass police carrying submachine guns and wearing helmets at the station exits.

Sniffer dogs can be seen in and around the capital's bar districts, and cars without Beijing number plates are being stopped at the sixth ring road and prevented from entering the city.

Beijing is in the middle of a massive security crackdown in preparation for next week's celebrations.

The centrepiece of the celebrations will be a mass parade down Chang An Avenue - the main east-west corridor - with 200,000 people and 8,000 vehicles taking part.

According to General Gao Jianguo, the parade will showcase the People's Liberation Army's finest weapons, including intercontinental ballistic missiles, tanks and fighter aircraft.

Normally nothing flies over Beijing. For security reasons the Chinese capital is a permanent no-fly zone.

This week jet fighters flew in low over the slick office towers of the CBD and military helicopters were close enough to offices to clean their windows. These practice runs are designed to ensure a flawless performance next Thursday.

On three occasions the entire city centre - along 10 kilometres of Chang An Avenue - has been shut down for mass practice sessions that go for 12 hours at a time.

Beijing's cabbies have been inconvenienced more than most, with these lockdowns eating into their income.

They complain about it off the record but when the tape recorder is switched on, the sentiments are wound back a bit.

"This is a big thing for all Chinese people so everybody is happy and looking forward to it," one driver said.

He says the mass road closures have caused a few headaches but he says that is understandable.

"The radio reports on the road closures are timely so we try and avoid certain routes," he said.

"We're trying to be supportive of this big celebration. The impact on us has not been too great."

Foreign tourists are being blocked from travelling to Tibet at the moment and elsewhere Chinese activists have been detained in reportedly large numbers.

Ethnic Uighurs are being watched especially closely by security forces.

The government is fearful, following recent conflict in the far Western Xinjiang region, these celebrations could be used as a point of attack by Muslim separatists.

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