With the 20th Community Party Congress (CPC) kicking off on Sunday, hundreds of volunteers — called “Neighborhood Security Volunteers” — spanned out on a street in Beijing to keep a close watch on the proceedings.
According to a report in The New York Times, the volunteers were placed “every 100 feet or so” to ensure that any perceived threat or wrinkle — from Covid to unsightly litter — is eliminated.
“The fortress around Beijing as Xi prepares for a precedent-defying five more years crystallizes how successful he has been,” the report said.
Doubling down on Zero Covid
Besides thwarting any perceived security threat, the volunteers were also fighting an invisible enemy: Covid-19.
Even as the world is emerging from the shadow of a grueling pandemic, China is keeping its defences watertight — especially during the all-important CPC.
The defences are so tight that those who have travelled to areas with even one Covid case have been blocked from entering the city.
The stranded citizens erupted in anger on social media, with some saying they needed to return urgently for work or surgery.
Some are complaining that their employers have barred them from leaving Beijing during the seven-day National Day vacation last week for fear that they would not be able to return.
Separately, NYT reported that officials at the postal department have been instructed to check the ID of everyone mailing anything to Beijing.
“Until the big meeting is over, there will be more people patrolling. Police, all kinds,” a volunteer told NYT.
Officials in other provinces have pledged any necessary measures, including lockdowns, to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, “especially to Beijing.”
Over 1.4 million arrested, protests quashed
The scale and size of the once-every-five-years conclave is apparent from some of the other extreme measures taken by the authoities.
In the capital city, armed officers patrolled the streets around the Great Hall of the People to stop bicyclists and pedestrians for random checks.
Last month, a government official announced that authorities had arrested more than 1.4 million criminal suspects nationwide since the end of June. The reason: they wanted to create a “safe and stable political and social environment” for the CPC.
Quiet discontent has also been brewing among the locals, who are facing the brunt of these extreme restrictions.
Photos circulated on social media of two banners unfurled on a Beijing overpass, calling for an end to lockdowns and the overthrow of Xi.
However, public protest is virtually unseen in Beiing on any day, and nearly unimaginable amid the security thicket, the NYT report said.
Whatever little protest that did take place was quashed expeditiously by the authorities.
The strict policing was palpable even on social media with online censors assiduously scrubbing any photos being posted online.
The report said that even a search for the word “Beijing” seemed to have been restricted on the platform Weibo (China’s Twitter), with only posts from verified official accounts appearing.
