More China rallies planned after tough clampdown

Organisers of an online anti-government campaign called yesterday for new rallies in China on March 6 despite a smothering security response at the weekend that saw foreign journalists roughed up.

The anonymous campaigners behind the so-called “Jasmine rallies” – a reference to the “Jasmine revolution” in Tunisia that sparked unrest across the Arab world – said their movement had support in dozens of cities.

The new statement was posted on Facebook, Twitter and other overseas social networking sites officially blocked in China and came one day after security personnel turned out in force to thwart gatherings in Beijing and Shanghai.

“According to the feedback we received, on February 27, 2011, this movement spread to over 100 cities, largely exceeding our initial expectations of 27 cities,” it said, calling for people to “walk” for change again next Sunday.

“We send our salutations to all Chinese citizens supporting and participating in this noble movement!”

Both the US ambassador to China and the European Union delegation in the country condemned the rough police handling of some foreign journalists who tried to report at the Beijing rally site on Sunday­­.

Hundreds of uniformed and plainclothes police had blanketed the city’s Wangfujing shopping street for the second week running, aggressively pushing away foreign reporters with cameras and briefly detaining several.

Bloomberg News said one of its correspondents was kicked and punched by at least five men in plainclothes – apparently security personnel. He required medical treatment.

“This type of harassment and intimidation is unacceptable and deeply disturbing,” US Ambassador Jon Huntsman said in a statement.

A similarly tight security presence was seen at the Shanghai protest site near the city’s People’s Square. No protests were witnessed in Beijing but several unidentified Chinese were seen taken away in police vans in Shanghai.

Citizens have been urged to gather for subtle “strolling” demonstrations – but take no overt protest action – each Sunday afternoon at designated locations in cities across China to highlight public anger with the government.

The latest call urged “all social groups, intellectuals, unemployed college graduates, retired soldiers, Christians, Falun Gong practitioners, laid-off workers, victims of forced land seizures and building demolitions, and all people suffering from governmental injustice” to take part.