First posted at Journalism, Journalists and the World.
The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China said today it is “appalled by the attack on one of our members by men who appeared to be plain clothes security officers in Beijing.”
Other journalists who went to the same part of Beijing to do their jobs had problems with the police, including being manhandled, pushed, detained and delayed.
The actions against the journalists came as they tried to cover planned demonstrations organized under the “Jasmine Revolution” banner. The government was so worried about the demonstrations that the police put on a major show of force.
In addition to the heavy police presence, street cleaning vehicles and men with brooms swept back and forth along the designated streets in Beijing and Shanghai, preventing pedestrians from slowing down. A construction site appeared on Wangfujing earlier this week, blocking off a stretch outside the hamburger bar.
Associated Press reported that Shanghai police used whistles to disperse a crowd of around 200, although it was unclear if the people were anything more than onlookers. It said officers detained at least four Chinese citizens in the city and two others in Beijing. It was not clear, however, if those detained had tried to protest.
