Foreigners feel the heat in China

[SidDithers]

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23672845-30538,00.html

Many meetings, concerts and other events involving foreigners are being scrapped by government order as the Games approach.

This week a massive international congress of the Dutch-based Institute of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, for which 6500 people had registered and which has been planned for three years, was suddenly cancelled by the Chinese authorities.

They're even harassing the Hashers!

One evening last week, seven expatriate members of the Hash House Harriers running-and-drinking group ran a trail in Beijing laid out by flour. When they finished, they were hauled in for questioning by police who tested the flour, then released at 4am with a tough warning.

The Beijing Harriers' website now says: "All Hashers are reminded that in the run-up to the Olympic Games there is a likelihood of increased security measures.

All hail the workers paradise of the glorious People's Republic!

Sid

[annabanana]

1. What? China is behaving like a totalitarian state?

No! You don't say.

I hope they harass the hell out of a few "free market radicals". There should be a little less delusion in the relationship between our two countries...

[Indenturedebtor]

2. When my wife and I were there

The entire month or so we were followed by english speaking Chinese people who kept on trying to get our opinion on Taiwan and the Chinese government. I ran into the same people in a couple different parts of China. It was pretty damn scary. We would consistently refuse to talk politics thankfully.

When we finally made our way around to Beijing an old man started shouting about how he wished the Chinese govt were like the American one. A passerby told him to shut his mouth in mandarin.

I hope that someday these people are free... but that they end up with a better govt than ours :(