[BRIEF NOTE] Who said that the Olympics would make things better? Part x

[rfmcdonald]

Geoffrey York of The Globe and Mail has filed a couple of possibly contentious reports about life for minorities in Beijing. On the 18th came the article "Beijing busy welcoming the world as it turns away its ethnic minorities".

Today the couple have given up. They are packing their bags and getting ready to leave Beijing this month, joining the thousands of other Uyghurs, Tibetans and Mongolians who are fleeing under police pressure in the final weeks before the Olympics.

Ethnic minorities, migrant workers, petitioners and social activists are among the key targets of the Chinese security crackdown that has swept through Beijing in recent months. Now, with the Olympics just three weeks away, many of the targeted groups are making their final preparations to leave.

Some have little choice - they are being forcibly expelled by Chinese police. A British woman of Tibetan descent, Dechen Pemba, was deported from China last week. The 30-year-old teacher had lived in Beijing for two years and had a valid visa to work in China, but she was escorted to Beijing airport by a group of security agents who forced her onto an airplane with no explanation. The government later accused her of belonging to the Tibetan Youth Congress and engaging in "separatist activities" - charges that she strongly denied.

Tibetans and Mongolians are under pressure to leave Beijing because they are seen as potential Olympic troublemakers. Many people in Tibet and Inner Mongolia want greater autonomy and religious freedom for their regions of China. A wave of protests swept through the Tibetan regions this spring, sparking a harsh crackdown from Chinese authorities.

The Uyghurs are under greater pressure than any other ethnic minority because the government sees them not only as potential protesters but also as potential terrorists. The entire Uyghur population is often seen as a security threat, even though only a tiny fraction have been involved in radical or separatist activities.

Until recently, Beijing was home to dozens of Uyghur restaurants, specializing in the popular grilled food of their Muslim homeland, Xinjiang, in the remote northwest of China. But most have been forced to close over the past two years as the security clampdown has tightened.

On the 19th came "Africans in Beijing harassed as Olympics approach".

Chinese police officials have forced some Beijing bar owners to sign secret pledges promising to prohibit blacks from entering their bars during the Olympics next month, a Hong Kong newspaper says.

The police denied the report yesterday, and most bars denied any knowledge of the pledges. But many African residents of Beijing say they are facing harassment from police and discrimination from bars as the Olympics approach.

"Bar owners near the Workers Stadium in central Beijing say they have been forced by Public Security Bureau officials to sign pledges agreeing not to let black people enter their premises," the South China Morning Post reported yesterday.

It quoted the co-owner of a bar who said that a group of police had recently visited his establishment to order it "not to serve black people or Mongolians."

Africans and Mongolians are often perceived as criminals in Beijing. Until this year, a number of young African men were openly selling drugs in the Sanlitun district, and many Mongolian women were working as prostitutes in the city.

[. . .]

In a notorious incident last September, dozens of black people were detained by police in a raid on bars in the Sanlitun district.

Witnesses said the police rounded up all the black people they could find, up to three dozen in total, and beat some of them with rubber truncheons.

Grenada's ambassador to China filed a complaint to the Foreign Ministry, saying that his son suffered a concussion and needed hospital treatment after he was clubbed on the head by police during the raid.

Africans have been coming to Beijing for decades as university students or traders. But many were forced to leave China this year because of new visa restrictions that made it difficult to renew their paperwork.

In interviews yesterday, a number of Africans said they are facing discriminatory rules from Beijing's bars and nightclubs as the Olympics approach.

A woman from Liberia, who is co-owner of a hair salon in Beijing, said she was outraged when she visited a popular Beijing nightclub and found that the entrance fee for black people was twice as high as for other foreigners.