The special zones in three Beijing parks were seen as a sign of the Chinese government’s willingness to follow the Olympic practice of providing a venue for peaceful protest. However, the official Xinhua news agency quoted an unnamed police official as saying 74 of the applications were withdrawn “because the specific problems were resolved through consultations with the relevant authorities or departments”. Two were put aside because of “procedural” problems and one was rejected because it violated China’s law on demonstrations, Xinhua said.
The admission follows the detention of prospective demonstrators by police. Activists dismissed the suggestion that protests were not needed because the underlying disputes had been resolved.
Deputy Head of the Beijing Games Organising Committee, Wang Wei, dismissed the accusations saying: “It’s all [down] to lack of understanding of the situation in China. China has its own style of democracy”.
