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In the run-up to the 20th National Congress, scheduled for October 16-18, the Chinese authorities have beefed up the security arrangements in and around Beijing and have been carrying out frequent security checks on buses and trains.
The objective of this exercise is to detain 'petitioners' and 'activists' traveling from other provinces to Beijing to seek redressal of their grievances by submitting petitions at the office of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Police have also been conducting regular searches at all guest houses/hotels to detain such 'petitioners/activists'. Submission of petitions is part of an administrative system to hear grievances and complaints. It is common for Provincial Government to request security authorities in Beijing to intercept petitioners who travel to Beijing from other areas and force them to return. Such detentions are aimed at preventing citizens from appealing at the CCP office in Beijing, because local officials face reprisals from party leadership if citizens from their areas seek redress in Beijing. Interestingly, in a rare public intervention, timed ahead of the 20th National Congress, the senior-most CCP veteran alive, Song Ping (105 years) has used President Xi Jinping's earlier phrase (2017) that reforms and opening up are the only path for progress and achieving 'China Dream' to rebuke him. Incidentally, this phrase was originally coined by former Chinese leader Deng Xiaopin but Xi has not been repeating this phrase now and switched over to his own economic policies such as 'common prosperity' and the 'prevention of disorderly expansion of capital.' By using the phrase, Song has signalled that Deng's reforms are to be defended at all costs, which is gaining traction on Chinese social media. Veterans, who are invitees to Congress, continue to pose a problem to Xi ahead of the event. Meanwhile, large numbers of students of Zhengzhou University in Henan Province, protested (September 28) within the University campus to demand relaxation of Covid restrictions/lockdown and allow free movement. Similar protests were earlier organized (September 24) by students at Chaohu University in Anhui Province. (ANI)
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