The Wall Street Journal blog is reporting that Chinese authorities are responding with uncharacteristic restraint to various protesters who have popped up around Beijing during the Olympics, including Chen Dashan, who scattered copies of a letter he wrote to Hu Jintao on Tiananmen Square:
…As they tried to lead the 53-year-old protester away, the authorities displayed some of the new-found restraint they’ve been trying to show during the Games. Instead of dragging him off right away, they held Mr. Chen as he talked to foreign television crews and curious tourists gathered near the front gates of the Forbidden City.
Part of the restraint is certainly because the world’s attention is focused on China. The government can’t afford to look brutal when even the U.S. president is here, publicly calling for greater freedom of religion and privately urging Chinese leaders to help solve the ongoing conflict in Sudan, two of loudest complaints China’s critics have. Bowing to international pressure, China even agreed to set up authorized protest zones in three parks, far away from the main Olympic venues.
Several Christians who were deported after protesting human rights abuses on Tiananmen Square said police had bought them Kentucky Fried Chicken and even paid for the flights back to the U.S., according to the Associated Press.
See also this AP video:
