China Law Blog

I think no one will ever know. We will never know the true number of citizens arrested in the name of Olympic security. Even if we do we will never know if they are a threat to the Olympics or to the Party in power. They will all be filed under "Olympic threat".

The Chinese have one saying One stone Two birds (一石二鸟). The explosion in Yunnan will only add weight to their reason for the crackdown on everything they want to crush.

I found the Chinese approach to the Olympics has stifled my enthusiasm for it so I've taken a break and will not return to China till the show is on. I also bought a Life magazine from the Rome Olympics which captures the spontaneity issue I want to blog about and will do.

I think a bit of both. After the Olympics, China will try to keep it up for a little while, but I a m pretty sure things will eventually go back to the way they were pre-Olympics.

Simple. You boost security when you feel insecure. I am sure Chinese officials feel very insecure right now, with all the protests and appeals.

Though I am not a big fan of using Chinese proverbs to prove larger points, I do think that the first commenter is correct about the "one stone, two birds" thing. When I read the article I was thinking about yet another proverb "sha yi jing bai" (sorry no chinese on this computer) means "kill one warn one hundred."

Basically there are a bunch of proverbs about the usefulness of sacrifice, haha. Personally I prefer proverbs of a more loving nature, like the one about the father bull and the baby bull, standing on top of a hill... however this seems to be a family friendly blog so I'll leave it at that.

sad. just sad.

More often than not the desired effect of security is to insight a feeling of safety among the masses rather than creating any bona fide safety measures at all. When people feel safe they become more confident in their government. Confidence = stability, and in China stability is the name of the game. This doesn't just apply to China either.

Take the United States for example. We went totally off of our rockers in 2001 to ensure that airplane's would be safe, or more accurately "secure." Why? Because 4,000 people happened to get killed that year in terrorist attacks involving airplanes. Nevermind the fact that every year in the US, 45,000 people get killed in car accidents, half of which are caused by alcohol. Airplane terrorism is a more poignant threat to our feeling of security than car crashes. Hence the hoards of airport security guards ensuring that my shoes are X-Rayed and my toiletries are all wrapped in a plastic bag. Statistically, we would be much better off if they were out busting drunk drivers.

I see a lot of evidence that there was a dramatic shift in approach on the part of the Chinese government after the uprisings earlier this year and the reaction to them abroad. Prior to that, the gov't itself had been driving and encouraging the commercialization of the Olympics, and were taking lots of measures that were plainly aimed at bringing huge numbers of foreigners to Beijing to see the spectacle. After the uprisings, everything changed, and many of the Chinese vendors who thought they had the support or at least tacit approval of the gov't were left holding the bag.

Much too convenient, the timing on all these recent "breaks" in cases involving Xinjiang "separatists", no???

Yes Kudzu Fire, some security measures serve mostly to improve the individual's feeling of being protected.

To Ben, Olympic security has been taken very seriously since the massacre of Israeli athletes in Munich three decades ago. A French friend was overwhelmed by measures he helped set up for the Seoul games back in the 1980s. Now reckon 9/11 into the equation. Any Chinese paranoia strikes me as sane and well-founded.

Lastly, Ben, the Lhasa riots were neatly timed to trouble folks' thinking right when they're planning summer holidays. Although Western media coverage failed to identify dead and injured as Han and illustrated the riots with pix from demonstrations in Nepal and India, the effect has so far been a 12% y/y drop in international tourism.

Have a nice day folks!

I don't know why I am surprised that there is no international outrage over the so called terrosit activity that has been happening in China of late. Why no one says "isn't it funny that all of the teeroist are from China?"

The media loves communism as long as it doesn't tread on their plans to report sensational stories to increase circulation.