The Ministry of Public Security announced today at a press conference that “large-scale mass activities” in Beijing would not be banned during the Olympics, according to Xinhua (Chinese version). I had no idea this was even an issue and it’s just as well the MPS has shown leniency when you consider Xinhua’s definition of “large-scale mass activities”.
“Large-scale mass activities refer to those events with more than 1,000 participants, such as sports events, concerts, exhibitions, fairs and firework displays.”
Glad that’s been cleared up.
John Le Fevre | 01-Nov-07 at 7:39 pm | Permalink
Thank God the MPS has clarified this situation. Now the opening ceremony can go ahead.
zhwj | 01-Nov-07 at 9:44 pm | Permalink
There was a Party/State Council directive issued in 2005 that supposedly would restrict Beijing-hosted international and national-level conferences, arts activities, sports events, and expos from April through July next year and completely ban anything not Olympics related from August through the end of September (link). The notice was was reiterated by the Beijing municipal government this past September; yesterday one of the business papers suggested that companies were basically dropping Beijing from their promotional campaigns in 2008 because trade fairs and branding activities would be prohibited (link). The briefing may have been intended to clear up misconceptions related to that.
Chris O'Brien | 01-Nov-07 at 10:25 pm | Permalink
Ah, reporting with zero context. You’ve got to love it. Thanks for that zhwj.
cat | 02-Nov-07 at 8:18 am | Permalink
According to AP, the PSB said:
“Any group or individual who stages a gathering, parade, or demonstration during the Beijing Olympic Games period must respect Chinese law,” Public Security Ministry press officer Wu Heping said. “As to those legal activities, police will protect them according to the law. As for those activities that are illegal, we police will handle them according to the law.”
China Youth Daily says the same.
Chris O'Brien | 02-Nov-07 at 9:59 am | Permalink
I know I should no longer be surprised but I do wonder what planet Xinhua is on sometimes. I had to reject the English story from this conference because, based on a translation of the Chinese, the only details were those that I posted above. The agency has a special knack for making the Chinese government sound stupid. I was trying to imply this in the original post but in hindsight I wasn’t anywhere near explicit enough.
John Le Fevre | 07-Nov-07 at 3:39 pm | Permalink
I actually thought you had achieved your aim. I just wasn’t sure whether the target was Xinhua making the government sound stupid or the government making stupid statements.
I’m glad that’s cleared up.
Still, a headline along the lines of “Government regulation limits opening ceremony to 999″ would have been interesting to see.