Anyone else watching the riots in Beijing?

[DarkSim]

It's hectic! If anyone else lives in chao yang district near the jap. embassy please add your observations to this thread.

So far i can see:
Fire from a burning car
atleast 500 protestors
chinese swat teams
Some (few) military troops
lots of bottles getting thrown

Strange... Kinda scary since lots of japanese live at the same apartments as i do. Just hope it dun spread to here :S

for some reason it looks to me like the locals are enjoying this protest? Or is it just the military who seem to be drunk...

Update: Seems they just decided to move in the opposite direction from my apartments toward a local park. *phew*

[Alpharetta]

1. govt there approves this kind of demonstration

just as long as it's government-sponsored unrest, fine.

[Alpharetta]

2. White House is probably taking notes

How to sponsor ethnic cleansing race riots but continue suppressing political dissent

[acmejack]

3. Be careful!

Please stay safe! Thanks for the information, I will follow your thread here for updates.

[bobbieinok]

4. heard China is making sure Japan and others see the demos but

are not showing them in China.....wouldn't want many Chinese to start thinking about 'taking to the streets'

[DarkSim]

8. The chinese HATE japan.

if anything They want MORE people to protest. This stuff is on CCTV1 24/7.

[Kolesar]

9. or Bush will take credit for "democracy breaking out" in China

...because the Chinese saw the successful elections in Iraq in January. :shudder:

[DarkSim]

5. here in china it's pretty much

okay to protest against these topics in anyway you want:

Japan (anything goes)

The U.S (but not their companies and not their leaders or anyone in particular)

Women's rights (anything goes)

Urbanization (as long as no names are mentioned)

Factory conditions in the east (as long as you come from a good "working class" family)

Or well, atleast these i've seen them protest without any retribution.

[Baclava]

14. How much do the women cost there?

The Russian and Polish brides are getting kinda pricy...

[Taxloss]

6. Are you OK looking at a site called "Democratic Underground"

from a computer in China?! I know they've been closing internet cafes and cracking down. Be very, very careful.

[DarkSim]

11. i'm a diplomat ^.^

not a thing in the world they can do. Anyways, people think this country is much more authoritarian than it really is.

Foreigners are free to do pretty much anything here...

[Taxloss]

12. Write! Take notes! You never know, historians may need it!

And I mean on paper, for permanence!

And don't find yourself trying to explain "diplomatic immunity" to an angry mob ...

TAKE CARE

[rooboy]

7. Nothing on any of my 4 cable channels at all about this...

but I'd imagine the authorities can turn this stuff on and off at will.

[formerrepuke]

10. Very similar to the anti-U.S. protests in Beijing 1999 when the US...

(NATO) accidentally (and I do genuinely believe it was an accident) bombed the Chinese mission in Belgrade. The Chinese believed that the superior US technology was incapable of making mistakes- and that it had to be an intentional attack. Americans in China on business or leisure travel had to stay holed up in their hotels because of the angry mobs.

[CountAllVotes]

13. my father lived in China (Peking)

after WWII. He was disarming the Japanese and he loved China and the Chinese people. Stay safe!

:kick:

[NNN0LHI]

15. Non-stop Pope-athon here on my TV

Thanks for keeping us updated here. We used to actually have a free and open press here in the USA. It was great concept too.

Don