> http://chinhdangvu.blogspot.com/2008/08/arrest-threat-means-protest-p...
>
> Monday, August 18, 2008
> Arrest threat means protest park is for the birds
> John Garnaut, Beijing
> RITAN Park, the "altar of the sun", is one of Beijing's three official
> protest zones. But those hoping to witness a seething hotbed of
> subversion will be sorely disappointed.
> Yesterday, the old men had come to play their wooden flutes, old women
> to practise tai chi and young mothers to park their prams and chat
> away the morning — much as they have always done.
> Had they seen any protesters?
> "What are you asking for?" said a middle-aged woman, upset that we had
> interrupted her view of the old men who had gathered to play a jaunty
> rendition of Auld Lang Syne. "This is our place to play."
> A security official at the main park gate laughed at the mere mention
> of a protest.
> "Of course we haven't had any protests," she said, without giving her
> name. "Protesters have to apply to the Public Security Bureau for ...