{"id":75829,"date":"2017-08-08T15:19:00","date_gmt":"2017-08-08T15:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/127.0.0.1:10081\/?p=75829 "},"modified":"2017-08-08T15:19:00","modified_gmt":"2017-08-08T15:19:00","slug":"75829-revision-v1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/?p=75829","title":{"rendered":"China Orders Businesses to Close, Sets up Checkpoints Ahead of BRICS Summit"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">2017-08-08<\/span><\/div><div><\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/mzzg.org\/UploadCenter\/ArticlePics\/2017\/31\/201788image(6).jpg\" alt=\"201788image(6).jpg (523&#215;294)\" \/><br \/><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">The southeastern Chinese port city of Xiamen is getting a facelift and its residents face onerous security restrictions ahead of he Sept. 3-5 summit of BRICS leaders.<\/span><\/div><div><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Photo courtesy of an RFA listener.<\/span><\/div><div><\/div><div><\/div><div><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Authorities in the southeastern Chinese city of Xiamen have ordered small guesthouses to stop taking in guests in a city-wide security operation ahead of a new Silk Road summit in September, local residents told RFA on Tuesday.<\/span><\/div><div><\/div><div><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Police in Xiamen, which will hold the ninth summit of large developing BRICS countries &#8212; Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa &#8212; from Sept. 3-5, have ordered business owners to put such businesses on hold until well after the meeting, a guesthouse employee said.<\/span><\/div><div><\/div><div><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;You can&#8217;t [book a room here],&#8221; the employee said. &#8220;I don&#8217;t know the exact details, but you probably can&#8217;t until October; no privately run guesthouses are being allowed to operate now.&#8221;<\/span><\/div><div><\/div><div><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;They sent us a directive ordering us to close.&#8221;<\/span><\/div><div><\/div><div><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">A Xiamen resident surnamed Zhang said traffic controls are also being implemented across the city ahead of the summit.<\/span><\/div><div><\/div><div><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;Everywhere you go, it&#8217;s all messed up,&#8221; he said. &#8220;The traffic wasn&#8217;t too bad before, but now they have put in diversions everywhere, as well as blocked off some streets entirely.&#8221;<\/span><\/div><div><\/div><div><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;The entire population is being put out by this, and yet the whole thing, this new Silk Road, is all about the government and its pursuit of profit,&#8221; Zhang said. &#8220;It has nothing to do with ordinary people. What benefit will we get out of it?&#8221;<\/span><\/div><div><\/div><div><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Massive public works<\/span><\/div><div><\/div><div><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">A business owner surnamed Yang said her business has been hard hit by massive public works aimed at sprucing up the city for the summit.<\/span><\/div><div><\/div><div><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;It is having a huge impact,&#8221; she said. &#8220;They haven&#8217;t bothered with it for so long, and now my customers are being inconvenienced.&#8221;<\/span><\/div><div><\/div><div><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;The government hasn&#8217;t compensated business owners for any of this.&#8221;<\/span><\/div><div><\/div><div><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">And a resident surnamed Wang said there is a strong police presence on the city&#8217;s streets.<\/span><\/div><div><\/div><div><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;It seems as if there are security personnel in the [inner] lane who are subjecting passing cars to stringent security checks, so there are fewer cars about on the streets,&#8221; Wang said.<\/span><\/div><div><\/div><div><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Xiamen-based rights activist Pan Xidian said local police had issued him with a verbal warning not to &#8220;give shelter&#8221; to any activists from out of town.<\/span><\/div><div><\/div><div><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;There are very tight security requirements as the &#8230; BRICS summit approaches,&#8221; Pan said. &#8220;I heard that they are checking all vehicles from out of town, pulling them into checkpoints, stopping and searching them.&#8221;<\/span><\/div><div><\/div><div><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;All roads in and out [of the city] are being checked, as well as the tunnel [to Gulangyu Island].&#8221;<\/span><\/div><div><\/div><div><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Complaints from Xiamen residents were also visible online, in spite of government censorship targeting any comments critical of the ruling Chinese Communist Party.<\/span><\/div><div><\/div><div><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Dogs under threat?<\/span><\/div><div><\/div><div><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">One online comment said courier services have also been suspended within the city, out of security concerns.<\/span><\/div><div><\/div><div><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;The police came to our door and told us to shut down all operations for one month,&#8221; the commentator said. &#8220;This is a total slap in the face.&#8221;<\/span><\/div><div><\/div><div><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Residents in housing compounds are also being ordered to get rid of their dogs, the comment said.<\/span><\/div><div><\/div><div><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;If they don&#8217;t do it, then the authorities will come and do it for them, so don&#8217;t tell me this BRICS summit doesn&#8217;t affect local people,&#8221; the comment said.<\/span><\/div><div><\/div><div><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Another online comment hit out at a requirement that the entire population living within two kilometers of the summit venue is being forced to vacate their homes.<\/span><\/div><div><\/div><div><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;The guesthouses have been shut down, and the hotels have ratcheted up their prices, and anyone staying in a room has to go through ID checks,&#8221; the second comment said.<\/span><\/div><div><\/div><div><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Other comments said the roadblocks had made it impossible to order a takeout.<\/span><\/div><div><\/div><div><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;Didn&#8217;t they promise that BRICS wouldn&#8217;t be a burden on ordinary people?&#8221; a third comment complained. &#8220;They are fixing the roads right through the night, and the noise is so loud. How do they expect people to get any rest?&#8221;<\/span><\/div><div><\/div><div><\/div><div><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rfa.org\/english\/news\/china\/brics-xiamen-08082017123914.html\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">For detail please visit here<\/span><\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&lt;div&gt;Police in Xiamen, which will hold the ninth summit of large developing BRICS countries &#8212; Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa &#8212; from Sept. 3-5, have ordered business owners to put such businesses on hold until well after the meeting, a guesthouse employee said.&lt;\/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;\/div&gt;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ChinaHumanRights","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=75829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75829\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=75829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=75829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=75829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}