Police in Beijing Reportedly Seize 6 Student Protesters
Police hauled off six university students after they staged a brief protest at a government ministry in Beijing, Chinese sources said Sunday.
The demonstrators, all men who appeared to be in their early 20s, marched in front of the Ministry of Radio, Film and Television building in western Beijing on Saturday afternoon, according to the sources, some of whom witnessed the incident.
The demonstration defied a martial-law ban on public protests that was imposed in most of Beijing last May 20. It also violated a tough new law against street protests.
The sources said the protesters were students at the Beijing Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, one of the most active campuses in last spring’s protests. Their reason for demonstrating was unknown, but they carried two large red banners with white lettering.
One read, “Why Is China So Poor?” The other said, “Television Must Make People Happy,” possibly a sardonic reference to recent government exhortations to stress positive propaganda.
A stunned crowd of 200 to 300 people surrounded the demonstrators, according to the sources. They said police watched the protest for a few minutes and then hauled off the students. It was not known if they were formally arrested.
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