Government Clears the Air in Run-Up to 50th Anniversary of Communist Rule

As China prepares for the 50th anniversary of Communist rule, the government has decreed a breath of fresh air for the festivities.

To achieve this, the Communist leadership will shut down 25 of Beijing’s largest soot-spewing factories from Sept. 21 through the Oct. 1 anniversary--and will also ban polluting vehicles and garbage burning. After the anniversary, Beijing will resume its No. 3 ranking on the World Health Organization’s list of the 10 most polluted cities on Earth.

As part of the campaign to spruce up Beijing for the anniversary celebration, gardeners and soldiers have been laying strips of sod along major thoroughfares, as well as in Tiananmen Square--where numerous brass plaques remind curious pedestrians to stay off the turf.

After a summer of nonstop bulldozing and jackhammering in the capital, block after block of hulking, futuristic, glass-and-steel structures have emerged along Beijing’s wide main boulevards, further obliterating traces of the city’s traditional architecture and lifestyles.

The 50th-anniversary building frenzy--with a new subway line and airport terminal nearing completion--coincides with Beijing’s efforts to jump-start the country’s deflation-plagued economy through massive infrastructure spending. Beijing alone is devoting more than $13 billion to nearly 70 major projects to be completed before Oct. 1.

China’s rulers are sparing no expense and taking every precaution to prepare for a day of political pageantry that will mark their place in history.

In particular, President Jiang Zemin will try to wield powerful symbols of political authority and continuity on the anniversary by speaking from atop the Gate of Heavenly Peace, then reviewing a massive military and civilian parade of half a million people passing through Tiananmen Square, much as predecessors Mao Tse-tung and Deng Xiaoping did.

As Chinese who have lived through decades of political campaigns know, just as people are mobilized for events, events are also for mobilizing people, allowing the government to briefly reassert control over the country’s increasingly mobile and diverse society.

In the run-up to the anniversary, a nationwide dragnet has netted more than 100,000 fugitives, according to the official New China News Agency. A recent police raid on Beijing brothels nabbed about 400 prostitutes and their clients. Homeless people and beggars, who often accost pedestrians in business districts, have been banished from the city.

Also in Beijing, authorities gave migrant workers without documentation until next Thursday to get out of town or face deportation. “The police came in yesterday and started rounding people up,” said one ethnic Uighur entrepreneur who lives in an enclave of migrants from the largely Muslim Western region of Xinjiang. “They didn’t ask any questions. They just grabbed people and packed them off.”

Non-Beijing residents will be banned from entering the capital without special permission.

As the anniversary draws near, officials have closed central areas of the city to traffic to allow the parade to be rehearsed in secret. They have also ordered hotels, offices and other buildings directly overlooking the parade route to be vacated during the military procession.

Mobile phone and pager networks will be shut down for part of the parade so as not to interfere with the communications of the 130 military aircraft expected to buzz Tiananmen Square.

More than 10,000 People’s Liberation Army troops are set to march in the parade, along with an assortment of military hardware. China’s latest intercontinental ballistic missile, theoretically capable of hitting Los Angeles with a nuclear warhead, will probably be displayed, according to the official New China News Agency.

On the civilian side, the parade will include 90 huge floats and 140,000 marchers, representing different sectors of society, from ethnic minorities and newlyweds to entrepreneurs and people with disabilities.

Organizers say the parade is supposed to depict three historical phases: the founding of the People’s Republic under Mao, the reform period of Deng and China’s march into the 21st century under Jiang.

Any references to the decades of disastrous Maoist political campaigns, such as the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution, are conveniently absent.

“I hope foreigners understand that these celebrations are genuine and heartfelt,” said a People’s University journalism student rehearsing on campus for the parade.

Genuinely moved or not, would-be participants still had to undergo two political checks to ensure their reliability.

The second check was specifically to weed out members of the recently banned Falun Gong spiritual group, according to parade participants.