21.02.2011, 12:48 4462

Mass protest attempt in China failed

Attempts to organize mass protests in China have failed, Kazakhstan Today reports.

Almaty. February 21. Kazakhstan Today - Attempts to organize mass protests in China have failed, Kazakhstan Today reports.

An attempt to foment a Chinese "jasmine" revolution, following in the footsteps of Middle East protests, was quashed by authorities after a call to mount demonstrations against the government was posted on an internet forum, The Telegraph reported.

Large numbers of plain-clothed and uniformed officers were deployed in Beijing, Shanghai and several other Chinese cities after anonymous dissidents issued a call on Saturday to any disaffected Chinese to gather and chant slogans for freedom and democracy.

In the event, the calls appeared not have penetrated far into the consciousness of ordinary Chinese as the authorities censored Chinese microblogs, made pre-emptive arrests of up to 100 known activists and mounted a deterrent show of police presence on the streets.

In Beijing's Wangfujing shopping district, close to Tiananmen Square, which was the epicentre of protests in 1989, a few hundred people gathered in front of the McDonald's restaurant that had been appointed as the place of protest.

They were comfortably outnumbered by journalists, police officers and large numbers of undercover officers, according to those present. No slogans were chanted and no placards were raised, leading one online commentator to describe the event as the "revolution that never was".

The only overt act of dissent came from 25-year-old Liu Xiaobai who was stopped by police after he placed a white jasmine flower in front of the McDonald's restaurant and took some photos on his mobile phone.

In Shanghai and Hangzhou a heavy police presence was also reported by online users, however there were no reports of protests in other cities where people were urged to gather, such as Tianjin, Wuhan and Chengdu.

Despite the ineffectual nature of the call to protest, analysts said the swift reaction of the forces of control that underpin China's one-party state, demonstrated that the government in Beijing is taking no chances.

In a speech on Saturday, China's President, Hu Jintao acknowledged growing social unrest and urged the ruling Communist Party to better safeguard stability and ordered stronger controls over the "virtual society" or the internet.

Calls for people to protest and shout "we want food, we want work, we want housing, we want fairness", were circulated on Chinese microblog sites, BBC News reported. China's authorities blocked searches for the word jasmine on the internet.

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