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Guangzhou uses PR to nip protests in the bud

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Guangzhou's top leaders have launched a rare, large-scale reception to listen to petitioners' complaints in an apparent publicity campaign to ease social tension ahead of the Asian Games.

Guangzhou Communist Party secretary Zhang Guangning, Mayor Wan Qingliang, city People's Congress Standing Committee director Zhang Guifang and Lin Yuanhe, chairman of the city committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, led 21 other senior officials in the reception at the Liuhua Exhibition Centre in Yuexiu district. Local media reported that 3,978 complaints had been reported by petitioners on Monday.

The city's major newspapers gave front-page coverage to Monday's reception, praising the city leaders and featuring petitioners' joy as they were promised solutions to their problems.Guangzhou held the first such large-scale reception in June 2008, which was also led by Zhang Guangning, mayor at the time.

Activist lawyer Tang Jingling said the large reception two years ago failed to work, and this year's reception was just a tactic to delay protests until the Asian Games were over.

'This is just a move to tame long-accumulated public anger by giving petitioners the hope that their problems could be resolved if higher-ranking officials were there to process their cases. But this is not how it works in China,' Tang said.

He said petitioners were told to wait until further notice after submitting their cases, and that this would help to delay riots or demonstrations until after the Asian Games. Petitioners began queuing in front of the exhibition centre on Sunday hoping to meet the city's party boss.

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