The Chinese Communist Party’s paranoia is on full display for its congress in Beijing in a security squeeze extending from police swarming Tiananmen Square to elderly sentinels watching street corners.
The capital has 1.4 million “public order volunteers” – retirees, street cleaners, firemen and low-paid private security guards – on the lookout for anything that could upset the sensitive gathering, even in the quietest residential neighbourhoods.
But despite their patriotic armbands, many grumble about being roped in as foot soldiers for China’s massive police state.
“Volunteer? They made me volunteer,” said Zhang Weilin, 25, a security guard at a central Beijing shopping mall who wore a camouflage jacket bearing a “US Army Airborne” patch and that was a size or two too large.
“My security company gave us the uniforms and made all of us (other security guards) volunteer during the congress,” he said.
Increasingly worried about rising social unrest and acutely aware of public unhappiness over a lack of democracy, Chinese authorities have dramatically escalated the state security apparatus under President Hu Jintao.