Beijing warned people yesterday against 'street politics' as the anonymous organisers of 'jasmine rallies' on the mainland issued an open letter to major universities calling for more gatherings today.
A commentary in the Beijing Daily newspaper, an official Communist Party mouthpiece in the capital, said: 'It is worth noting that at home and abroad some people with ulterior motives are trying to draw this chaos into China by using the internet to incite illegal gatherings, create problems and stir up 'street politics'. People are strongly against such a self-directed farce.'
The warning, published on the opening day of the annual meeting of the National People's Congress, called such protests 'behavioural art'. It said threats to social stability could bring disaster, and stressed the importance of stability to economic development. The warning has been widely published on Chinese state media websites. There have been low-key rallies in some mainland cities on the past two Sundays.
Yang Huanning, deputy chief of the Beijing Public Security Bureau, said he was confident that the security situation was under control. The bureau plans to hold a press conference on social stability at 2pm today, the same time that rally organisers have asked people to gather.
Security has always been extremely tight for the annual meetings of the NPC and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and the Communist Party has made maintaining stability a priority. Public security expenses surpassed those of the military last year, according to a report by the Ministry of Finance.
Beijing has mobilised 739,000 police officers, officials, security guards and residents organised into local patrols to guard against mishaps during the two sessions, China News Service reported.
The open letter to major universities across the mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan appeared on a Boxun.com blog yesterday. It said: 'We, as the organisers of the rallies, are also your peers and participants in the rallies, and we are your alumni and as young as you are.' The recipients included Peking University, Tsinghua University, Renmin University, Fudan University, Sun Yat-sen University and Xiamen University.