Blocked protest, readings mark China's first Constitution Day
Mainland holds first Constitution Day to promote the primacy of the document but would-be demonstrators are detained by police in Beijing
The mainland marked its first national Constitution Day yesterday with readings at schools across the country, activities promoting the rule of law and the blocking of protests at Tiananmen Square.
The National People's Congress, the mainland's rubber-stamp legislature, last month designated December 4 as National Constitution Day to promote the document adopted in its present form on that date in 1982.
State broadcaster China Central Television showed footage of judicial employees swearing an oath to the constitution at Beijing's high court.
On Wednesday, President Xi Jinping said the constitution "guarantees the socialist path with Chinese characteristics", according to the state-run Global Times newspaper.
Schools across the nation were to hold readings of the constitution, according to an education ministry directive, and tables were set up on some central Beijing streets with posters and materials promoting the document.
Yet at Tiananmen Square, the vast public space in the heart of the city, citizens seeking to protest were blocked by police from doing so.
A middle-aged man was stopped and got into an altercation with officers at a security checkpoint after he tried to enter the square with a briefcase containing a pile of fliers.