Chinese authorities detained several activists and boosted police presence in key cities Sunday, after an Internet call for demonstrations in the spirit of the pro-democracy and free-speech rallies that have swept the Middle East and north Africa.
Police in Beijing, Shanghai and 11 other major cities moved quickly to isolate rights lawyers and pro-democracy activists following the underground campaign for a so-called “Jasmine Revolution” – a term first coined by activists who toppled the Tunisian government in January. A small demonstration also was reported Sunday in Hong Kong, where activists gathered in front of China's liaison office building to demand that Beijing release its latest batch of pro-democracy prisoners.
Western analysts say many of Sunday's web postings appear to have originated on websites based outside China, operated by exiled dissidents. The sites urged Chinese protesters to shout out their demands for housing, justice, freedom and democracy.
Two arrests were reported in Beijing and in Shanghai, but there were no reports of arrests in other cities targeted in the web postings, such as Guangzhou and Chengdu.
China has resisted all Western calls to ease government controls over Internet use, and the Chinese Foreign Ministry warned the United States last week not to use Internet-access issues as a “pretext” to interfere in China's internal affairs.
The warning came after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered a major speech urging governments either to end Internet censorship or risk the kind of social and political unrest seen in much of the Middle East.
Within hours of Clinton's address, there were reports of a new round of Internet censorship in China. Searches for the word “Hillary” in Chinese were blocked. Officials at the U.S. embassy in Beijing said Thursday they were unable to post even information unrelated to Clinton's address on the embassy's own website.
Beijing routinely blocks access to websites of foreign news organizations, including VOA. Chinese Internet monitors also are able to selectively block keywords and searches on topics they consider sensitive.