Tiananmen security beefed up
2004-04-19 12:20
Beijing - China said on Monday it is tightening security in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, just weeks before the 15th anniversary of a deadly military crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations there.
"Any activities affecting social order, public security and the environment in the Tiananmen area will be banned and penalised," the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing the need for "rigid control."
The report didn't give any details of the new measures, due to take effect on Tuesday. But it said they would create "an emergency mechanism for sound, stable social order in the area."
Security was already tight in Tiananmen Square in the centre of Beijing. Symbolising the heart of government power, it is patrolled day and night by plainclothes security agents ready to haul away any suspected protesters.
A portrait of China's communist founder, Mao Zedong, overlooks the expanse.
A military crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in the square on June 4, 1989, killed hundreds, perhaps thousands of people.
In 2001, seven people who the government said were followers of the banned Falun Gong spiritual group doused themselves with gasoline and set themselves alight on Tiananmen's paving stones. A woman and her daughter died.
- AP