Beijing Letter: More protests are a bridge too far as China prepares for Two Sessions

The sentry was on his plinth, back straight as a plumb line and feet together in gleaming boots as he turned his head sharply to the right, back to the centre and then to the left in perfect tact. He was wearing a white Sam Browne belt over an olive green greatcoat with red epaulets and matching trousers with a yellow stripe.

The fur hat he wore the day before was gone, replaced with a peaked cap more suitable for this week’s mild spring weather. Beijing has more uniforms than Vienna in the last days of the Hapsburg empire, and they reflect the changing of the seasons like the leaves on the trees.

When I arrived last October, the sentries from the People’s Armed Police were still in shirtsleeves but they were soon wearing tunics, only putting on their greatcoats towards the very end of the year. Uniformed guards further down the pecking order, such as those who patrol subway trains in their belted navy tunics, baggy trousers and red armbands also go through seasonal changes.

One skinny young guard outside a building I pass most days often looks as if he is about to disappear inside the huge winter coat that comes down almost to his ankles

They are seldom as smart as the straight-backed sentries outside foreign embassies and major public buildings, and their uniforms are sometimes an imprecise fit.

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One skinny young guard outside a building I pass most days often looks as if he is about to disappear inside the huge winter coat that comes down almost to his ankles. He seemed more comfortable this week, however, in a brown tunic with a beret tilted downwards over his right eye like Greta Garbo in Ninotchka.

More striking than their new spring look is how many uniformed figures have been on Beijing’s streets this week. Police vehicles with flashing lights are parked on every other corner, and officers are patrolling every bridge in the city day and night.

Saturday sees the start of the Two Sessions, the most important annual meetings in China’s political calendar

Boarding a train to Beijing from Shenyang in northern China the other day meant passing through two layers of airport-style security, at the station entrance and before going onto the platform. After the second scan, there was a further check as security personnel opened every bag and went through all their contents, opening washbags and inspecting everything inside.

The reason for all this activity is that Saturday sees the start of the Two Sessions, the most important annual meetings in China’s political calendar. Thousands of delegates will gather at the Great Hall of the People for the meetings, which usually last around 10 days and will produce detailed policies setting the agenda for the year ahead.

The tightened security is similar to what Beijing saw last October for the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of China that confirmed Xi Jinping’s third five-year term as leader. The extra patrols on bridges this time are to prevent a repeat of the protest that made headlines a few days before the party congress.

A lone protester dressed as a construction worker placed two banners on Sitong Bridge in the city’s Haidian district, opposing the zero-Covid policies and calling for political reform.

“We don’t want PCR tests, we want food to eat; we don’t want lockdowns, we want freedom; we don’t want lies, we want dignity; we don’t want Cultural Revolution, we want reform; we don’t want rulers, we want elections; we don’t want to be slaves, we want to be citizens,” was written in red paint on one banner.

Arise! Ye who refuse to be slaves! Oppose dictatorship. Oppose authoritarianism. Save China with one person one vote to elect the president

The other called for strikes at schools and workplaces and for the removal of Xi, whom it described as a dictator, a message repeated over and over on a loudspeaker.

“Arise! Ye who refuse to be slaves! Oppose dictatorship. Oppose authoritarianism. Save China with one person one vote to elect the president,” the banner read.

Some of these slogans reappeared during last November’s protests across China against the zero-Covid policy, which was abandoned shortly afterwards. But the authorities are doing their best to ensure that there is no repeat of the bridge protest during the next two weeks.

Much of the focus of the meetings in the Great Hall of the People is expected to be on measures to boost China’s economy, as it emerges from three years of coronavirus restrictions. Among the measures likely to emerge are a loosening of lending rules for mortgages and relief for the troubled property sector.

Strategically important sectors in science and technology can also expect a boost, and there is likely to be action aimed at combating unemployment. And the Chinese media are reporting a restructuring of the internal security apparatus to bring it more closely under the control of the Communist Party.