China muzzles capital ahead of annual parliament

By Ian Ransom

BEIJING (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of police, security guards and volunteers patrolled Beijing on Monday to usher in China's annual session of parliament and pounce on the slightest hint of dissent in the Olympic host city.

As leaders from around the country gather in the Chinese capital for the National People's Congress (NPC) opening on Wednesday, authorities have left nothing to chance, demanding security forces regard the two-week meeting with the same urgency they would for the Olympics in August.

Police were out in force outside the Great Hall of the People, the hulking Soviet-era building abutting Tiananmen Square where delegates will meet and where the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, parliament's advisory body, opened its annual session on Monday.

Grocer Liu Xiang, 33, like many Chinese, can only guess at what the fuss is all about. "I suppose there's some meeting between the leaders," Liu said, weighing a bag of mandarins at a market a few blocks east of the square. "Who knows what they talk about? How would I know? I'm just a common person."

Beijing has called on People's Liberation Army troops, the paramilitary armed police, police, common security guards and urban management officials to fan out across city streets.

In and around Tiananmen Square, volunteers with their red arm bands stood watch every 100 yards or so in the bright spring sun, as huge red flags billowed from the buildings above.

More than 1 million volunteers are to stand at street corners and bus stations and patrol local communities "as a rehearsal for the Olympics", Xinhua news agency said. Their ranks would include 80,000 Olympic volunteers who would also "assist with urban beautification", the Beijing Youth Daily said.

All aviation activity involving "sport, recreation and advertising" within a 200 km (125 miles) radius of Tiananmen Square had been put on hold, the Public Security Bureau said in a statement to six provinces surrounding Beijing.