Beijing: Police detained at least four protesters near the venue of China’s annual parliament Saturday and demanded that a DPA reporter delete photographs of the arrests.
Police swooped after a strongly built, middle-aged man tried to force his way past an officer from the paramilitary People’s Armed Police who was guarding the northeastern entrance to Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.
As other Armed Police, uniformed city police and plainclothes officers rushed over to drag away the man, another man shouted out and a woman nearby held up a sheet of paper facing a reporter from DPA.
The three protesters were quickly lifted off the ground and carried to a police van by at least a dozen officers as the reporter took several photographs of the incident.
An Armed Police officer then grabbed the reporter by the arm and ushered him over to other uniformed and plainclothes officers.
After 15 minutes of questioning, the police demanded that the reporter delete photographs of the incident or face a formal investigation.
It was not clear why the three were protesting or if they were together.
A witness told DPA that police arrested a fourth protester who briefly held up a placard near Tiananmen Square, saying: “Communist Party, step down!”
The annual National People’s Congress opened Saturday at the Great Hall of the People on the western side of Tiananmen Square.
The 10-day event takes place amid heavy security and continuing online calls for peaceful anti-government “strolls” every Sunday.
In his “state of the nation” speech at the Congress, Premier Wen Jiabao admitted that his government had “not yet fundamentally solved a number of issues that the masses feel strongly about”.
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