Cloudy in Beijing Blogging about my time in China

Meeting squelched

Last weekend I was set to go to a public forum. Organized by preservationists, the event was suppose to discuss the protection of the city's Bell and Drum towers (pictured above), which are slated for a controversial restoration.

I was excited to go because it would be my first time attending such an event in China. But hours before it was to be held I had found out that the forum had been abruptly canceled.

Event organizers would only say the event was canceled for "various reasons" and refused to elaborate, acting as if it wasn't a big deal. But clearly more was going on, with other news outlets speculating that the police had forced the shut down of the meeting.

This shouldn't have surprised me. Protesting isn't really allowed in this country (though it still happens), and the government will often try crack down on dissent when it can, even hauling away activists to be tortured.

But in reflecting about this, I couldn't help but make comparisons to my time as a city government reporter Kansas. Back then I'd often find myself writing about development projects that would alarm and even anger city residents. But always the public had a direct line with the city to state their concerns, usually by appearing at a city council meeting. At the same time, the city process of approving the development projects was transparent, and the people involved were most of the time available for interview.

Here in Beijing it's completely different. There is no avenue for residents to express their views. Instead, such rallying of public support is apparently seen as a threat. All the while, the exact details of the development project are shrouded in secret.  (I remember calling the key developer behind the project, only to get the secretary who was surprised that I had found the company's phone number. I left a message, which was never returned.)

The group of preservationists is still hoping to stop or reduce the impact of the restoration project. In the near future, they plan on stating their views more publicly via the media; currently the group's leader calls the plan akin to building hotels in the Forbidden City.

Still, I find it strange and somewhat disturbing to live in a place where you have no say, and you have a limited access to understand what's going around you. The decisions are being made by people behind closed doors. This is way of things in China: capitalism without democracy. I suppose it's more efficient, with the government able to easily override certain obstacles to achieve its goals. As for accountability, I don't know. At times it can feel like it's the government versus the people.