There's Nothing Wrong With Your Life; You Just Need To Be Re-educated

[BPSCG]

Two Beijing residents were sentenced to a year of labor re- education after they applied for permits to demonstrate against their 2001 eviction from their homes, according to New York-based Human Rights in China.

Wu Dianyuan, 79, and Wang Xiuying, 77, went to Chinese police five times between Aug. 5 and Aug. 18 to seek approval to hold a protest during the Olympics.

Never let it be said that Chinese justice isn't swift. They committed their "crime" of trying to get approval to hold a protest only during the last two weeks and they're already off to prison for a year.

In response to international pressure, China said it would allow protests in three parks during the Aug. 8-24 Olympic Games. However, no one has been granted persmission yet. The police have received 77 applications with 74 of them withdrawn voluntarily and the three rejected, according to state news agency Xinhua.

Emphasis mine.

"Will you withdraw your request for a permit, or would you like to go to a re-education camp?"

Link.

 

[Safe-Keeper]

Three whole places of protest in a country as small as 9,6 million km²? I guess they ultimately ran out of space.

But yeah, I heard about this. Really sad, but maybe we should've seen it coming.

 

[Mashuna]

Could China have saved time by putting these protest zones inside the re-education camps?