Potemkin Běijīng

Large-scale political meetings, summits, and visits by Olympic inspectors bring about such a transformation in Běijīng that it’s almost worth attempting to time a visit to coincide with them. Delegates see a city with freely flowing traffic, blue skies, and green grass, although on closer examination this may turn out to have been painted.

Walls are erected around unsightly areas, and construction brought to a halt altogether to reduce atmospheric pollution. Whereas one fifth of Běijīng’s cars are forbidden the roads on any particular day, for international events the number is increased to one half, keeping 11.7 million vehicles off the roads.

For the 2014 APEC meeting 10,000 factories in a 500km radius were shut down and a further 39,000 put on short time to reduce emissions. 434,000 cadres from Běijīng and six neighbouring provinces were employed to make sure pollution restrictions were adhered to, and for once actually did their jobs. 24 other officials were reportedly punished (none of these figures is verifiable) for violations and individuals at five companies were fined ¥350,000. The result was a sky the chat-rooms labelled ‘APEC 蓝’ (lán) — APEC blue. APEC stood for ‘Air Pollution Eventually Controlled’, it was suggested. Less welcome were a ban on firecrackers at weddings, the burning of offerings at graves, and a ban in chilly mountain villages north of Běijīng on the use of kàng (炕), brick beds heated underneath by burning wood or coal briquettes. The Chinese media dutifully reported on village stoicism. The annual start-up of more conventional central heating was also delayed in Tiānjin. The Lama Temple forbade the burning of incense brought from outside, only allowing its own, conveniently supposed to be less smoky brand to be lit.

A week-long public holiday was also announced at short notice, closing schools and halting the issuing of marriage licenses and passports, although as many as could took advantage of the bonus holiday to flee the city, also helping to make it much easier for the visitor to get around.

No kite or pigeon flying is allowed during big meetings, nor remote-controlled models, and there’s a cash reward for those who report their neighbours. Knives of all kinds suddenly become unavailable at shops, which may be just as well since central hospitals may refuse to accept patients with sliced fingers or indeed anything less than a life-threatening emergency, reserving their beds and corridors for dignitaries.

Deliveries are banned in the city centre during daylight hours including courier services and deliveries of fresh milk. Newsstands and food kiosks are cleared away to make the streets more tidy.

Security is heightened across the city, with new X-ray machines and document checkpoints set up, for instance at the subway entrances to Tiān’ān Mén Square. Clutches of police vans wait in side streets all around the centre of the city, ready to move at the first sign of dissent. Known dissenters have already been put under house arrest or moved out of the city, and petitioners who have arrived to pursue complaints of abuse by their own officials suddenly find themselves rounded up, moved into ‘black’ (illegal) gaols, and then escorted back to their home towns. Activists offering legal assistance to petitioners also end up under house arrest.

Taxis and buses on some routes are required to keep their windows shut (so no one can throw leaflets or petitions out of them), and ‘volunteers’ (reportedly ¥50 per day) ride buses to monitor passenger behaviour.

Foreign social media suddenly become accessible, but only at the event’s foreign press centre.

The time not to be in Běijīng is in the weeks after the bigwigs have left. There’s a lot of production to make up, and once the government can breathe freely, no one else can.

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