Jittery authorities put on an overwhelming show of force yesterday in major cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, to quell possible 'jasmine' rallies prompted by a mysterious online call for peaceful protests for a second Sunday in a row.
Although more than a dozen people, mostly foreign correspondents, were briefly detained by the police and a busy shopping street in the centre of the capital was briefly cordoned off, no organised demonstrations were reported in city centres rumoured to be the gathering spots for pro-democracy rallies meant to emulate the popular revolts sweeping across the Arab world known as 'jasmine revolutions'.
Hundreds of police and plain-clothes officers lined Wangfujing, one of the busiest shopping areas in the capital, from early yesterday afternoon, along with dozens of police vans and dogs.
At least seven street cleaning trucks drove repeatedly up and down the street, spraying water and keeping crowds pressed to the edges.
Uniformed police, security guards and sanitation workers with armbands that said 'Public Security Volunteer' urged pedestrians to move along.
Despite the heavy police presence, large crowds turned up near a McDonald's restaurant on the street at about 2pm, as the anonymous posting that appeared on US-based Boxun.com urged.
