Ghost town: how China emptied Hangzhou to guarantee 'perfect' G20

[garbon]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/05/ghost-town-how-china-emptied-hangzhou-to-guarantee-perfect-g20

The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, has wrapped up his country's first G20 summit by urging the thousands of foreign journalists who flocked to east China for the event to carve out a special place in their hearts for the host city.

And visiting correspondents are unlikely to forget Hangzhou any time soon.

In recent days, foreign journalists have been astonished and bewildered at how China's authoritarian rulers have managed to transform a usually bustling metropolis of 6 million inhabitants into a virtual ghost town to guarantee a trouble-free summit.

More than a third of Hangzhou's population were reportedly "convinced" to leave town as part of what Chinese state media called a massive exodus that saw cars forced off the roads and a seven-day public holiday declared.

Thousands of residents were ordered to vacate the towering apartment blocks that surround the conference centre where world leaders had gathered, to prevent an assault from above.

Dissidents were placed under house arrest or forced to leave the city by security agents.

And entire neighbourhoods were left deserted after migrant workers were pushed out of the city when factories and building sites where they work were ordered to shut down in a bid to cut pollution.

Foreign journalists have spent days trudging through Hangzhou's eerie and empty backstreets – anxious Communist party security agents trailing their every step – in a luckless quest to find interviewees.

Wu Yuhua, a 43-year-old DIY store owner, said he had decided to abandon the city after his customers, most of whom are migrant workers, stopped coming in the days leading up to the G20. "There's no business," he complained. "But you still have to pay the rent."

Li Yindeng, a noodle shop owner, told the New York Times she had been ordered to shut up shop. "They told us, this is a once-in-a-lifetime thing, and if anything happens while Obama is here, the officials could be sacked, so they said, 'Please close.'"

Forcing the masses to leave town has not been the only tactic employed to ensure that China's G20 debut, which Beijing sees as a chance to bolster its reputation as a great power, went off without a hitch.

A vast security operation has also been rolled out, with armed special forces guarding the entrances to the city and Swat teams policing intersections across town.

Some 760,000 citizen volunteers – many of them senior citizens in bright red armbands – have been deployed to keep tabs on the city.

Even in Beijing, more than (745 miles) 1,200km north of Hangzhou, groups of elderly "public security volunteers" can be seen milling around at bus shelters or lurking under trees. Since world leaders began assembling in China last week, they have spent their days gossiping about friends and relatives, while simultaneously keeping an eye out for potential terrorists and spies.

On Monday evening, Xi declared his government's mammoth effort a resounding success.

"You have recorded the exciting moments of China's G20 presidency," he told reporters who had gathered in this strangely empty megacity. "You have conveyed to the world the success of the summit ... [and] it is your hard work that has helped to seal China's mark on the G20."

Foreign correspondents left the announcement still trying to make sense of what they had seen.

[DGuller]

The good thing about authoritarian countries is that they have to waste tremendous resources on what amounts to self-sabotage.

[CountDeMoney]

How magnificently Chinese.

[Monoriu]

Well at least they'll get a few days of blue sky.

"Were ordered to vacate their homes" isn't the correct terminology.  The usual terminology is "were vacationed"

[HVC]

Ordered to go on vacation

[grumbler]

Well at least they'll get a few days of blue sky.

"Were ordered to vacate their homes" isn't the correct terminology.  The usual terminology is "were vacationed"

The writers at the Guardian are still using the fourth edition of the NuSpeak Dictionary.

[Monoriu]

Ordered to go on vacation

Yes, it is very common in China.  Whenever there is an important meeting, known dissidents are usually taken away.  When asked by friends and relatives, the official explanation is that the people in question went to vacation "voluntarily".  The Chinese internet community describes this tactic as "xxx was vacationed."  If xxx eventually died, then he would be "was suicided", since the official explanation would inevitably be that he offed himself voluntarily. 

[CountDeMoney]

"was suicided"

[CountDeMoney]

Gotta love how the Chinese are treating the POTUS;  like Mono's wife in a restaurant, showing her ass to the help.