In response to a protest movement in Shanghai that is deeply infused with contemporary sentiment, police in China’s largest city have resorted to a 1950s communist thought control technique: extracting self-criticisms and confessions of wrongdoing from participants.
Among those targeted are the many residents—over 10,000, by some estimates—from the Jinshan district in Shanghai, who held rallies and protests outside the district government offices last week.
They were responding to rumors that a petrochemical company was planning to move a paraxylene plant to their neighborhood, which would produce toxic chemicals used in the production of plastics and fibers. Shanghai authorities claim the rumors are false, but cynicism with official pronouncements is by now entrenched.
Worried that their children will be harmed by the chemical fumes, which can cause eye, nose, and throat irritation, the residents took to the streets to demand the plans be scrapped.
Over the weekend in response, Shanghai police mobilized hundreds of police to herd the protesters onto buses, then taking them to a nearby middle school, where they were made to sign the statements.
“If the arrested protesters didn’t sign a ‘guarantee paper,’ they weren’t allowed to go home,” said Mrs. Wang, a resident of Jinshan District, to New Tang Dynasty Television, an independent Chinese broadcaster based in New York.
