Beijing authorities imposed heavy security measures around the city’s Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery on Aug. 18 as the remains of former Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji were cremated, with police restricting access, rerouting public buses, and preventing people from gathering or taking photographs.
A Beijing-based journalist, who spoke to The Epoch Times on condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisal, said large areas around the cemetery were sealed off and that people were not allowed to gather.
Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery is Beijing’s resting place for high-ranking Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials.
“There were police all along the route [to Babaoshan], and buses were rerouted today. I almost couldn’t make it back today,” the journalist said.
He said police were also positioned out of sight near wooded areas. When he went to the area to look around, an officer told him, “There is no interview activity today.”
After the journalist moved to the other side of the road, he said police continued watching him. When he attempted to take a photograph from a pedestrian overpass, an undercover officer approached him and told him that he was not allowed to take pictures.
Chinese state media have not indicated that the regime expects large-scale public gatherings over Zhu’s death. However, the security measures around Babaoshan suggest the regime was taking precautions against spontaneous gatherings and unsanctioned media coverage.
Taiwan’s national news agency, the Central News Agency (CNA), reported that their journalist at the scene was questioned in a neighborhood near Babaoshan Cemetery and was told that no interviews had been arranged for the day’s ceremony. Officers also stopped people who attempted to take photographs, according to CNA.
Authorities Seek to Contain Public Mourning
The heightened security followed reports of spontaneous mourning for Zhu elsewhere in China.
After his death, people went to Zhu’s ancestral home in Changsha, Hunan Province, to lay flowers, where authorities imposed controls, according to Hong Kong’s pro-China outlet Ming Pao. Posts mourning Zhu on Chinese social media have also been censored.
Veteran independent Chinese journalist Gao Yu said on X that Chinese state security officials had barred her from publishing posts related to Zhu.
The regime’s approach reflects the sensitivity surrounding public mourning for senior CCP figures who may have become associated with different political eras or policy directions.
The death of former CCP leader Hu Yaobang in 1989 triggered widespread mourning that developed into nationwide demonstrations and ultimately became a major catalyst for the Tiananmen Square protests.
The tighter controls surrounding Zhu’s farewell ceremony appear to have prevented a repeat of the large crowds seen after Li’s death.
The Beijing-based journalist said regime authorities and state-controlled media appeared intent on moving past Zhu’s death quickly.
“After Zhu Rongji died, once today’s farewell ceremony is over, it’s turned the page,” he said. “Domestic media are all reducing the attention on this matter. Apart from Xinhua and other media outlets publishing reports, local media seem not to have given it much attention. They are reducing the heat.”
