BEIJING—October 16 marks the second day of the Chinese Communist Party’s 17th National Congress. The area surrounding Beijing’s Tiananmen Square remains on high alert. While the military and plainclothes police patrolled the area throughout the day, passersby tried to keep a low profile.
A Chinese woman just returned from Japan to Beijing on October 13. She went to Tiananmen Square on October 16 for sightseeing, but she was not allowed to enter. All the entrances to Tiananmen Square were blocked by the Chinese police. The police at Tiananmen Square actually outnumbered the tourists today.
According to the woman, she went to Tiananmen Square yesterday and saw a few Chinese people arrested for their attempt to appeal to the Chinese government at Zhongnanhai (the CCP government’s headquarters in Beijing) to seek justice. Today she didn’t see any protesters on Tiananmen Square. According to this woman, the area was packed with police and their vehicles.
