Tighter security marks 100-day countdown to National Day

• Source: Global Times
• [07:20 June 24 2009]
• Comments

By Lin Jiasi

Members of Beijing’s special police force, nicknamed the Snow Leopards, yesterday swear to safeguard the city during the celebrations for the country’s 60th anniversary. Photo: Xinhua

Security has been tightened across the board on Beijing's public transport system.

“There are more police officers and more security checkpoints on the subways,” an unnamed security guard at the metro Line 1’s Dawanglu station, Chaoyang district of Beijing, told the Global Times yesterday on the 100-day countdown to the country’s 60th anniversary on October 1.

“These days we use metal detectors to check people’s bags before they go through the X-ray machine, which means small- and medium-sized bags are checked several times before they’re allowed on the train,” he said.

“We’ve been told there will be extra security guards and police officers working (at subway stations) during the weeklong holiday starting October 1,” he said.

Two police stations will serve subway Line 4, which is scheduled to open in September, the China News Service reported yesterday.

An official from the Beijing Public Security Bureau declined to discuss the security plan for the capital on the approach to the anniversary celebrations, but the manager of a bus station in the city said that public transport workers were well aware of the roles they had to play.

“It’s our job to help keep the city safe,” Zhang Zhidong, manager of a bus station in Hongmiao, Chaoyang district, told the Global Times.

“Beijing handles a huge amount of traffic and during the holidays there are always lots of tourists coming and going, so it is essential that we conduct thorough security checks,” he said.

Cai Changjun, an expert in counter-terrorism and a professor at the Chinese People’s Armed Police Force Academy, said the scale of the security operation for the National Day celebrations will be higher than the one launched for last year’s Olympics, the China News Service report said.

The increased security will be necessary because of the amount of parades and outdoor activities involving the country’s top leaders, he said.

More than 100,000 commandos, police and army troops were deployed during the Olympics, the People’s Daily said on its website.

Earlier this month, the nation’s security forces were put through their paces in an anti-terrorism drill held in the provinces surrounding Beijing, in which they had to deal with attacks from groups armed with radioactive materials.