Arab revolts give impetus to Chinese workers and youth fighting for their rights

Honda workers striking for their rights in China

How the world has changed and how small it has become.  We have seen the massive protests that have occurred in North Africa and the Middle East and how a young man setting fire to himself in Tunisia set off revolutions in two continents.  Numerous US supported and armed dictators have fallen, Mubarak, Ben Ali, possibly the absolute monarchies in Bahrain and now most likely Gaddafi.

The revolutions have even influenced the working class and youth in the USA as  protesters in Madison Wisconsin have held signs referring to the struggles of our brothers and sisters in the Middle East and Asia.  We reported on this blog a week or so ago how the Chinese bureaucracy "banned" the word "Egypt" from their search engines for fear that the uprisings there might influence the Chinese masses.

Now it turns out that an online campaign for protests has brought a "heavy" response from the Chinese authorities and police according to Radio Free Asia

Social networking sites have been calling for pro-democracy protests for the second Sunday in a row  appealing to the population to protest and push the Communist Party for greater openness and more democracy. The call was put out asking people to "emulate" the revolution in Tunisia but was banned in China, blocked by the censors.

Radio Free Asia:
Water trucks
In Beijing, police closed off both ends of the Wangfujing shopping street and checked those who entered. Water trucks were sent down the street repeatedly to spray the pavement, pushing pedestrians to the side and preventing crowds from gathering.

Men in sanitation uniforms with armbands that said "Public Security Volunteer" used brooms to sweep pedestrians along, Reuters said.

Foreign journalists were followed and those with cameras were blocked from entering the Wangfujing area, a short walk from heavily policed Tiananmen Square, the scene of huge pro-democracy demonstrations in 1989 that were crushed by the army.

An American news videographer was kicked and beaten repeatedly in the face with brooms and taken into police custody, witnesses said. Severeal other reporters were also detained by police and roughed up.

In Shanghai, police bundled away at least seven men, one of whom had been taking photos. Reuters TV filmed several policemen forcing a man in a brown jacket into a Public Security Bureau van, while other police held up an umbrella to block the view.

AFP reported that some Chinese were seen being taken away in three police vans but it could not confirm their identities or why they were removed.

The protesters are demanding more openness in government and more accountability to the people to prevent abuse.  The Chinese autocratic leaders respond very severely to any signs of opposition to its one-party rule.