Details have emerged in the Chinese language press within and outside the People’s Republic of China (PRC) about draconian security measures on the newly inaugurated Qinghai-Tibet railway. Though no major cases of sabotage are known on the railway, these measures underline the realisation amongst the Chinese authorities of the potential vulnerability of the project.
According to the critical ‘Boxun news’, and the Hong Kong paper ‘Daily Economy’, just before the new railway’s opening to the public, the Chinese authorities performed diverse drills aimed at countering potential “terrorist sabotage” on the stations and on the whole rail track. On 22 June 2006 for example, an “anti-terrorist manoeuvre” was performed at Lhasa Railway Station aimed at dispersing a crowd of thousands in case of a “terrorist attack” . Special entry and exit arrangements have been made to evacuate passengers in such emergency cases.
Along the entire railway line, the Military Area Commands of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) and Qinghai Province have reportedly deployed a security safety net with a contingent of up to ten thousand soldiers and civilians patrolling day and night. The Head Quarters of Qinghai Armed Police Force has assigned several branches of its force to safeguard the train throughout its journey.
Communication for security forces along the railway has been stepped up so that conversations on walkie-talkie are now possible on long distance. To this effect, China Telecommunication Company and China Railway Communication Company installed adequate communication equipment and communication stations every 6 kilometres along the whole railway line.
Within the train itself, security arrangements reminiscent of recent anti-terrorism measures in international aviation have been made. A news dispatch issued by the Ministry of Public Security on 3 July 2006 mentions that Public Security attendants are permanently on the train. Public Security Units from Beijing, Chengdu and the Qinghai-Tibet Railway have been selecting security attendants for the train since February 2006. More than hundred train security attendants went through “political, professional and physical exams” before qualifying. Beijing for instance sent 43 train security attendants who are said to be on average 30.8 years old and to have seven years of attendant experience. Thirteen of them have experience in leadership positions.
Security arrangements were inspected by leaders sent from Beijing shortly before the opening of the railway. According to a news dispatch of the PRC Ministry of Public Security on 1 July 2006, Zhang Xinfung, the deputy minister of the Ministry, arrived in Lhasa on 29 June 2006 “to instruct and bring into line the security work of the Opening to Traffic Celebration of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway” . Zhang and his party inspected Lhasa’s airport “immediately after alighting from the plane” , then continued with the road from the airport to the city, and then the Lhasa railway station and other security hot spots. They attended a meeting in the Public Security Bureau of the TAR to hear reports from the Ceremony Security Work Team. The meeting was attended by the leaders of all important local security agencies, including the TAR Public Security Bureau, the Regional State Security Department, the Tibet Military Command, the Armed Police Force General Branch, the Public Security Active Service, the Railway Public Security Organ and the Safety Protection Team. Zhang exhorted them “to put in lots of hard work” in the “newly emerged issue” of the railway’s security work, an “arduous task” which “must be carried out as a historical mission” . Zhang personally worked out details of the security work plan and requested the Public Security Organs “at every level to attach great importance to the future newly emerged security work and management of the railway after it was opened to traffic, and always be in preparations to meet any urgent need” .
One day after the opening ceremony, on 2 July 2006, Zhouyong Khang, the Minister of the PRC Ministry of Public Security and concurrently a member of the Politburo, a secretary in the Politburo Secretariat and a member of the State Committee, signed an order of commendation for “successfully handling security work” at the opening ceremony by the Public Security Organizations of Qinghai and the TAR, the China Railway and Armed Police Force on Duty.
Meanwhile, whereas these official activities and statements and cheerful pictures of the opening ceremony were widely publicized in the official press, foreign and independent press was handled strictly. A reporter from the ‘Daily Economy’ was stopped by police from taking photos of the station security facilities, and was told: “Your camera should focus on the people who are on manoeuvre but not on the internal parts of the building”. Few foreign correspondents were able to attend the opening ceremony in Lhasa. They were officially selected by lot. Those not selected who tried to attend anyway were stopped on their way to Lhasa. In a similar vein, the Foreign Correspondents Club of China published a survey on 6 August 2006 which criticized continuing harassment and obstruction of foreign journalists in China, and declared the country “unprepared to host Olympic press corp in 2008”.
