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Like a War Zone

2010. 14 April

Chinese security personnel train at the site of the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai on April 7. Expo organizers expect up to 100 million people, 95 percent of them Chinese, to visit the six-month-long World's Fair, which begins May 1. (PHILIPPE LOPEZ/AFP/Getty Images)

by Li Jing

(theepochtimes.com) As the grand opening of the Shanghai World Expo nears, the city has been put on high alert. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Command Group for the Shanghai World Expo, established in March, has launched an all-out security effort by land, sea, and air, according to a report on April 12 by Hong Kong’s Apple Daily.

Shanghai authorities have amplified efforts to upgrade security measures throughout the city, ever since regime leader Hu Jintao called on the Chinese people in January to “pool their strength and resources to ensure the success of the Shanghai World Expo.”

Armed police and snipers have been dispatched locally to closely monitor the activities of passersby, vehicles, and boats.

Apple Daily reported that the PLA has adopted the same level of security measures used in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Two surface-to-air missile launchers equipped with the latest Russian-made S300PMU2 long-range missiles, China’s own Early Warning Aircrafts, the J-11 and J-8 Fighter Aircrafts, and helicopters have also been on standby. Just offshore, the navy has also dispatched two guided missile frigates.

Chinese bloggers have commented that it’s as though a war is about to break out, describing the effect as “simply horrifying.”

‘Security Moat’


Authorities in Shanghai and Zhejiang Province have combed through over 1,000 local deserted islands since early this year, running security and registry checks on 30,000 boats and 220,000 fishermen. While the Expo is in progress, vehicles entering the city will be checked and boats will need security passes. Internal security analysts say that a “Shanghai security moat” has been successfully installed.

Authorities have prohibited unauthorized, slow, or low altitude operations in the air within the 30-mile radius of the city square where the opening ceremony will be held.

Local authorities have dispatched 3,500 policemen to undergo training within the Expo compound. The policemen were told to refrain from eating garlic, green onions, Chinese chive, or any other food with a strong odor prior to being on duty, according to a Beijing News report on April 13.

The Apple Daily reported that 300 security guards have been dispatched to 89 security-check points, at intervals of every 30 meters, set up at the north and south ends of the train station square, to ensure that no one sleeps out in the open and that no peddlers solicit or harass pedestrians. Beginning April 20, all vehicles entering the Shanghai Train Station and main bus station will be photographed and checked by X-ray, including passengers. Visitors’ bags will also be searched.

Mental Health Precautions


Authorities have also instructed all hospitals and rehabilitation centers to prohibit mental patients from checking out of hospitals. Those ready for discharge will be held until after the Expo concludes at the end of October. Police have been picking up mental patients who live with their families and sending them away to “protect” them, Apple Daily reported.

A partial list of restrictions during the Expo includes: no wearing of pajamas on the street; no hanging and drying clothes outdoors; no cellular phones in the Expo compound; no computers with wireless networks in the Expo compound; no foreigners on the street after 11 p.m.

Read the original Chinese article.