When I read this article on the BBC news website, I have to admit I was a little surprised. Not by the fact that China was taking part in another political crackdown, anyone that knows a bit about China’s past will know this is not an uncommon event, but the fact that it was announcing it to the world. You really have to worry about a government when it is proud of its repression of peaceful protestors.

So what’s brought this on? Well the Chinese Communist Party will be soon be holding their 5-yearly party congress where they roll out their plans for China, and I guess they’re a little concerned that people might take advantage of the situation. They should be; if they’re announcing repression ahead of it, you just know they don’t have the best interests of the Chinese people at heart, let alone that of Tibetans.

One of the most interesting things about this announcement by Public Security Minister Zhou Yongkang about striking hard against “hostile forces” are the hostile forces he chooses to mention. Mixed in with the usual suspects you’d expect from any government, such as terrorists and religious extremists, are forces that are more peaceful than hostile. In particular he mentions “the Falun Gong cult”, which is a spiritual movement that has never been hostile to the Chinese government, only repressed by them. Guilty conscience perhaps?

But my particular favourite is “overseas and domestic hostile forces”. Surely he couldn’t mean us, could he? SFT’s recent non-violent actions on Mount Everest and The Great Wall of China couldn’t have rattled the cage of the most populous nation in the world, could they? Who knows, but the mention of “ethnic splittists” means that Tibet is definitely on the minister’s mind.

But I think one of the saddest parts of this crackdown is the eviction of 4000 petitioners from Beijing ahead of the convention. For those of you that don’t know, petitioning is just about the only way Chinese citizens have of voicing their disapproval of government actions and trying to push for positive social change. Many petitioners wait for years in poverty-stricken conditions to have their say, and now, perhaps when their voices most need to be heard, the Chinese Communist Party are even taking this meagre right away from them, as well as evicting them from their homes. Perhaps being reminded of the effect of their brutal and greedy policies is just too embarrassing for Hu Jintao and his cronies.