s, a security official said Wednesday, in a sign China's authoritarian government may allow some demonstrations during the games. Areas in at least three public parks near outlying sporting venues have been set aside for use by demonstrators, said Liu Shaowu, director for security for the Beijing Olympic organizing committee.
It was not clear how easy access would be to enter the zones. Liu and Beijing police would not say if special permission would be needed. A human rights campaigner criticized the move as cosmetic, comparing the protest areas to fishbowls, and Beijing has already refused visa requests for known foreign activists.
But the remarks were the first public confirmation that Beijing may tolerate a modest amount of protest at an Olympics that the government hoped would be flawless, boosting its popularity at home and China's image abroad.
"This will allow people to protest without disrupting the Olympics," said Ni Jianping, director of the Shanghai Institute of American Studies, who lobbied Chinese leaders to set up the protest zones.
Worries about terrorist attacks, both from international groups and Muslim separatists from western China, and about protests of any kind have prompted the normally vigilant government to impose one of the broadest security clampdowns in years.
Checkpoints ring Beijing to search vehicles. Visa rules have been tightened to keep out foreign activists. Police have swept Beijing neighborhoods to remove Chinese who have come to the capital to complain about local government misdeeds while known political critics and underground Christians have been told to leave.
A Beijinger whose restaurant was demolished in the city's Olympic makeover and who was jailed for trying to organize a protest, Ye Guoqiang, was taken from the Chaobai Prison on Tuesday to an unknown location, four days before he was due to be released, the monitoring group Chinese Human Rights Defenders said Wednesday. Police in Ye's old neighborhood said they were not aware of the case.
The overall effect is that while Beijing looks cheerful, with colorful Olympic banners and new signs, the city feels tense. Beijing residents complain about intrusive identification checks and restrictions on private vehicles. Some have dubbed the games the "no fun" Olympics.
Liu, the security official, said police were trying to strike a balance between the need for safety and the desire for festiveness.
