Every year, the strict security measures during the meetings of the Chinese Communist Party’s two sessions have attracted attention. On March 10th, the closing session of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) was held, and on that day, a journalist from a Hong Kong media outlet was prevented from entering Tiananmen Square because they were carrying a box of business cards.
According to a report from the Hong Kong media outlet “Ming Pao,” during the two sessions of the CCP, the journalist from the outlet carried a box of business cards with them every day, intending to distribute them during interviews. Almost every time they passed security checks at Tiananmen Square, they were questioned multiple times and reminded not to scatter or distribute the cards to tourists.
On March 10th, during the closing session of the CPPCC, the journalist from “Ming Pao” was stopped from entering Tiananmen Square because they had business cards in their bag. When the journalist argued that the cards were not dangerous goods, the police officer in charge of security checks stated, “Security checks here are not conducted according to regular procedures.” Eventually, the journalist passed the security check, but the business cards were “confiscated.” The security officer instructed the journalist to retrieve the cards after the meeting.
According to the observations of the journalist from “Ming Pao,” after the closing session of the CPPCC on the 10th, there was a spill on the ground floor of the lobby, suspected to be caused by someone accidentally knocking over a water cup.
At that time, during the clearing up after the meeting, four to five young male staff members in suits quickly arrived on the scene, wielding cloths to clean the spill on the floor. Some staff members bent down to wipe the floor, and a supervisor shouted at them to “crouch down and wipe,” directing everyone to expand the area and carefully dry the floor.