Published on ShanghaiDaily.com (http://www.shanghaidaily.com/)
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2008/200808/20080807/article_369614.htm
Protesters told to head home
Created: 2008-8-7 1:53:05
TWO Americans and two British nationals have been ordered to leave China after displaying "Free Tibet" banners near an Olympic venue in Beijing yesterday.
Two were expected to leave late last night and the other two today.
"They disrupted public order and violated Chinese laws," the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau said in a statement issued late yesterday. "Their period of stay in the country will be cut short.''
The four, three men and a woman, entered China on tourist visas.
They gathered about 5:47am at the Beichen Overpass near the National Stadium, or Bird's Nest, in Chaoyang District in northeast Beijing.
Two of the men climbed up two electricity poles and hung the banners.
One banner bore large black letters declaring "One World One Dream Free Tibet," while the other said: "Tibet will be free" in English and "Free Tibet" in Chinese.
Local police rushed to the scene and took them away.
Sun Weide, a media official of the Beijing Organizing Committee of the Olympics, said: "We are resolutely against any attempts to politicize the Games."
Yesterday afternoon, three Americans staged a sit-in and shouted anti-abortion slogans outside the National Museum of China in downtown Beijing. The two men and a woman were persuaded by police to leave about 30 minutes later.
Two were expected to leave late last night and the other two today.
"They disrupted public order and violated Chinese laws," the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau said in a statement issued late yesterday. "Their period of stay in the country will be cut short.''
The four, three men and a woman, entered China on tourist visas.
They gathered about 5:47am at the Beichen Overpass near the National Stadium, or Bird's Nest, in Chaoyang District in northeast Beijing.
Two of the men climbed up two electricity poles and hung the banners.
One banner bore large black letters declaring "One World One Dream Free Tibet," while the other said: "Tibet will be free" in English and "Free Tibet" in Chinese.
Local police rushed to the scene and took them away.
Sun Weide, a media official of the Beijing Organizing Committee of the Olympics, said: "We are resolutely against any attempts to politicize the Games."
Yesterday afternoon, three Americans staged a sit-in and shouted anti-abortion slogans outside the National Museum of China in downtown Beijing. The two men and a woman were persuaded by police to leave about 30 minutes later.
Xinhua
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