CHINESE police yesterday forcibly dispersed about 200 people who staged a rare sit-in outside the headquarters of China's Communist Party to protest against housing policies.
Dozens of police were deployed to prevent the protesters, mostly middle-aged and elderly Beijing residents, from entering the Zhongnanhai compound of the government and the party to voice their anger over what they complained were unfair housing policies.
It was the first time Chinese have been known to stage a protest outside the compound in the heart of Beijing since students demanding greater democracy held demonstrations outside the dark red walls of the heart of China's government in May and June 1989.
Those protests were crushed by the army in Tiananmen Square with heavy loss of life on June 3rd-4th, 1989.
The rare protest comes at a time when Beijing is eager to present a facade of stability, with security tight throughout the capital, fearing any incidents that would mar the smooth return of Hong Kong in just 11 days.
Hundreds of police surrounded the protesters, all employees of the Guanghua Wood Materials Factory in south-eastern Beijing, for several hours before forcing them to leave.
Each protester was grabbed by two police officers and forced aboard a bus as visiting dignitaries emerged in limousines from the tightly guarded government compound in the heart of Beijing.
One elderly man tried to get off the bus but was pushed back by police. A few protesters walked away to avoid being loaded on to the buses.
One of the demonstrators shouted: "I have no home to go to." "What crime have we, the people, committed?" another cried.
Police ordered local residents to return to their homes and urged curious onlookers to disperse.
The demonstrators had sat quietly outside the west gate of the compound, squatting under trees for about three hours, in their daring sit-in to demand that the government hear their grievances over the right to fair housing.
The protesters were angered when their employers at the Guanghua Wood Materials Factory, together with local property companies and district government officials, failed to explain why they had been denied access to new flats they said they had been promised three years ago, a factory official said.
They said that the Hongyu Real Estate Development Co had failed to honour a contract to compensate them with new apartments alter they gave up their homes three years ago to allow the site to be redeveloped.
"Hongyu appears to have violated the terms of the contract and sold their flats to private buyers," said an official of Guanghua Wood Materials, who declined to be identified. "This is very complicated," he said. "It is not so simple as it appears.
He said his factory was in negotiations with the developer, a company believed to be owned by the State Security Ministry that is responsible for internal security and the Chaoyang district government in eastern Beijing to try to settle the dispute.
Hongyu could not be reached to comment. The Chaoyang government refused to comment.