China

Safe From Harm

Yesterday morning in Kunming, two buses exploded, killing two people and injuring fourteen.  The attacks occurred on the same bus route, spaced sixty-five minutes apart, at 7:05 and 8:10 a.m.  What’s clear is that the attacks were planned; what’s unclear is by whom and to what end.

This, just two days after Beijing began the final phase of Olympic preparation: the even-odd car ban which reduced traffic above ground at the expense of creating chaos below; the use of Olympic car lanes which plunged regular lanes into traffic while leaving the Olympic ones completely empty; the stationing of two scent hounds and a metal detector at every entrance to terminal 3 at Beijing International Airport; the addition of three new subway lines—Line 10, Line 8, and the Airport Line; and the posting of Olympic volunteers in subway stations to assist confused tourists and laobaixing alike.

Do you feel safer?

The government’s campaign against anything remotely unsafe began early this year and has proven to be all-encompassing, touching on food safety, highway safety, the safety of venues outside Beijing, terrorism, and social and political dissidence.

Do you feel safer?

In June we saw the addition of X-ray machines in subway stops, but to this day the scans have been inconsistent.  Just the other day I was asked to scan my bag while entering Line 10 but when I boarded Line 2 in the afternoon with the same bag no one batted an eyelash.  As the Olympics near the scans could become more routine but right now the whole process seems haphazard, as if the guards were waiting for something to happen before they get serious.

After the attacks in Kunming, police reacted by setting up checkpoints on highways and tightening security at the airport and train terminal but somehow I doubt they will find the bomber, who was identified as “a short man in a black shirt and gray pants.”  Well, that narrows it down.

There are already checkpoints on roads entering Beijing, and airport and train security are as strict as they can be without being obtrusive, but is it enough?  There are too many people (not to mention men wearing gray pants) in China to search every single one, and even if you do, it will only create other logistical problems.  Imagine the lines at the subway if the estimated five million daily passengers during the Olympics all had to go through an X-ray and metal detector.  And yet, if you don’t do that, it would be trivial to smuggle in dangerous materials.  Somehow I’m not deterred by the signs depicting dynamite and guns behind a Ghostbusters circle-and-slash.

Sadly, people will do bad things if they have decided to; it’s just a question of timing and magnitude.  And the Chinese government, though I praise them for their effort, will ultimately be powerless to stop those who have it in their mind to destroy things, especially in small, anonymous attacks—unless they place X-rays and metal detectors at every bus stop around the city.

During the Olympics, the Chinese government has to keep people safe (if not for the people then for their own image), which almost always means tightening security, not taking chances, and limiting freedoms.  But after the Olympics, I hope that they will work on solving the problems that led to this anxiety.  You know what they are.

Benjamin Franklin once wrote, “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”  This implies that one can exchange liberty for safety, and so far, I’ve given up more than enough freedoms for the Olympics.  How come I don’t feel any safer?

© 2008 The Hypermodern.