China pre-empts protests with warnings, crackdown

Using its official mouthpiece, China today warned its people not to heed calls to emulate protests that have rocked the Middle East and North Africa, warning that any threats to Communist Party-led stability could bring "disaster".

This was the government's most public warning yet against calls for Middle East-inspired pro-democracy protests that have spread from an overseas Chinese website, triggering tighter censorship, intense security in Beijing and new restrictions on foreign reporters.

The commentary in the Beijing Daily newspaper signalled that China's security crackdown would not let up. "Everyone knows that stability is a blessing and chaos is a calamity," said the newspaper, which is the organ of the Communist Party administration for Beijing.

The warning came on the same day as the opening of China's annual parliament in the capital, where Premier Wen Jiabao warned that inflation could corrode social stability.

Police smothered any weekend protests before they had a chance of forming, and some foreign reporters who went to the scene of the would-be gathering on the Wangfujing shopping street in downtown Beijing were beaten up.

But the commentary told citizens to beware. Hard-won order was at stake, it said.