As Party Congress Nears, Beijing Watches for Subversive Ping-Pong Balls

HONG KONG - Security in central Beijing can often appear quite ordinary - uniformed police patrols, officers moving about smartly on Segways, track-suited undercover men on the prowl, guards checking identity cards. The usual.

But with an important Communist Party congress set to begin Thursday, security measures have taken a turn toward the severe, perhaps even the ridiculous.

Ping-Pong balls, for example.

It seems that some running-dog reactionary capitalist-roaders tossed some table tennis balls out of taxi windows as they passed by Tiananmen Square and the Great Hall of the People, the setting for the 18th Party Congress. The balls reportedly had “adverse sentiments” written on them.

This dastardly act led to a warning memo that was posted on Sina Weibo, the Twitter-like service in China. The Associated Press reported Thursday that it was “unclear who issued the memo and its authenticity could not be confirmed.” It read, in part:

During the 18th Party Congress period, taxicab drivers are to be on guard for passengers carrying any type of ball. Look for passengers who intend to spread messages by carrying balloons that bear slogans or ping-pong balls bearing reactionary messages.

The authorities' solution to this security breach? Taxi companies have been ordered to activate the child-safety locks on their passenger doors and to remove the window cranks.

The Communist Party-affiliated Global Times newspaper quotes a taxi driver named Wang who confirmed the window-disabling order was tied to the Ping-Pong-ball threat. Some passengers, he said, also might “let go of a balloon which had leaflets tied to it.”

The order, issued by the city's transport ministry, was apparently being pretty much ignored: A Global Times reporter found that “only two of about 20 taxis seen at Beijing Railway Station, Dongdan and Xidan, all in central Beijing, had disabled the ha ndle.”

Bloggers and tweeters, of course, have had a field day with the no-balls and sealed-windows edicts. Some of their jibes are even printable.

This upcoming party congress is certainly a big one: The party will install the seven members of the Standing Committee of the Politburo, the country's most powerful body. And after grappling with any number of embarrassing scandals and challenges already this year, the party wants nothing further to interfere with a harmonious transition.

The Beijing Marathon has been postponed, as have various academic conferences and cultural events. ID cards reportedly must be shown to buy remote-controlled model airplanes and toy helicopters. Food carts have been cleared away from the Tiananmen Square area.

“At the city's five-star hotels,” reported Barbara Demick of The Los Angeles Times, “guests pounding away on the running machines and cross trainers can't do so to the patter of CNN or a number of other pro grams: The television sets are all fixed to state-run channels.”

“The relevant parties said it was not allowed,” said an employee at the Grand Hyatt's fitness center.

Ms. Demick also noted that the conservative TV host Yang Rui had a complaint about a new security measure that he encountered during a recent shopping trip: “I looked everywhere for a fruit knife, but I failed. So I asked the clerk. He said, ‘All knives are off the shelf before the 18th party congress.' ”

Hannah Beech of Time magazine also explored the cutlery ban:

An employee at Carrefour, the French grocery chain, acknowledged that her store in Chaoyang district was instructed not to sell knives a few days ago. She did not know when the ban would be lifted.

A Walmart staffer said that the local police station told the store that all “controlled knives” would not be allowed to be sold during this sensitive time. Customers who go to Walmart to buy cleav ers, which apparently are not “controlled knives,” will be able to do so only if they leave their ID information with the store, so that the police can track the buyers, if necessary.

Chinese citizens from outside Beijing - especially those coming to the capital to present legal grievances or petitions - also are being checked and turned away more assiduously during the congress period.

Louisa Lim of NPR recently reported about a documentary filmmaker, Zhang Zanbo, who found that train conductors are being given rewards for tipping off security officials about any groups of protesters or disgruntled petitioners on their trains. The going rate, Mr. Zhang said, is “$64 a head.”

Time did find one upside to new security measures that have kept delivery trucks from entering the capital:

Citizen reporters on Weibo say that the price of persimmons, which are ripening across the capital in brilliant bursts of vermillion, have plummeted because out-of-town buyers cannot drive their vans into the city to load up on the autumn fruit. Local farmers have had no choice but to slash prices; four persimmons can now be purchased for as little as 1 yuan, or 15 cents.