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BEIJING: Thousands of extra police have been deployed and checkpoints opened in Beijing ahead of the 60th anniversary on October 1 of the founding of communist China, state media said Monday.
Police manned hundreds of checkpoints at the weekend to monitor people and vehicles entering and leaving the capital, the China Daily reported, citing a top official with the special police forces, Wang Jun.
Thousands of security personnel have been tasked with monitoring key infrastructure installations such as bridges and railways, and patrols have been stepped up in Beijing's underground rail system, the report said.
Previous media reports have said the security clampdown will exceed that seen for last year's Olympic Games in Beijing, as authorities try to avert any disruption of the sensitive October 1 anniversary.
The tough measures have been prompted by last month's unrest in China's far western Xinjiang region, which the government said was orchestrated by Muslim Uighur separatists and left nearly 200 people dead, reports have said.
"Some of the threats, such as Tibetan and Xinjiang Uighur separatists, may not give up the opportunity (to disrupt the celebration)," Wang Taiyuan, a professor at the Chinese People's Public Security University, told the paper.
Beijing's police bureau plans to recruit hundreds of thousands of volunteers to keep an eye on suspicious activity in the lead-up to the National Day festivities, the China Daily reported.
On October 1, 1949, communist revolutionary leader Mao Zedong declared the establishment of the People's Republic of China from Beijing's Tiananmen Square, following a victory over Nationalist forces who fled to Taiwan.
- AFP/yb
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