CNN.com: China floods Beijing with security before planned protest

CNN.com: China floods Beijing with security before planned protest

When protests were slated to begin, two large street-washing trucks began slowly driving through the main thoroughfare, blocking pedestrian traffic and spraying water. Plainclothes police sat in restaurants and storefront windows for hours, observing the surroundings, while uniformed police officers forced journalists and onlookers out of the vicinity.

Lessons learned from the democracy protests in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya: Don’t let the people assemble and at the first sign of a protest, quickly crackdown with overwhelming force.