The World

By Geoff Dyer, FT China bureau chief

Now that the Obama circus has left town, the biggest sigh of relief comes from the group of people often labelled as China’s “dissidents”: human rights lawyers, serial petitioners and democracy advocates. Even though the US president went out of his way to be diplomatic about human rights issues and did not have any extra-curricular meetings with independent intellectuals, Beijing still detained dozens of people and put others under house arrest.

A lot of the press comment on the Obama China visit has been pretty negative for the president, pointing out how hard he found it to connect with Chinese people and how little he had to show in terms of concrete results. But China’s weaknesses were also fully on display, from the no-question press conference in Beijing to the unwillingness to broadcast Obama’s “townhall” meeting in Shanghai. Chinese confidence may be rising and the Communist party firmly in control, but the ritual locking up of dissidents suggests China’s leaders still look over their shoulders with some anxiety.

In truth, this was the latest in a series of round-ups of the awkward squad over the last 18 months, starting with the Olympics last year, Hillary Clinton’s first visit to Beijing in February, the 50th anniversary of the Dalai Lama’s flight from Tibet in March and the 20th anniversary of the June 4th Tiananmen crackdown. When it came to the October 1 national day this year – which was also the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China – many dissidents did not need to be asked and opted for a quiet holiday in the countryside. 

The interesting question is whether the end of this cycle of sensitive events will lead to a modest relaxation. There were high hopes, for instance, that the Olympics would help loosen up China’s political system a little but it could be that all these high-profile events have strengthened the more conservative elements in the system.  Beijing’s control-freak tendency is still deeply-ingrained.