People who dare to wear a Halloween costume on the subways of Beijing will be arrested. According to a state-run newspaper, Beijing News, Beijing police are worried that such “fancy dress or scary make-up” may cause crowds to create “trouble and panic.” Why so paranoid? Halloween isn’t even a big deal in China.
Beginning on Saturday, November 1, the city is ramping up security for next month’s meeting of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders. The city is preparing for it the way they prepared for the Beijing Olympics in 2008. They imposed strange rules then, too. No one was allowed to eat outdoors – they wanted to present a “civilized” image to the outside world.