The Crackdown...Sometimes, the fact I live in a Communist country is very evident. While dining in a little restaurant close to my apartment today, the local police force came out in about three vans. They were armed with clipboards and serious faces.  They went from establishment to establishment tallying up things that weren't right with each restaurant or small store, leaving  behind fines and unhappy faces at each when they were done. I noticed a little scurrying in the kitchen of the restaurant I was in as the owner and his wife began to hide and clean things in a haphazzard way. The troupe of police officers made their way to where I was eating and entered with heavy looks on their faces. As they began to rummage around and make a general inconvience of themselves, I began to feel a little uncomfortable. Being the only foreigner in the city, I was sure they hadn't counted on my being there and witnessing the inspection. They made their way into the back of the restaurant and finally to the kitchen where they poked around a bit and talked amongst themselves. Now granted the restaurant isn't the cleanest I've ever seen, but the couple run a respectable place, and they have fantastic "Hwun Dwun", or these little pancake type things filled with pork and vegetables. The police confinscated the VCD player that was set up because the place apparently wasn't a liscensed entertainment venue. There are regulations you know. They then left, VCD player in hand, leaving behind a long list of things to be improved upon next time around.

This isn't the first time I've witnessed the impromtu inspections and harrasment of docile small business owners. Once, while I was living in Sichuan province, I was at the store. The police drove up to the little group of stores and started yelling orders to clean this and move that and why were boxes of fruit for sale lying in the middle of the sidewalk market style. The store owners frantically ran around to accomodate the orders given by the police, and once they drove off scowled at them in disdain. It's one thing to be an immune foreigner watching as all this goes down, but it must be quite another for the Chinese whenever they see the police roll up. At times like these I think to myself, "God Bless America", and quietly continue on my way.