From Beijing Boyce:
Tom Miller of the South China Morning Post reported today that bars in central Beijing have been instructed to not serve blacks or Mongolians during the Olympics:
Beijing authorities are secretly planning to ban black people and others it considers social undesirables from entering the city’s bars during the Olympic Games, a move that would contradict the official slogan, “One World, One Dream”.
Bar owners near the Workers’ Stadium in central Beijing say they have been forced by Public Security Bureau officials to sign pledges agreeing not to let black people enter their premises…
…The owners of five bars that cater to an international clientele in the Sanlitun area separately told me today that they had not been contacted by police recently about enforcing such a ban or signing a related pledge, though one said he had been asked several months ago to not serve blacks.
It is highly plausible that some low level cops have issued such instructions, especially with the current state of high alert in Beijing making officials and government agencies paranoid and very nervous about foreigners.
But it seems highly unlikely that anyone with any real authority would “secretly” plan “to ban black people” from the city’s bars.
The sources of the South China Morning Post are anonymous, and the paper does not seem to have any physical evidence to support the article.
Beijing Boyce did some further phoning around to speak to bar owners and journalists, and no one could find any evidence supporting the South China Morning Post story.