Beijing, Oct 23 (AFP) As China's Communist Party congressgot under way, nervous garment factory owners were on highalert, running lookouts to evade inspectors as they continuedto produce coats, jackets and button-down shirts in defianceof official orders to close.
Chinese authorities have taken extraordinary measures toprevent any disturbance -- including pollution -- from marringthe week-long, twice-a-decade meeting as businesses rangingfrom bars to factories were shut down.
Apparel producers were ordered to suspend work for themonth out of fire safety concerns, but in Dahongmen, one ofBeijing's last clothing manufacturing hubs, some factoryowners simply took their work underground.
"I can't possibly stop for a month, so I can only chooseto secretly keep on working," factory owner Yue Fang told AFPas half a dozen tailors churned out cotton-padded coats.
Yue is one of some 200 small factory owners based inDahongmen, some 25 kilometres (16 miles) from the Great Hallof the People, where the party's top leaders are meeting tohand general secretary Xi Jinping a second term when thecongress ends Tuesday.
Each factory had staff keeping an eye out for inspectorsweeks before the meeting kicked off, Yue recalled.
"I didn't even dare set foot in my factory -- I juststood watch in the wind and rain" for plainclothes officialsand police, she said, attaching tags to a mountain of fur-trimmed corduroy jackets in her workshop.
"It's been like World War II or something here," shesaid.
"As soon as the 'devils' enter the village, you quicklypull down the shutters and put out the lights. The whole towngoes black and you won't find a soul on the streets," shesaid, using a wartime slur for Japanese invaders to refer toCommunist Party inspectors.
But her business was raided a few days ago when shedropped her guard.
"They gave no explanations -- just swept through likebandits and took any clothes they saw," she said.
Zhang Jie, a 26-year-old factory owner from Hubeiprovince, decided to give his five employees time off ratherthan risk reprisals.
"As long as they don't like the look of you, they'll findsome infraction. It's pretty terrifying," he said.
In Dahongmen's muddy, unpaved streets, garment industryworkers lounged on damp sofas next to laundry hanging out todry in the smoggy air, killing time.
"We play cards, or talk about who made more money," saida 16-year-old button-hole maker surnamed Chen.
Elsewhere, a few other garment makers were also stilloperating on the sly.
In the nearby Daxing district, Yu Lizhan said over thesound of shears searing through silk that her companycontinued to cut clothes but had ceased manufacturingoperations, creating a backlog.
"There's nothing we can do. If they've made a decision atthe top, you can only follow along down below," Yu said as ahandful of workers sliced reams of fabric.
Liu Zhixin, security guard at a Daxing clothing warehousecompound, said the inspections were not purely gratuitous,given the frequency of factory fires in the country.
"They're after these smaller companies that are messier,more chaotic, and may not have the proper licensing," he said.
At a neighbouring warehouse, a logistics manager surnamedChen said packages could only be sent during certain hourseach day due to heightened security, slowing business.
It was also impossible during the congress to send anypackage to Tibet or Xinjiang -- both primarily ethnic minorityregions in the far west where Chinese authorities fear threatsto their rule.
Stacking unshipped packages higher and higher, Chen said:"What does the party congress even have to do with me?" (AFP)PMS.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.