So it should come as no surprise that the fantastical Shanghai Expo is being preceded by a massive "special crackdown" to clean up the city. In the past few months, "more than 30,000 police officers have made at least 900 raids" collecting 6,402 detainees. Of those thousands, 35 were foreigners "taken in on suspicion of being in the country illegally." Missing from that number are the many more individuals who were arrested and released following a re-education process, according to the China Daily. The theme of the Shanghai World Expo is "Better City, Better Life," but its clear from recent waves of arrests that's to mean a particular kind of urban improvement that actively excludes and victimizes thousands.
Interestingly, the theme of the US pavilion at the Expo is "Rising to the Challenge"; Lets hope we make a good show of doing just that.