Reuters Tourists gather on the Great Wall outside Beijing, October 3, 2012.

Reuters People escape the summer heat on a hazy day in Dalian, Liaoning province, China, August 16, 2015.

China Daily / Reuters Vehicles are stuck in a traffic jam near a toll station as people return home at the end of a week-long national day holiday, in Beijing, China, October 6, 2015.

Jason Lee / Reuters A paramilitary police officer guides crowded Chinese travellers at west railway station in Beijing, January 20, 2006.

Reuters Examinees walk into the entrance of a classroom building to take part in a three-day entrance exam for postgraduate studies, at Anhui University, in Hefei, Anhui province, January 5, 2013.

Reuters Parents of students sleep on mats laid out on the floor of a gymnasium inside a university campus in Wuhan, central China's Hubei province, September 3, 2007.

Reuters Visitors participate in the annual water-splashing festival to mark the New Year of the Dai minority in Xishuang Banna, Yunnan province, April 15, 2013.

David Gray / Reuters Large crowds walk under a row of trees decorated with fans and red lanterns at a temple fair celebrating Chinese New Year in Beijing, January 28, 2009.

Reuters Visitors crowd an artificial wave swimming pool at a tourist resort to escape the summer heat in Daying county of Suining, Sichuan province, China, July 11, 2015.

Reuters Passengers crowd the platform at a railway station in Qingdao, Shandong province, as the Chinese New Year holiday ends, January 31, 2009.

Steven Shi / Reuters Visitors queue up before viewing the soaring tide near the bank of Qiantang River in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, September 25, 2010.

Reuters People watch a light show before a stampede incident occurred at the New Year's celebration on the Bund, a waterfront area in central Shanghai, December 31, 2014.

Kim Kyung-Hoon / Reuters People during rush hour on the first working day after the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday in Beijing, February 25, 2015.

China Daily / Reuters More than 1,000 Paramilitary policemen take part in an exercise in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, September 2, 2014.

China Daily / Reuters People from neighboring villages watch a bullfight in Congjiang county, Guizhou province, December 11, 2013.

Claro Cortes IV / Reuters Taxi drivers queue at a parking lot at the new Beijing Capital International Airport, July 2, 2008.

Jason Lee / Reuters The evening rush hour at sunset in Beijing, September 3, 2014.

Reinhard Krause / Reuters A woman collects her bicycle from a parking lot outside a subway station in Beijing, November 12, 2007.

Reuters Thousands of job seekers visit booths at a job fair in Chongqing municipality, October 11, 2014.

Reuters Worshippers wait at the entrance of Guiyuan Buddhist Temple to burn offerings on the fifth day of the Chinese Lunar New Year in Wuhan, Hubei province, January 30, 2009.

Reuters Students take an examination at an open-air playground at a high school in Yichuan, Shaanxi province, April 11, 2015.

Reuters Laundry hangs outside a student dormitory at a college in Wuhan, Hubei province, March 5, 2009.

Reuters College students line up outside a job fair in Zhengzhou, Henan province, February 15, 2014.

China Newsphoto / Reuters People buy vegetables at a morning market in Panjiayuan district, Beijing, October 6, 2005.

Reuters Passengers wait to get in the crowded Zhengzhou Railway Station, on the first day of the seven-day national day holiday, in Zhengzhou, Henan province, October 1, 2014.

Claro Cortes IV / Reuters Shoppers crowd under colorful neon lights along Shanghai's bustling Nanjing Road, August 4, 2001.

Photo Gallery December 16, 2015 China

Overcrowded China

The twentieth-century writer John Basil Barnhill once argued, "When governments fear the people, there is liberty." But for the Chinese Communist Party, fear of the masses compels it to suppress its citizens’ right to assemble. Indeed, even when China's 1.4 billion amass for a simple holiday, they must be a terrifying force to behold.