"Great Wall of steel" tightens around Beijing (Feature)

By Bill Smith Jul 22, 2008, 5:05 GMT

Beijing - China has tried to cover every angle in minimizing the threat of a terrorist attack or other breach of security at the Olympics.

It has enlisted the help of Interpol, the FBI, organizers of the previous two Olympics in Athens and Sydney, and even the International Atomic Energy Agency, which monitors nuclear materials.

US, Israeli, Australian, German and British security experts have all advised the Chinese government.

An anti-terrorist force of about 100,000 police and People's Liberation Army soldiers is deployed in Beijing and five other cities hosting Olympic events, state media said in early July.

The force includes a 300-strong Snow Wolf Commando Unit, described as a 'highly-classified special police squad established in 2002... tasked with counter-terrorism, riot control and other special tasks, such as hijacking and bomb disposal'.

Another 100,000 city police, 200,000 security guards, and about 1.5 million Games volunteers, 'city volunteers' and 'social volunteers' will also be on duty in Beijing.

Security forces will use surveillance helicopters, drones, satellites and at least 300,000 security cameras; plus other high-technology equipment such as anti-aircraft missiles and Segways, self-balancing electric scooters used by some anti-terrorist officers.

'Unfortunately, an attempted act of terrorism is a real possibility and a real concern that all Olympic host countries have shared in recent years,' Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble told an international conference on Olympic security in Beijing in late April.

Interpol has produced regular 'threat assessments' for China since last year, and agreed to send a 'major event support team' to train Chinese police officers in crisis management and major event operations.

'Security is of the utmost importance in relation to the full success of the Olympics,' China's Minister of Public Security Meng Jianzhu said at the same security conference.

Meng said the Beijing Olympics faced a 'stable general security situation' but warned of threats from 'terrorist groups, separatist groups and [religious] extremist groups'.

Noble noted that China had reported raids on several terrorist groups allegedly plotting attacks such as bringing down an airliner, chemical gas poisoning, suicide bombings, and kidnapping foreign athletes, spectators and journalists.

Indonesian police also arrested suspected Al Qaeda members and seized a map of Beijing showing its sports venues in December, he said.

During a visit to Beijing last year, FBI Assistant Director of International Operations Thomas Fuentes said the Olympics would pose a 'massive challenge for the authorities here in China to deal with'.

'We're offering every possible assistance to them, in terms of information sharing or other technical assistance,' Fuentes said.

'There are tremendous issues of security as to who's entering the country and what backgrounds they may have, [and] whether they intend violence at the Olympic Games for any variety of reasons,' he said.

The government has enforced visa regulations this year, making it more difficult for independent foreign travellers and business people to enter China, and increased checks at hotels and housing complexes.

Police in China's far western region of Xinjiang arrested 82 suspected terrorists in 2008 after they 'plotted sabotage against the Beijing Olympics', and shot dead five 'holy warriors' who were allegedly resisting arrest in early July, state media said.

Most Uighurs are Muslims in the Central Asian region, which borders Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

China also accused some Tibetans of terrorist attacks following widespread anti-Chinese protests and rioting in March and April.

In response to the potential threats, anti-terrorist police and troops held a 'Great Wall 5' series of drills in June to practise handling a chemical explosion, hijackings and other attacks

China often dubs its security forces, especially the People's Liberation Army, the 'Great Wall of steel'.

'We have finished more than 52 schemes and more than 500 specific plans for security, transportation, fire-fighting, anti-terrorism and VIP protection,' Liu Shaowu, director of security for the Beijing organizing committee (BOCOG), told state media after the 'Great Wall' drills.

The government has since ordered tighter security checks at airports in Xinjiang and Tibet, plus more than a dozen other cities.

Police will carry out security inspections to search for 'suspicious people and cargo' at hundreds of checkpoints on entry roads to Beijing, using sniffer dogs, metal detectors, scanners.

But Uighur and Tibetan exile groups have accused China of using terrorism claims as an excuse for a broad crackdown on dissent in Xinjiang and Tibet in the run-up to the Olympics.

In China's police state, the powers of anti-terrorist forces extend far beyond preventing an attack on the Olympics, encompassing anti-riot and anti-protest duties and responding to 'rumour spreading during the Games', state media said in June.