The 2008 Olympics: Terror threats, smog but also hope for the greatest show on earth

Published on Tuesday 5 August 2008 22:26

CHINA yesterday insisted the Olympics would be the best ever – despite a rising terror threat, unprecedented security and thick smog.

Last-minute preparations gathered pace in Beijing as the countdown continued to what is being billed as the most spectacular opening ceremony in the Games' history.

And Chinese leaders stepped up their efforts to reassure the world they could provide a safe environment for visitors and athletes in the wake of this week's separatist attacks. Sun Weide, an official on the Games' organising committee, said security was the "foundation and a key part of the event".

He added: "We are confident and capable of holding a safe Olympic Games under the leadership of the Chinese government and with the help of the international community."

But Dr Kerry Brown, associate fellow on the Asia Programme at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, said Muslim extremists would see the Beijing Olympics as a "once in a lifetime opportunity" and that the massive Chinese security effort will make a successful attack "unlikely, but not impossible".

"It will be too much to let it go for them, it's a once in a lifetime opportunity to hit the people they regard as oppressors," he said. "There is a lot of anger and hatred and it would draw attention to their cause and hurt the people they regard as oppressors."

The warning follows the bloody attack on Monday which has proved a setback for a Chinese government trying to present an image of national stability. Two members of the largely Muslim Uighur minority have been accused of killing 16 border police and injuring 16 others in China's Western region.

Alim Seytoff, general secretary of the Washington-based Uighur American Association, yesterday said the attack pointed to discontent over Chinese controls on religion and the expanding ethnic Han Chinese presence in Xinjiang.

The beating by police yesterday of two Japanese journalists reporting on the attacks drew an official apology, but Beijing also set new obstacles for news outlets wanting to report from Tiananmen Square.

Meanwhile, the Olympic stadium in Beijing has been enveloped in smog in the run-up to the Games, despite drastic measures to improve air quality.

Controversy has dogged the event since China successfully bid for it, and the global Olympic torch relay was beset by protests against the country's human rights record and treatment of Tibet. And the International Olympics Committee yesterday warned the protests could stop the event happening ahead of London 2012, with Dick Pound, a Canadian senior IOC figure, calling for an end to the parade.

China has invested about 20 billion in the Games and analysts say the country may emerge with an even stronger economy for all its lavish spending.

Andy Rothman, an economist with brokerage CLSA in Shanghai, said: "The majority of the money accounts for permanent infrastructure, stuff that we think, long term, will be productive for the Chinese economy."

However, Dr Yiyi Lu, a research fellow at the China Policy Institute, part of the University of Nottingham, warned against overemphasising the impact the Olympics would have on the country's global standing.