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BEIJING—Dog is off the menu, model planes are grounded
and post-office patrons must show identification before
mailing a letter. Welcome to Beijing three weeks before
the Olympics.
China’s
game-ready capital went live Monday, with double the
security screenings at airports, new traffic rules and a
ban on “flying objects” as the government seeks to
ensure that nothing—from gridlock to a terrorist
attack—spoils the country’s coming-out party.
Beijing’s investment in security may be 50 percent more
than Athens spent in 2004. In addition to the
traditional safety risks any Olympic host faces, China
is also preparing for potential domestic dissent and
political protests. The city has readied an antiterror
force of 100,000, as well as 150,000 security guards and
290,000 volunteers to help keep order, according to the
official Xinhua News Agency.
“It is
not just management or control of demonstrators, as in
other countries,” Dane Chamorro, regional general
manager for North Asia at consulting firm Control Risks,
said in an interview from Shanghai. China’s goal is
preventing “any such public display, which is a
different and more resource intensive undertaking.”
Riots by
as many as 30,000 people in southwestern China three
weeks ago, a knife attack at a Shanghai police station
that killed six officers on July 1 and arrests of 82
alleged terrorists in the western Xinjiang region
reinforce the potential threat.
Athletes
killed
The
importance of protection during the Olympics increased
after 11 Israeli athletes were killed during the 1972
Games in Munich, Germany, by a Palestinian terrorist
group. The need was emphasized again in 1996, after a
bomb killed one person and injured 111 in Atlanta,
Georgia.
“A
security operation for an Olympics games is a huge
undertaking,” said David Gray, an adviser at Intelligent
Risks Pty Ltd. in Sydney, a consulting company that has
been involved in planning at least five Games, including
Beijing. “It would be surprising and alarming if they
hadn’t applied very substantial resources.”
Guards
in uniforms—green for military, blue for police—line the
ancient bridges between the Gate of Heavenly Peace and
Tiananmen Square, the site of antigovernment
demonstrations in 1989. More guards search bags before
visitors are allowed into the square itself.
The
Beijing airport began checking travelers’ bags and
bodies for explosives before they enter the terminals,
with another screening after check-in once they’re
inside. Subway stations have been equipped with
airport-style scanners, and uniformed workers wield
metal-detector batons for random searches.
Vehicles
coming to Beijing must pass through what the Beijing
Public Security Bureau calls “three defense lines”—a
gauntlet of stops in neighboring provinces on roads
heading for the capital, on major roads from Beijing’s
suburbs into the central city and finally on streets
downtown.
Anyone
without proper identification and license—or any vehicle
or person deemed suspicious—may be detained or turned
back. Even people who want to mail letters and packages
at post offices must show official identification.
The
Chinese Army has set up missile launchers around the
main Olympic facilities to fend of air attacks and will
enforce a no-fly zone over the city. The public-security
bureau has instituted its own no-fly order, banning
model airplanes and hot-air balloons around universities
and schools because of what it says are general safety
reasons.
No
tourists allowed
The
government’s cost for all these security measures may
total as much as $1.5 billion, according to Richard
Chase, the chief executive officer of the Security
Industry Association, a trade group based in Alexandria,
Virginia. He said the bill for Athens was about $1
billion.
“A safe
Olympics is the biggest sign of a successful Olympics”
and the best reflection on “our nation’s image,” Vice
President Xi Jinping said on July 9.
The
government’s commitment to success includes efforts to
forestall embarrassing culture clashes. To avoid
shocking some visitors, the city has officially banned
dog meat from Olympics-contracted restaurants and other
eating places foreigners are likely to go, Xinhua
reported on July 10.
Other
restrictions reflect China’s sensitivity to the prospect
of political demonstrations.
Peking
University is restricting campus access to its faculty
and 46,000 students; the university was a major source
of the activism that grew into the Tiananmen Square
antigovernment protests. Visitors must know someone who
will vouch for their identity, effectively keeping
tourists out. Beijing University of Technology has
adopted the same rules.
The
Beijing Olympics organizing committee has also
prohibited banners and leaflets with religious,
political, military, human-rights or environmental
themes at all venues. That includes anything the
committee says might violate the fairness of the
Olympics, such as signs that read “Go China” and
coordinated clothing for groups of spectators.
“Where
do you strike the right balance between addressing
security risks and applying excessive measures that have
the perceived effect of inconveniencing and interfering
with normal enjoyment?” said Gray of Intelligent Risks.
“It’s an irresistible temptation for people to bring
their causes to the Games.”
Locust
threat eases
THE
threat of a locust plague reaching Beijing during next
month’s Olympics is easing as a campaign to blitz the
pests in the region closest to the capital takes effect,
officials said.
Farmers
and officials at Duolun County in Inner Mongolia, 180
kilometers north of Beijing, have “virtually” eliminated
the locusts and their larvae in the hardest-hit areas,
Lu Zhanshan, who heads the local agricultural office,
said in a telephone interview on Monday.
Inner Mongolia is experiencing one of most serious locust plagues in
years, prompted by cooler weather and scarce rainfall in
June, with 5,000 square miles of farmland infested.
Olympic organizers have also had to contend with an
algae bloom at the sailing venue less than a month
before the Games begin.
“We’re
pretty confident that there won’t be any locust threat
to Beijing,” said Lu. “The situation is under control.”
Lu said
he expected the county to meet a July 25 government
deadline to eradicate the pests. About half the 550
square miles of locust infestation had been rated
“critically affected.” All of that area has been
sprayed.
A lack
of state funding had put the program in jeopardy, Duolun
officials said two weeks ago. The 3 million yuan
($440,000) required to hire pilots and lease planes to
spray locusts has now been paid, Lu said.
At one
stage, there were as many as 70 locusts in every square
meter of land, he said.
Officials in Qingdao said on July 18 that an algae
outbreak that choked the coastline had mostly been
cleaned up. About 1 million tons were removed from the
sea, reducing the chance of disruption to sailing
events. |
