China's preparations for the Aug. 8 opening of the Beijing Olympics are in full swing. China is staking its reputation on the Games — this year's largest sports event and the third Olympic Games to be held in Asia, after the 1964 Tokyo Games and the 1988 Seoul Games. The Olympic Village opened Sunday in northern Beijing to accommodate about 16,000 Olympic athletes and officials. In the fight against air pollution, the entry of ordinary cars into Beijing has been banned since July 20, and building construction in the capital has been halted.
But security is becoming a big issue for the Beijing Games. Beijing's security has been tightened to a level unprecedented in the history of the Olympic Games. At Beijing Capital International Airport, special policemen are armed with automatic rifles at their stations and dogs are sniffing for suspicious items. Baggage checks are being carried out at subway stations as at airports. Near the Olympic Park, the People's Liberation Army has set up a temporary camp and deployed a ground-to-air missile battery. About 530,000 officers and people, including citizen volunteers, are reportedly doing security work.
Meanwhile, a group calling itself the Turkmenistan Islamic Party has claimed responsibility for the July 21 back-to-back bus explosions in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province, which killed two people and injured 14. Yet, after the claim was made, the Yunnan public security department said no evidence had been found to link the bus explosions to terrorists, terrorist attacks or the Beijing Olympics. They apparently want to prevent the spread of any perception that the explosions were acts by terrorists.