Although the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games are two years away, the weaving of an “antiterrorist net” has been completed. Security experts and personnel are now in the process of finding and closing any possible loopholes.

“Even at the Olympic Games an athlete more often than not has the chance to make up for a failed performance, but in security work there is never a second chance,” said Zhu Songchun, a security expert with the division of Olympic security in the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau.

The September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. came only two months after Beijing’s successful bid for the 29th Olympic Games, leading to Beijing’s decision to expand its budget for security during the Games. Recent figures indicate that security expenditures will reach $300 million, accounting for one fifth of the total budget for the event.

Beijing, which has been the host city for the Asian Games and World University Games, organizes hundreds of international events every year, which have never been the target of any attacks. But this does not immunize the 2008 Olympic Games from security concerns.

“Although China enjoys traditional advantages in its security work, we still have to learn from the experiences of other countries in safeguarding international games as well as cooperate with international organizations in intelligence sharing,” said Jiang Xiaoyu, the Executive Vice President of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games.

Multifaceted cooperation

The rehearsals for security for the Olympic Games were launched at the 11th Women’s World Championship of Softball held in the Fengtai Softball Center in southern Beijing August 27-September 5.

The Beijing Olympic security command center set up a control center for the softball championship, which had seven subdivisions in charge of the security of the competition venues, athletes’ accommodations, traffic and other areas.

Various types of advanced security monitoring equipment were installed. All spectators’ belongings were screened by an X-ray machine, and their cell phones and metal items were inspected by the security staff. Even their bodies were scanned. Reporters, volunteers and other staff members were not exempt from the thorough searches.

Beijing police would previously conduct security checks after people entered a stadium. “This time we installed the checkpoints outside the stadium, which is a key measure to uncover hidden trouble and avoid gun or explosive attacks,” said Cao Dongxiang, a senior officer of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau. “The new measure will also conserve the resources of the police forces and security equipment and avoid congestion.”

The security check of vehicles was further strengthened. Except for vehicles with exemption certificates and those belonging to VIPs, all vehicles entering the stadium had to go through a check with the hood, doors and trunk open. Passengers had to leave the vehicle and go through the same security procedures as other spectators. The undercarriage was examined by a scanning system, which also automatically collected and stored license plate information.

At the softball championship, some spectators noticed that there were fewer policemen at the stadium than before. As is planned for the Olympic venues, the Fengtai Softball Center had security personnel in ordinary clothing or dressed as volunteers. “We tried to create an easy atmosphere for the audience to enjoy the game,” said Liu Jiang, the security chief of the games. He said spectators might suspect the occurrence of an incident if there were too many policemen, which would give rise to disturbing tensions.

Before the championship started, security staff rehearsed for two emergencies. The first was if a fire broke out near the spectators’ area. Security forces were trained to immediately report it to firefighters, draw up warning zones and calm the crowd. If the fire was not easy to extinguish, an emergency plan to evacuate people would have been activated. The second situation was if a suspicious item was spotted. An explosives team would immediately be dispatched to the field to identify whether it was an explosive device. If the answer was yes, the police would take control of the area and evacuate people while putting the item in a bomb-disposal unit. Otherwise, the item would be cautiously moved far away from the crowd to avoid triggering a panic.

The security level of this championship was ranked as “B.” During the 2008 Olympics, security standards for every competition will be classified under the four rankings of A, B, C and D, representing a progression from the highest to lowest levels of security. Different security plans will be launched based on the results of the threat appraisal. According to Yu Hongyuan, Vice Director of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, the decisive factors in the security level include the level of attention a competition draws and the size of the audience. When there is no game, the security level of the stadiums will be tuned down to C.

The security work for the Olympic Games, which was formally launched at the inauguration of the organizing committee in December 2001, has been divided into four stages: the preparatory stage, from December 2001 to the end of 2004; the development stage, from 2005 to the end of 2007; the rehearsal and perfection stage, from January to June 2008, and the operational stage, until the conclusion of the Olympics.

In the last few years, Beijing has conducted exhaustive studies of all kinds of factors affecting security and drafted several action plans as guidelines for security work at the Olympics.

Special forces

In December 2003, an Olympic security coordination office was founded to generally monitor the work in this field. This office combines the efforts of the Ministry of Public Security, the army, military police forces, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, customs authorities and others. The office has two branches, a command center and intelligence center, and has hired dozens of experts in different fields as consultants.

It has been estimated that Beijing will have a security staff of 92,500 at the Olympics, including 40,000 policemen, 27,000 armed policemen, 10,000 guards and 5,000 volunteers. The training of these personnel began in April. Relevant government agencies have worked out 46 training plans, which cover courses on security checks, anti-terrorism practices, emergency reaction, first aid, evacuation, foreign languages, international etiquette, knowledge of religion and driving.

Police dogs will be widely used during the Olympics for security checks to keep terrorists and dangerous items out of the stadiums.

The security team for the Beijing Olympics has also suggested that the construction of security facilities should be absorbed into the construction of facilities for the Games. Experts have developed design guidelines for security systems for all competition venues, the Olympic Village and the media center. They also drafted the bidding document for security systems for the Olympic venues, for the first time in the history of the Olympic Games.

“The Beijing police forces have a very strong anti-terrorism team which is able to deal with any emergency any time,” said Lu Shimin, Vice Director of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau.

The special forces specifically tailored for the Beijing Olympics now include over 800 people, with an average age of 26. These people, who were meticulously selected from the Beijing police forces, could act as a team or separately. They are specially trained to deal with terrorist attacks and serious emergencies.

The special forces have consulted intensively with the army, military police, aviation, railway and public health agencies so as to analyze all types of terror attacks. They have drafted emergency plans for terrorist attacks and abductions, which stipulate the standard procedures for dealing with the major types of terrorist attacks.

Every special forces team member has to spend four months in intensive training every year, including work in body building, tactics and shooting. They also are trained to be superb drivers able to perform various maneuvers at high speed.

An elite anti-terrorism team under the special forces has already started to conduct drills. During the Olympics, a team of 30 “super snipers” will be secretly stationed in parts of the city. During their daily training, it is common for one team member to carry an apple as a shooting target for his or her team member.

“The special forces have participated in the security tasks for over 2,000 events and conducted anti-terrorism drills several times with their foreign counterparts,” said Song Peiyuan, deputy chief of the special forces.

Zheng Yongjin, vice director of the command center of the special forces, said people with various skills will be added to the special forces each year. The establishment of an air special forces team and female special forces team is in the preparatory stage.

Since the beginning of 2003, hundreds of Beijing police officers have been sent to Britain, Germany, Australia and Canada to receive professional training.

Since special tasks demand special equipment, the Beijng Municipal Government plans to spend nearly 500 million yuan to purchase hi-tech equipment for surveillance and logistics, armored vehicles and helicopters for the special forces.

Among the latest security equipment purchased is portable equipment imported from the United States that can send a warning signal if it detects the presence of any toxic or explosive residue on a person’s body.