Beijing Olympics 'Face Terrorism Threat'

A Chinese woman walks past a poster which reads "Welcome Olympic, learn the rules with ten want and ten unwanted" on display in Beijing, China, Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2007. China believes terrorism is the biggest threat facing next year's Olympic Games and has called for closer international cooperation to prevent possible attacks, state media said Tuesday. (AP Photo/Andy Wong) (Andy Wong - AP)

In a rare publicized action earlier this year, China said it raided a terror camp in Xinjiang run by the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, or ETIM, killing 18 militants it says had links to al-Qaida and the Taliban.

The Sept. 11 attacks helped dilute U.S. and other foreign criticisms of China's heavy-handed tactics toward ethnic separatists it accuses of terrorism.

However, Gunaratna said the ETIM remained dangerous and was developing stronger links with al-Qaida, changing it from an essentially Uighur nationalist group to one espousing a pan-Islamic ideology. ETIM trains in Pakistan's remote tribal areas and has been spreading its message on the Internet.

Gunaratna estimated the group represents the views of less than 1 percent of China's approximately 50 million Muslims. But he warned that China needed to avoid alienating mainstream Uighurs by improving education and job options and showing more sensitivity to their ethnic concerns.

Interpol said Monday it would help China with security by sending a "major events support team" to the Olympics that will have quick access to Interpol files on fingerprints, images and "wanted persons notices."

Interpol will also provide "threat assessments" on issues relating to Olympic security and international crime, the organization said.

Liu Jing, a vice minister for public security, told the meeting in Beijing that China hopes all 135 cities on the Olympic torch relay route will also help safeguard that event, the China Daily said. Liu was quoted as saying that some organizations and individuals were trying to politicize the games and planned to disrupt the relay.

In one indication of discord, Taiwanese media reported that China has insisted Taiwan's national flag and official emblem do not show up along a proposed 15-mile torch route in Taipei. China claims Taiwan as its territory, and objects to all symbols of sovereignty by the democratic, self-ruling island.

Mia Farrow, a U.N. goodwill ambassador, has labeled the Beijing Games the "genocide Olympics," and has launched her own torch relay through countries with histories of mass atrocities. The actress says China has impeded a solution to deadly ethnic conflicts in Sudan's Darfur region because of its oil interests in that country.

China has legitimate concerns over terrorism at the Olympics, but those are only one facet of its desire to avoid any embarrassment to a regime that has staked enormous prestige on staging successful games, said Nicholas Bequelin, a Hong Kong-based researcher with Human Rights Watch.