In an age of global terrorism, it is obviously sensible to guard against attacks on a prime target such as the Olympic Games. The killing in Munich of eleven Israeli athletes and coaches by the Palestinian group Black September in 1972 provides a terrible warning of how the world's greatest sporting festival can be wrecked. With the XXIX Olympiad opening in just three weeks, the Chinese government is taking no chances. But it is less concerned with possible violent foreign attacks on participants than with peaceful demonstrations by dissident domestic groups and with the need to purify Beijing's filthy air.

Chief among potential troublemakers, in official eyes, are the spiritual movement Falun Gong, Tibetan supporters of the Dalai Lama, and Muslims from the western region of Xinjiang. The first took the authorities completely by surprise in 1999 when it staged a silent protest of over 10,000 people outside Communist Party headquarters. The movement was banned, thousands of its followers were arrested, many of them were tortured and its printed material was publicly burned. Tibet has been a thorn in the Party's side since the 1950s; the demonstrations there and in adjoining regions in March were the merely latest in a long series of uprisings against Han colonisation.

In Xinjiang the government is worried that Muslim separatists could link up with jihadis in other countries. These fears explain the drastic restrictions on movement within the capital, from the removal of "undesirables" to the closure, for a 10-week period starting on Sunday, of many restaurants and bars. In an attempt to curb pollution in the booming capital, the authorities are shutting down construction sites and introducing a system which limits vehicles to circulating on alternate days, depending on whether their licence plates end with an odd or even number.

advertisementChinese people are prepared to put up with these restrictions for the sake of national glory. For them, the Beijing Olympics have assumed a quasi-religious significance. But the rest of the world can be forgiven for asking what has happened to the celebratory spirit in which the Games should be held. China's original goal was to stage the best Olympiad in history. The rough handling of the Olympic torch in London and Paris, in protest at oppression in Tibet, has scaled down that ambition to a "high-quality Olympics with Chinese characteristics". If the Games simply pass without incident, China will deem them a success.