Beijing Nearly Set for a Dazzling Opening

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The New York Sun

BEIJING — For its first-ever Olympic Games, China is aiming to stage an opening ceremony on Friday night so elaborate and dazzling that it sweeps aside, at least briefly, persistent concerns about pollution, terrorism, and the wisdom of holding the world’s most elite athletic competition in an authoritarian state.

The 3 1/2-hour extravaganza at Beijing’s newly built “Bird’s Nest” stadium will feature 15,000 performers, a release of doves, the traditional march of the athletes, and the lighting of the Olympic flame. The gala, orchestrated by the Chinese movie director Zhang Yimou, wraps up with a 30-minute fireworks display in which nearly 30,000 shells will be fired from more than 1,800 locations across the Chinese capital.

“We will showcase the ancient, long history of the Chinese nation, the splendid culture, as well as the achievements of the reform and what the modern Chinese people can offer to the world,” the Chinese Olympic official overseeing the event, Zhang Heping, told reporters.

Most details of the ceremonies have been tightly held, though a South Korean television network broadcast video of a rehearsal last week, much to the chagrin of Olympic organizers. The video showed some performers flying on wires above the crowd, a simulated waterfall, and images of huge whales.

Audience members will be asked to use cards distributed before the ceremony to form giant numbers in a countdown, the video showed.

The athletic delegations from various countries will enter the stadium based not on alphabetical order but by the “stroke order” of the Chinese translation of the country’s name. Yao Ming of the Houston Rockets will carry the flag for China’s athletes, as he did in Athens in 2004. American athletes chose a runner who immigrated to America after fleeing violence in Sudan, Lopez Lomong, to enter the stadium with the Stars and Stripes.

The night’s program also includes a speech by President Hu of China. President Bush, who arrived in Beijing yesterday, is among more than 80 world leaders expected to be on hand Friday night. He is attending despite demands from activists that political leaders skip the event to protest China’s actions in Tibet and China’s lackluster efforts to end the genocide in Sudan’s Darfur region. President Klaus of the Czech Republic and Prime Minister Tusk of Poland are snubbing the opening, citing the Tibet issue. Chancellor Merkel of Germany did not publicly embrace a boycott, but turned down an invite to Beijing, citing a planned summer vacation.

About 5,000 members of China’s military are expected to take part in Friday night’s ceremony and an even larger group, totaling about 100,000 troops, has been assigned to security for the games. Some will oversee an anti-aircraft missile battery placed outside the stadium, security officials said.

Security worries were fueled early Friday by reports about a new video that shows flames over the Beijing Olympics logo, followed by an explosion. In the video, a group called the Turkistan Islamic Party and saying it represents Uighur Muslims in China’s restive Xinjiang region, claims responsibility for a series of recent bus bombings in China. The video, disclosed by Washington-based terrorism researchers at the IntelCenter and the Site Insitute, also urges Muslims to “choose your side” in an imminent showdown with the Han Chinese who dominate business and political life in Xinjiang.

“Do not stay on the same bus, on the same train, on the same plane, in the same buildings, or any place the Chinese are,” a speaker in the video says, according to a translation by Site.

Earlier this week, two Uighurs allegedly used a truck and explosive devices to attack group of police marching in Kashgar in western China. Local officials said the two suspects had written of pursuing a “holy war” against Chinese rule in the area.

“The Tibet activists will make all kinds of attempts to get in and disrupt the Olympics, but they probably won’t do anything violent. On the other hand, real violence could come from the Uighurs,” a former American ambassador to Beijing, James Lilley, said in an interview Wednesday. “It’s going to get dicey.”

However, an American human rights campaigner, Ellen Bork of Freedom House, noted that the Chinese government tends to demonize all Uighurs seeking greater autonomy.

“It’s very important for the outside world to understand China is able to characterize virtually any dissent in Xinjiang as violent or separatist or against the state,” Ms. Bork said, stressing that she had not seen the latest video. “There are many representatives of moderate, Democratic, secular Uighurs who should be paid attention to at this time, and I’m worried that these incidents, whatever they are, will be manipulated to diminish the Uighurs’ legitimate cause.”


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