Security work for Beijing Olympics goes through details
9/7/2008 17:48
The public has been recently reminded again that they are not allowed to
take long umbrellas as well as soft drinks, lighters and liquids into the
Olympic stadiums during the Games.
An official of the Beijing Municipal
Bureau of Public Security said some people might not pay attention to those
daily items which listed on tickets along with other illegal items, such as
explosives.
According to the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2008
Olympic Games (BOCOG), security staff won't keep the banned daily items for the
audience during the Games as they did in the "Good Luck Beijing" test
events.
As long as there is a security risk, security personnel get to remove
it.
After series of national-level anti-terrorist drills held in Beijing and
other co-host cities including Shanghai, Tianjin, Qinhuangdao, Shenyang and
Qingdao, the security work has also been extended to more detailed
aspects.
Like the long umbrellas, people's handbags became new target for
security checks.
Beijing subway passengers were subjected to new security
checks on June 29 at the start of a three-month campaign to ensure a safe
Olympic Games and Paralympics.
More than 3,000 inspectors at 93 metro
stations began searches for dangerous articles, including guns, ammunition,
knives, explosives, flammable and radioactive materials, and toxic
chemicals.
Large items of luggage would be checked by X-ray machines, while
smaller bags would be randomly checked. More than 30 dogs were also to be used
for random inspections, and another 30 were being trained, according to Jia
Peng, a spokesman of the Beijing subway system.
Liquids would also be
checked, unless the passenger takes a drink in front of inspectors.
Beijing
has five subway lines in operation with 140 kilometers of track, transporting
millions of passengers every day.
More than 90 dangerous items were stopped
from getting into the capital's subways and more than 50 passengers were turned
away on the first day of compulsory security checks.
The government has
enacted a slew of measures this year to ensure aviation safety ahead of the
Olympics, banning lighters and matches from carry-on luggage and telling
passengers to remove their shoes for security checks.
From May 1, the Civil
Aviation Administration stepped up pre-flight data reporting for passengers and
crews on international flights and limited the number of cabin baggage
articles.
Airlines are prohibited from carrying explosives for civil use,
guns and ammunition to the cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Shenyang,
Qinhuangdao and Qingdao from July 1 to Sep. 30, according to the
administration.
Flights carrying high-risk chemicals, such as poisonous gas
and radioactive substances, to other cities must be inspected and authorized by
the administration. Those with dangerous goods that are urgently needed by the
state or in disaster relief work must go through the same process and be
recorded.
Beijing now has a 150,000-strong security guard contingent plus
290,000 volunteers doing patrols.
During the event, security guards who are
directly assigned to the Games would number at least 80,000, according to Ma
Zhenchuan, director of the Olympic security command.
The security around the
Tian'anmen Square in the heart of the national capital has been tightened as a
set of revised rules allow unannounced searches of people and vehicles by police
for banned items in the vast square, a political symbol as well as a popular
tourist destination in the country.
Meanwhile, service stations for migrant
workers have been set up, covering more than 7,000 communities and villages in
Beijing, to strengthen management of migrant population in the city and to lower
public security risks.
Security concerns have also been applied to
foreigners. The BOCOG posted a legal guide for foreigners on its official
website in June.
It prohibits overseas visitors from taking ammunition,
explosives, counterfeit currency notes, narcotics and poisons, among others,
into China, warns overseas visitors against shouting insulting slogans or
displaying them on banners, and forbids the display of religious, political or
racial banners at sports venues.
"Security work is the basis and key to a
successful Olympics... and it has come to a critical point as the Games
approach," said China's top security official Zhou Yongkang, also a member of
the Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee
Political Bureau, on an inspection tour of the safety work for the Olympics.
Xinhua
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