Skip Links

Olympic countdown

Print
For the past two years, 30 Chinese sharpshooters have been improving their skills in the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. But they will not be competing for medals.  This specially selected squad of police officers has been handpicked from a pool of over 200 and trained to respond to emergency situations, such as terrorist attacks, kidnappings, riots or incidents involving firearms. Experts in bomb disposal, forensics and negotiations will also form part of an Olympic crisis response team.

In June, an exercise was held which tested the capacity of the Chinese police to deal with such situations during the Games. Some acted as terrorists and took more than 20 “athletes” hostage.

According to Chinese press reports which quoted sources within the Ministry of Public Security, the other team of special police sealed off the building, checked the surrounding area, then attacked the hijackers and rescued the hostages. Neither side knew the tactics of the other and had to make on-the-spot decisions.

Elsewhere in the Chinese capital, another 40,000 police have been learning new skills that are particularly relevant to the potential terrorist threats that are faced by all major events around the world. At least a quarter of these officers are now adept at highspeed car chases – though where exactly they will be able to use such skills on the crowded streets of a city with 15 million inhabitants is another matter.

It was no coincidence that a number of announcements about security arrangements for the forthcoming Games were made by Chinese government spokespersons on the sixth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the US. “Although the general security situation for the Beijing Olympics remains stable,” Public Security Minister Zhou Yongkang told the state-run China Daily, “we still face the challenges of terrorism, separatism and extremism.

Terrorism, in particular, poses the biggest threat.” On the same day (11 September 2007), it was announced that China has agreed to co-operate with other countries and Interpol over security issues for the Games.

The declaration was made at the closing of the International Conference on Security Cooperation for 2008 Beijing Olympics and was endorsed by representatives of law enforcement organisations in 32 countries, all members of the International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol).

It was revealed at the same conference that Interpol would deploy a support team to assist the Chinese government with security preparations. They would provide detailed information on international criminal suspects, including names, fingerprints, photographs and DNA profiles, said Ronald J. Noble, Interpol’s secretary general.

An Interpol round-the-clock Command and Coordination Centre would give the highest priority to information relevant to the Games’ security that passes through its 186-member country network of national central bureaus.

All of which is good news for the competitors, supporters and sponsors – as well as Beijing’s own population – as 2007 draws to a close, and the huge clock in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, shows less than 250 days before the opening ceremony of the 29th Olympic Games.

Even China’s critics concede that it will be a spectacular event and no one seriously doubts that the planet’s most populous nation has the capacity, manpower and expertise to organise and control the world’s biggest sporting event.

According to the Xinhua News Agency (22 April 2007), the Beijing Olympics preparation authorities have said that at least 100,000 security guards, recruited across China, will be deployed alongside a huge number of volunteers to ensure a safe Olympics. Protecting the Olympic Games, its participants and spectators is just part of the security challenge.

Raymond Wong, managing director of G4S Facilities Management in Shanghai, emphasises that as far as security for the Games is concerned, China will have no problem protecting all the venues and those participating or watching. It has a huge number of personnel to guard venues, and if it experiences problems it can always call upon the People’s Liberation Army for support.

But despite the many changes that are happening in China, he adds, state security “is still an apparatus consistent with its Communist roots – and that’s not what many business visitors to the Beijing Games will be expecting.”

Language problems are likely to be a significant problem for many corporate representatives, and there may be neither the consistency in service, nor even the same security officers on duty, throughout the contract offered by some security companies.

“China can satisfy international security demands and provide a professional service, but only to a limited extent,” Ken May observes. “My advice to anyone who needs security in Beijing during the Olympics is to be very focused on choosing the right security services for their needs and to get their procurement in place as soon as they can.”
 
This page is an edited version of the article featured in the September 2007 edition of International.
Download the full article: application/pdf Olympic Countdown

A papercut of the Chinese sign for 2008 - year of the rat.

China’s private security industry – there are said to be 2,300 private security guard companies throughout the country – is not yet open to foreign investment or direct management involvement.

There are rumours that the promised legislation to make this happen, to satisfy China’s membership of the World Trade Organisation, could be introduced by the end of this year. But that will be too late to raise China’s private security services, in general, to the level that is expected by the many international businesses that will be setting up in Beijing and the more than 100 other Olympic venues, to play their part in supporting the Games.

What these companies need to be aware of is that China is not an open market as far as the provision of security is concerned. Fortunately, G4S is already making a contribution in association with Beijing Security Services (BSS), the capital’s largest security company with some 130,000 security guards, which is run as a franchise by the Beijing police bureau.

“We are working with them in a management, supervisory and consultative role,” explains Ken May, managing director of G4S Security Services in China and Taiwan. “They are recruiting manpower with our support, and its guards are being screened and trained according to our standards.”
Securing Your World