China to X-ray parcels headed for Olympics

Enlarge Photo A man checks the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games tickets that he had bought from the...

Tue, May 6 03:24 PM

BEIJING (Reuters) - All parcels addressed to Olympic athletes, dormitories and sporting venues will be subject to X-ray checks, a newspaper reported on Tuesday, as China beefs up security three months before the Games begin.

"We can see whether some suspicious articles are in the package through scanning," a post office official was quoted as saying in the Beijing News. "If explosives, biochemicals or other suspicious things are found, we will inform the police at once."

China, whose Communist rulers value stability above all else, has come down hard on anyone they fear could upset the Games, from people protesting against the demolition of their houses for venues to the country's sometimes restless ethnic minorities.

And the government has begun restricting visas, a policy which has come under fire from business groups.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang defenced the visa rules again on Tuesday, saying they were needed for national security reasons.

"This policy will be in place for a certain period of time," he said. "But a policy that won't change is having a tight grip on visas, which can guarantee a country's safety and ensure a secure environment and the safety of foreigners in China."

The head of Interpol last month said there was a "real possibility" that the Beijing Olympics would be targeted by terrorists or that anti-China groups, possibly spurred by last month's unrest in Tibet, could attack athletes.

Beijing has also revised regulations at Tiananmen Square, the symbolic heart of the city where the army crushed pro-democracy protests in June 1989 and where security is already extremely tight.

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