China Plans Pre-Olympics “Dirty Bomb” Drill

Beijing’s municipal government plans to conduct a “dirty bomb” drill next month, as China prepares its security measures for the 2008 Olympics, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, May 10).

The exercise involves the response to the detonation of a radiological weapon near an “Olympic stadium,” emergency response official Shan Qingsheng told the Xinhua News Agency (Agence France-Presse, June 20).

More than 100 beds at the Third Hospital of Beijing would be ready for victims of a weapon combining conventional explosives with radioactive material, the Associated Press reported (Associated Press/Yahoo!News, June 20).

In another pre-Olympics exercise, Chinese national police on Tuesday staged a mock assault on a building to end a hostage situation.  Police commandos freed more than 20 officers pretending to be athletes.

“The most important characteristic of this exercise [‘Great Wall 4’] was that it was based on real combat.  It was unscripted and there were no rehearsals,” the China Police Daily stated.

“The exercise allowed us to improve under very complex conditions our specialized antiterrorism capabilities,” according to the newspaper (AFP).

China’s security budget for the Olympics is $300 million, roughly one-fifth of the amount spent at the 2004 games in Athens.  Using domestic providers of surveillance equipment and other security technology is expected to minimize costs, according to the security chief for Beijing’s Olympic Organizing Committee (AP).

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