China warns of hijack threats during Beijing Olympics

BEIJING: Senior Chinese police officials have warned of hijack threats during next year's Summer Olympics as air traffic volumes swell for the games, a state-run newspaper reported Tuesday.

The warning in the China Daily comes a day an anti-hijacking drill was held in northeastern China.

"Our efforts to prevent hijacking, as part of the security for the Olympics, face a severe test," Wang Changshun, vice minister of the General Administration of Civil Aviation, was quoted as saying in the newspaper.

Wang said the volume of air traffic at China's main airports is expected to increase by 50 percent during the Beijing Games, which start in just under a year when athletes, tourists, journalists and politicians arrive in China. Beijing's airport is opening a new terminal to handle some of the increase, but has also ordered domestic carriers to reduce numbers of flights to the capital.

"At present, China's anti-hijacking work is facing a series of new challenges," Zhang Xinfeng, vice minister of public security, was quoted as saying.

"Some international terrorist organizations are increasing their infiltration into China and civil aviation planes could be the target of a terrorist attack," he said.

He did not give details.

The anti-hijacking drill at the port city of Dalian in Liaoning province consisted of a simulated raid on hijackers and rescue operations for passengers held hostage, as well as a firefighting operation for a plane that burst into flames upon landing, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

It said more than 600 civil aviation, public security and firefighting officers took part in the drill watched by Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan.

China suffered a string of hijackings between 1993 and 1998, but the hijackers were all attempting to flee to Taiwan.

Taiwan used to welcome Chinese hijackers as anti-communist heroes, but began prosecuting them as tensions with Beijing lessened and contacts expanded between the sides in the 1990s.

China and Taiwan split during a civil war in 1949 and have been ruled separately since then.

The Associated Press 21 August 2007