Marching orders: Some 400,000 police have been deployed across Beijing [Reuters]

In a city well-used to high levels of surveillance, Big Brother has his eyes on you more than ever at the Beijing games this summer.

Across the Chinese capital some 300,000 surveillance systems have been installed as the authorities ramp up preparations for the Olympics.

In a web of half-demolished, mostly desolate, traditional alleyways in Qianmen, a five-minute walk from Tiananmen Square, security cameras have been installed every 20 metres or so.

"We're not worried about security at all; the government is making it very safe," says one middle-aged woman, clad in an orange and white Olympic volunteer t-shirt. She declined to give her name.

"It's totally safe. There are no terrorists here. Look, we have cameras everywhere," she says, pointing to a brand-new video camera perched on a nearby post.

It is likely Qianmen's proximity to Tiananmen, the symbolic heart of Beijing, with its own troubled history, that has blessed it with a high density of cameras.

Safety first

Authorities are determined nothing will be left to chance [Reuters]

China openly admits that security has overtaken the importance of other aspects of the games, such as sport and culture.

"A safe Olympics is the premise for a first-class games with Chinese characteristics," state news agency Xinhua quoted Xi Jinping, China's vice president, as saying recently.

Xi, who is being groomed for presidency, is in charge of the games – so his reputation will be made or broken by how successful the Olympics are seen as being.
 
Beyond the profusion of security cameras, Beijing is going all out to make sure the games are as secure as it can make them.

Over 100,000 security personnel will be stationed in the capital. The olive-green clad People's Armed Police, normally only visible marching on Tiananmen Square, are now a common sight around the city.

On the surface all this is nothing new – in the post-9/11 world all Olympic cities are expected to spend big on security.

Athens was no exception forking out a record $1.3 billion on policing the games. China has not released figures on its Olympic security price tag, but it is expected to at least match that.

Security checks are now the norm for subway stations, train and long-distance bus networks in the capital.

Beijing's newly-extended airport has set up security checks for everyone entering the terminals. As an added measure, authorities have announced a freeze on all flights during the opening ceremony on the evening of August 8.

Vehicles on roads coming into the capital face excruciating queues at security checks and there is a long list of items including liquids and electronics that the post office will not let you mail.

"Fed Ex didn't want to deliver a box of USBs to us," complains one British expatriate working for an education company in Beijing.

"They opened it up before they would send it on to us. Later we found out they thought it was ammunition!"

Chinese officials say the steps are necessary to prevent terrorism and keep out unspecified "hostile forces". But there has been a noticeable increase in nervousness as the games draw near, playing down expectations of a stunning spectacle in favour of a safe, trouble-free games.

'Undesirables'

Thousands of volunteers will keep watch on the city's streets [GALLO/GETTY]

New visa restrictions have been introduced – often with little or no warning - controlling who can come during the games; while anyone deemed to fit the profile of what authorities deem "undesirables" has been kicked out.

Dechen Pemba, a British-born ethnic Tibetan who worked as an English teacher in the city, was deported at the beginning of July. Chinese authorities said she was a member of an exile Tibetan activist group, a charge she denies.

Free Tibet supporters may be embarrassing for Beijing if they manage to unfurl banners during the games, but they are hardly a security risk. So who exactly is the enemy?

According to the government, the country's main terrorist threat comes from its restive region of Xinjiang which forms China's northwestern border with Central Asia.

The region is home to Muslim Uighurs, an ethnic Turkic group, and a low-level independence struggle that has simmered for decades.

A group known as the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) - also thought to go by the name of the Turkestan Islamic Party - has been picked out by authorities as the key worry.

'Attack' plots

"Intelligence reports show [ETIM] has been planning to carry out terrorist attacks during the games," Ma Zhenchuan, director of the security command for the Beijing games, told Chinese state TV recently.

Tough new visa rules have been introduced for visitors [GALLO/GETTY]

"The publicly available evidence that I have seen is that ETIM is a very small organisation," Professor Andrew Nathan, a rights activist and China expert at New York's Columbia University, told Al Jazeera.

"I would rate the probability of ETIM trying to conduct a terrorist incident in Beijing as small."

Nathan says he is suspicious of the government's accusations against groups like ETIM.

"When you look at the charges the Chinese security authorities have made against other [activists] - against the Dalai Lama, against democracy activists in China - then you cannot have much confidence in the truthfulness of their charges in other cases," Nathan said.

A video released by a group calling itself the Turkestan Islamic Party surfaced last week in which it threatened to carry out attacks during the games and claimed it was behind fatal bus bombings in July and similar blasts in Shanghai in May.

However, both the Chinese government and outside experts have dismissed their claims as unlikely.

Meanwhile generous attention in state media to security preparations has apparently convinced many Beijingers that while there is a real threat out there, the government has everything under control.

Newspapers and television have been running photo spreads and special features on anti-terrorist drills showing troops in commando gear wielding machine guns, staging hostage rescues, storming buildings, firing tear gas and setting dogs on "terrorists".

It is no accident that the surface-to-air missiles just south of the main Olympic stadiums are on prominent display behind wire fences.

On the streets people are generally supportive of the extra security measures even though the frequent bag checks and police ID sweeps cause some inconvenience.

"We just want the games to go smoothly," says Liu Shu Fang, who owns a cigarette and alcohol store in the capital's centre. "These measures are important."

On Tiananmen Square, no stranger to heavy security, tourists in their tens of thousands take photos of the massive floral displays constructed in honour of the games.

Police, sheltering under umbrellas dotted around the square and sweating in their heavy uniforms, stand duty, scanning the crowd for troublemakers.

One policeman, who declined to give his name, said he did not know how many security personnel were stationed on the square.

"The actual number, I don't know, but there should be a lot," he grinned.

"It's the Olympics and the most important thing is safety, right?"