Violence a reminder of China's challenges

BEIJING — Violence and bloodshed marring the first two days of the Beijing Olympics provided a dramatic reminder that there is no such thing as perfect security in a country as vast as China, with so many people nursing grievances against the authoritarian government.

In violence that attracted the widest attention, an American was stabbed to death and his wife was seriously wounded Saturday while they visited a Beijing monument; their Chinese guide was slightly injured. Far from the capital, at least 11 people were killed and four were wounded Sunday during confrontations between security forces and suicide bombers in a remote corner of the tense Xinjiang region of far western China. No organization asserted responsibility for the operation, but it bore the hallmarks of previous Uighur separatist attacks on government installations.

The casualty lists in both incidents were not huge, but the impact was extensive. Not only did the violence occur against the backdrop of the Olympic Games, with their tradition of fellowship and harmony. But the Chinese Communist Party also had made security a dominant part of its role as Olympic host, with a deployment of soldiers, police and civilian block wardens so smothering that some foreigners griped that it risked taking the fun out of the Games.

President Hu Jintao and other senior officials repeatedly had emphasized to Chinese security forces that maintaining order during the Olympics was the most important facet of the two-week period — and the one most likely to affect China's image. Their concentration on preventing violence or protest reflected determination to use the Games as a platform to display China's progress over the past three decades and its openness to foreigners after years of isolation.

Security forces also seemed to be having trouble enforcing their ban on protests. Five foreign activists — two Americans, two Canadians and a Tibetan immigrant from Germany — were detained after holding up Tibetan flags and unfurling a banner reading "Tibetans are dying for freedom," according to Students for a Free Tibet. A number of other foreign pro-Tibetan protesters have been deported for staging similar protests, including one the day of the opening ceremony.

Security deployments appeared to have thickened at Olympic venues and around Beijing, adding to the 100,000 soldiers and police and the 1.7 million volunteer wardens already mobilized.

"I think in China it has to be this way," said Birgitt Buhrdel, 46, a visitor from Cologne, Germany, who said she was initially troubled by the sight of so many police but now is glad to have them. "We feel more assured that as a Western tourist you are not in danger."