"Shouldn't it be good for everybody if the world came out of the Olympics knowing and liking China a little more than before?" said a commentary in the New York Times on Aug. 4.

Since the March 14 Lhasa riot, safety has been a major concern for the Games. Just over 100 hours before the opening ceremony, two men raided the Kashi border police on Monday in far-western Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, and killed 16 and injured another 16.

Police said the weapons were similar to those found by Xinjiang police at a training base of the "East Turkistan Islamic Movement" (ETIM) in a crackdown on Dec. 25, 2007.

Officials said the main security threats and problems for the Olympics come from the ETIM, Tibetan separatist forces, the Falungong cult and pro-democracy activists.

Beijing has deployed nearly 110,000 personnel including police, PLA troops and volunteers to ensure security.

More than 34,000 military personnel with 74 planes, 47 helicopters and 33 ships are in use. Special forces such as an army air unit, an engineering force and chemical defense troops are part of the mission.

Beijing's air quality has proved a thorny public relations problem. The air quality on Thursday was labeled "fairly good" with an average pollution index of 96. A pollution reading above 100 is classed as polluted.

Experts said that if the weather does not change dramatically in the next three days, Beijing would have a "fairly good" level of air quality on the opening day.

The city has relocated part of the Shougang Group, one of China's leading steel makers and the capital's major polluter, taken half of the city's 3.3 million vehicles off the roads, halted most construction projects, built more waste treatment facilities and utilized more geothermal resources.

Beijing's neighboring municipality and provinces have closed major polluters, removed high-emission cars from roads and restored grassland vegetation.

Experts claimed major air pollutants, such as carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and particulate matter from vehicles had dropped by 20 percent in Beijing year on year.

But some Beijing residents and visitors still complained the city was covered by mist and fog. Hot, humid air with the temperature hitting 34 degrees Celsius kept a muggy lid over the city for the last week in July.

To ensure blue skies during the Games, Beijing and the neighboring areas may impose stricter measures to curb industrial and vehicle emissions in case of continuous "sauna weather" and serious air pollution during the Olympics.

The emergency measures would include shutting down 105 more electric, furniture, building material and chemical plants, halting all construction work and pulling more vehicles off the road.

While rain has always been expected to clear the skies, it becomes a worry ahead of the opening ceremony, which will feature a massive fireworks display.

Beijing Meteorological Bureau officials said slight rain was forecast in Beijing on Friday, although it was impossible to tell at what time the rain would fall.

Several banks of rocket launchers have been set up outside the city to seed threatening clouds and cause them to release their rain before it reaches the capital.

Meanwhile, Zhang Qiang, head of the Beijing Artificial Weather Manipulation Bureau, said that no decision had been made on whether it would use cloud-seeding technology to prevent rain on the opening day.

"Our technology is still at an experimental stage," she said. "And for the moment we can only work with small clouds. If the conditions are appropriate we may try carry out our plans."

During the 17 days when the Olympic flame burns, more than 26,000 journalists from around the world will be reporting.

China wants to put its best face forward as the media put nearly everything Chinese under the microscope. To fulfill its Olympic bid commitments, the government had promised that reporters would be able to report the Games freely.

A week before the Olympic opening, President Hu Jintao pledged that China will continue to help foreign reporters' work after the Games.

"China has always opened its door to the outside world," Hu said during a joint interview with journalists from 25 international news organizations.

"Whether before the Beijing Olympics or after the Games, we will, as always, welcome foreign journalists and aid their reporting," Hu said.

The real changes the Olympics bring to China is the way of thinking. China has become a more prosperous, open, colorful and energetic nation. It will undoubtedly expand its openness to more fields in society, said the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia.

(Xinhua News Agency August 7, 2008)