How convenient. Two weeks before the Beijing Olympics begin, Cheng Jiulong, head of Shanghai’s Olympic security bureau, announces that “we have obtained information that international terrorist organisations would likely launch an attack against an Olympic venue in the city during the Games.”

The venue is the stadium that will host twelve qualifying games in the football tournament.

The Socceroos are scheduled to play at the stadium.

How convenient, too, that following the practice adopted during earlier terrorists scares, there were no details given about the thwarted plot. How many people were involved? Who were the terrorists? What was the purpose of the intended attack?

The Sydney Morning Herald on Saturday, July 26 ran a fascinating story by its correspondent Mary-Anne Toy about the way the Chinese Communist Party has used the Olympics to tighten the screws on the activity of the Falun Gong sect, which Toy describes as a “quasi-Buddhist spiritual movement preaching truth, forbearance, and compassion, and teaches qi gong - ancient Chinese breathing exercises - to improve health and allegedly even cure illnesses and injuries.”

By the time Falun Gong was banned in China in 1992, the sect had 70 million followers in the country, including - according to Toy - members of the government and the Communist Party.

And although the sect proclaims it is not “trying to overthrow the government,” it does try to expose the “evil nature” of the Communist Party.

In the eyes of the Communist Party, exposing the true nature of its regime is equivalent to trying to overthrow it. And in the context of “the truth will make you free,” this is probably correct and the explanation why the Chinese Government is so vehemently hostile to Falun Gong and its followers.

Their persecution is somewhat like the persecution of the Christians by the Roman Emperors.

There is no doubt that the Chinese authorities will not tolerate Falun Gong activities during the Olympics.

Given the bravery and steadfastness of Falun Gong, there will be attempts to test the limits of civil disobedience in China while the world’s media is gathered in Beijing and Shanghai to report on the Games and on life on the streets outside of the arenas.

Now the Chinese authorities can claim that any demonstrations are potential terrorist attacks and deserving of a heavy-handed response.

So I’ll be watching the events and the athletes striving to go higher, longer and higher.

But there will be a clothes-peg on the nose if the authorities crack down with bull boy viciousness on justifiable protests exposing the cant and corruption of the Communist Party regime.

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