Just after the discombobulated San Francisco torch relay concluded, a new threat hit the headlines: Beijing said it had thwarted a Muslim terror plot in which terrorists planned to kidnap Olympic athletes, foreign journalists and other visitors during the August Games. And China's attempts to police its borders are getting media attention too; the visa clampdown that we'd blogged and written about earlier is really beginning to bite.

Today in a Beijing press conference Ministry of Public Security spokesman Wu Heping said 35 people had been arrested, and bomb-making materials discovered, between March 26 and April 6 in the far Western region of Xinjiang, home to some 8 million Uighur Muslims. Militant Uighurs have long been accused of "religious extremism, separatism and terrorism", by the government, though there's alot of disagreement over whether the intensity of the threat has been hyped.

Xinjiang was home to a brief-lived East Turkestan Republic in the 1930's and 40's. Today's East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) is recognized by both Beijing and Washington D.C. as a terrorist organization with links to Al Qaeda.  In an earlier plot revealed in March, Wu said, ETIM extremists had plotted to attack hotels, government offices and military targets in Shanghai, Beijing and other cities with poison, poison gas and remotely controlled bombs.

So, about those border controls.  If it isn't the threat posed by alleged Muslim extremists, it might be foreign protestors out to disrupt the torch relay, as they'd done in London, Paris and San Francisco. The torch is due back in China on May 4 to tour every province (including Tibet) on its way to the Olympic stadium for the Aug 8 opening ceremony.

China's Foreign Ministry has denied changing its visa rules. But travel agents in Hong Kong say, in most cases, they can no longer supply visas for longer than 30 days, according to local media reports and the Associated Press (AP). A few travel agents who were reluctant to be identified are still offering to supply three month visas. However, multiple entry visas are no longer available, only single and double-entry ones. 

The Hong Kong Association of Travel Agents has also highlighted another rule change: a ban on short-stay Mainland visas issued at the border crossing, which had allowed foreign passport-holders in Hong Kong to nip conveniently across to the mainland. The travel industry body says short-stay visas are now being processed centrally by the city's Commissioner of the Foreign Ministry, and could take several days to obtain.

In reality, the slow-motion tightening of visa rules began a full year ahead of the Games when one-year multi-entry work visas (known as F and Z visas) became mysteriously unobtainable from most visa agents in Aug 2007. As NEWSWEEK reported in February, a police crackdown on visa agents was accompanied by a rise in deportations, and ever-shorter validity periods. There were even rumours that no visas would be issued past Aug 1. Read more about that here.

The one-month visa policy is just too difficult for some. "I've got absolutely no intention of making return trips outside the country all the time," says Mariana, a Paris-based media-business consultant whose visa expires in mid-May. "I will not will be coming back to China again until everything calms down, most probably in September or October." She's already decided to give up her Beijing apartment: "It’s really not worth the hassle for me." 

Anger and anxiety among long-stay or frequent business visitors who depend on multi-entry visas is growing. It's fueled by anecdotal evidence that even some holders of unexpired multi-entry visas are finding their right to re-enter the country being questioned by airport authorities.

Would any of this keep out determined protestors? Much will likely depend on the mood closer to August. China's failing PR efforts have not been impressive in recent days. The besieged torch relay was swarmed by protestors in London, cut short due to chaotic scrums in Paris, and compelled to play hide-and-seek with the public in San Francisco in order not to be overwhelmed (which sort of misses the whole point). 

Meanwhile, representatives of all 205 national Olympics committees are meeting in Beijing to discuss preparations for the Games. Their draft statement circulated on Wednesday appealed to China to find "a fair and reasonable solution to the internal conflict that affects the Tibet region". Within hours the reference to Tibet had been pruned, according to a version seen by AP. The new draft resolution expresses "confidence" that China "will strive through dialogue and understanding, to find a fair and reasonable solution to the internal conflict for the benefit of the games and the athletes". 

 Then there's the hissy fit between Beijing officials and IOC head Jacques Rogge over his comments suggesting that improved human rights were part of the "moral engagement" expected of China as an Olympic host. No doubt Beijing wishes heightened border controls could keep out all that unsolicited advice from pesky foreigners, as well as the trouble-makers themselves.