BEIJING (AFP) — The organisers of the Beijing Olympics are nothing if not polished and professional, but they share with the country's leadership a tendency to be media shy and opaque.
"We still don't exactly know who runs what," said one foreign diplomat who has been building a "who's who" wall chart of members of the Beijing Olympic Organising committee (BOCOG) for more than a year.
One thing is clear -- China's President Hu Jintao takes a personal interest in the Games which he has earmarked as among China's top priorities for 2008.
And while BOCOG -- a mixture of career diplomats from the foreign ministry, bureaucrats from the Beijing city government, and administrators from the ministry-level General Administration of Sports of China -- is in charge of preparing the Games, a shadow group appears to be pulling the strings behind the scenes.
The so-called leadership group directly under central government control was formed several months ago but its existence was only officially acknowledged in March this year.
At the head of the group is Vice President Xi Jinping, China's fast-rising political star who is widely viewed as the frontrunner to replace Hu as the ruling Communist Party's top leader and the nation's president in 2012 and 2013 respectively.
The party set up the group to supervise final arrangements for the August 8-24 Games, according to Beijing vice-mayor Liu Jingmin, speaking at a news conference in March.
"The establishment of this small group will greatly support and add strength during the final sprint in preparatory work for the Beijing Games," said Liu, himself an executive vice-president of BOCOG and a key player in Chinese Olympic diplomacy.
It was seen as no coincidence that the emergence of Xi's group, which was welcomed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as a signal of the central government's full commitment to staging a successful Games, came when BOCOG was struggling to keep its head above water amid an onslaught of troubles.
China was facing sustained international criticism on human rights and its tough restrictions on dissent and press freedom as well as its record of support for the government of Sudan, accused of genocide in its Darfur region, and for the military dictators in Myanmar.
At the same time security fears over the potential terrorism threat to the Games also mounted and then international outcry followed China's crackdown on unrest in Tibet in March.
During a visit to Beijing in April Hein Verbruggen, the head of an IOC commission that has been working closely with BOCOG for the past seven years, welcomed the central government's new role.
"We have recently noticed an increased level of support by the government which is absolutely necessary to reinforce the excellent work that has been done already by BOCOG," Verbruggen said at the time.
BOCOG was set up in December 2001 under the leadership of Liu Qi, the top communist official in Beijing who as mayor led the capital's successful bid for the 2008 Games in Moscow, also in 2001.
For a man who heads a committee that is set to host teams from 205 nations, Liu keeps a low public profile, steering clear of the media spotlight, and almost never appearing at press conferences or giving interviews.
Like many of China's leadership group, Liu is an engineer by training and recognised as a highly competent bureaucrat. But even in meetings with friends from the IOC, Liu is known to be somewhat stiff and formal.
"It seems to be the Chinese way," said an IOC official during the organisation's executive board meeting here in April.
When BOCOG was initially formed, sports ministry and Beijing government officials initially sparred for control and the battle was won by the professional bureaucrats from city hall.
These included officials like Wang Wei, the suave US-educated BOCOG vice president and Liu Jingmin, the Beijing vice-mayor, both who played key roles in the bidding process.
The affable public face of BOCOG is often supplied by the avuncular and unflappable Jiang Xiaoyu, a career cadre with the Beijing party and city government, who spends most of his time travelling overseas on BOCOG public relations business.
The man dubbed China's "Mr. Olympics," He Zhenliang, is retained as an executive member and advisor to BOCOG.
An honorary president of China's Olympic Committee, He, 78, spearheaded the country's failed bid to host the 2000 Games but bounced back to help China win hosting rights for 2008.
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