CHINA intends to make Olympic history by staging part of the 2008 Beijing Games outside its own territory.

Top officials have suggested sending Olympians three hours by aircraft from the Olympic village on the northern edge of the Chinese capital to Hong Kong, which has its own Government, Constitution and Olympic committee.

In recent months, Beijing has been keen to assert its right of control over the former British colony despite guarantees of limited independence at the 1997 handover.

For China to hold events in Hong Kong would, therefore, be highly controversial given that the Olympic Movement is meant to be apolitical.

If the proposal is approved by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), some Chinese Olympians will perform in front of crowds loyal not to the host nation but another team. Hong Kong’s athletes performed well at the Athens Games, finishing above India in the medals table.

The Xinhua state news agency said that the proposal to use Hong Kong was made jointly by the Communist Party secretary of Beijing and the Chief Executive of Hong Kong, a Beijing loyalist.

They did not name the event to be held in Hong Kong but the most obvious one, sailing, has already been awarded to the city of Qingdao.

Moving some football matches to a Hong Kong sports arena is a possibility, just as London’s Olympic bid envisaged holding matches in Premier League venues outside the capital. But unlike Beijing London had disclosed its plans during the bidding process.

An IOC official in Lausanne would not rule out Beijing’s plans but sounded a note of caution. “Competitions should be held in the host city, as close to the Olympic village as possible,” she said.

“Exceptions can be made but the venues should all be in the territory of the hosting Olympic committee.”

Beijing admitted that its plans were controversial and may yet fall through, not least because linking Hong Kong to the Beijing Olympics might be seen as politicising the Games. “I’m sure a lot of problems will arise from this and we will have to have a lot of discussions first,” an official said.

Beijing announced last week that its yet-to-be-built Olympic venues for the 2008 Games will be significantly smaller than originally announced and that their completion date had been pushed back by a year.

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