Follow the opening ceremony live

After seven years of painstaking preparation, concerns over human rights and smog and a fresh drugs scandal, the most controversial Olympic Games since Moscow 1980 opens in Beijing today.

The stage is set for a truly spectacular show, with China sparing no expense for its “coming out party”.

Beijing has undergone a $40bn makeover to present the best possible image to the world of a rising economic and sporting superpower. The opening ceremony at the auspicious local time of 8pm on the eighth day of the eighth month will be the most lavish in Olympic history.

Directed by Zhang Jimou, the Chinese director whose films includes House of The Flying Daggers, the three-hour extravaganza is expected to involve 2,008 drummers from the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA), thousands of martial arts specialists and acrobats and the biggest ever fireworks display in a dazzling statement of China’s mounting confidence about its place in the world.

The first Games in China is expected to attract a potential worldwide audience of 4bn people.

But the state-sponsored fun has drawn its critics, who say China is using the Games to gloss over its poor human rights record, censorship of the press, and support of dubious foreign regimes in the pursuit of material resources to fuel its soaring economy.

President Bush took the opportunity on the eve of the Games to express “deep concerns over religious freedom and human rights” in China. His speech before his departure for Beijing featured some of his bluntest comments yet about China.

His criticisms reflected the political tightrope world leaders have been forced to tread while at the same time attending the greatest show on earth.

Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president who initially threatened to boycott the opening ceremony, sent China a list of prisoners and rights activists whose cases were a matter of concern for the European Union before he promptly boarded a plane to Beijing.

The two men are among the 80 heads of state and royal family members attending the opening ceremony amid heightened security.

Police patrolling the Olympic Park fear sporadic demonstrations throughout the 16-day sports event following the successful protest mounted by two British and two American pro-Tibet campaigners on Wednesday.

Iain Thom and Lucy Fairbrother were greeted with a rapturous reception by Tibetans at Heathrow airport yesterday after being deported for unfurling political banners from the top of lamp posts near the Olympic stadium.

The Chinese authorities have maintained that politics should be kept separate from the Olympics. The International Olympic Committee (IOC), which controversially awarded the Games to Beijing in 2001 on the basis it was better to embrace rather than exclude the world’s most populous nation, has repeated the mantra.

Jacques Rogge, IOC president, said the Games would be a catalyst for change and would alter the international perception of China. “For the rest of the world to discover China will be to discover a culture and a tradition of 5,000 years,” he said. “I believe the spotlight will help the world to understand China, and it will also help c China to understand the world.” He said the Beijing authorities had done “everything financially and humanly possible” to address pollution concerns that could prompt the suspension of endurance events such as the marathon.

While there was a threat of rain last night that could yet yield one of the promised “blue sky days”, Beijing was yesterday shrouded in a thick smog that the Olympic organisers insist is simply a “vapour” caused by heat and humidity.

“It is safe for the athletes,” Mr Rogge said. “The pollution levels are coming down and the Games will bring greater awareness in China about the need to reduce its pollution.

These are not just one-shot measures. They will have a lasting influence.” Whether the Games have a lasting impact on China with regards to greater civil freedoms and more transparency is a matter highly debated. Mr Rogge admitted the answer would not be known for years.

Even when London hosts the next Games in 2012, it may still not be clear if the Olympics had the desired effect. Tessa Jowell, the Olympics minister, said: “Every Olympic city brings its great moment when its great ambition crystallises. It remains to be seen whether China’s ambition is the one the rest of the world hopes it realises and that is greater tolerance, greater openness and greater freedom.”