As the long-anticipated 2008 Olympic Games open in Beijing, China faces sustained criticism from watchdog groups and lawmakers over its record on human rights and its restrictions on the press. Entwining the Olympics with politics is nothing new, experts say, but with the increased reach of global communications -- and China's desire to control those new media -- the spotlight is brighter and the stakes arguably higher.

China's Internet censorship and free speech controversies have received so much attention from American politicians and news outlets, experts say, as a result of changes in technology and the growing attention of the international media.

"In the eyes of the Chinese authorities, everyone is an enemy of the state, to be jailed, detained, deported or denied entry." --Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass.

The Beijing Games are unique in two ways, Rob Ruck, a senior history lecturer at the University of Pittsburgh, said in an e-mail.

"The first is the ubiquity of media coverage, which makes more people aware more quickly of what is happening there than in the past," he wrote. "The second is that China is on the verge of becoming the global juggernaut of the 21st century. What happens in China is of significance to people all over the world. As a result, its issues are critical to all of us."

Jeffrey Wasserstrom, a history professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and author of the recent book "China's Brave New World -- And Other Tales for Global Times," said that although the Olympics always gets wrapped up with politics, "the particular focus of issues of media censorship is a relatively new thing" in part because the "games have become such an intense media event," and because this is the first Olympics of the Internet age where the international media has had "limited access to the Internet."

Still, Wasserstrom says, "Despite this ideal of the games somehow standing above politics... politics almost inevitably comes into play."

The Summer Games saw boycotts in 1956, 1976, 1980 and 1984; and in 1972, Israeli athletes were taken hostage and later killed by a Palestinian terrorist group.

Indeed, Ruck wrote, "The Olympic Games have never been able to transcend social and political issues."

"That was true in 1936, when boycotting the Berlin Olympics was hotly debated in the United States and an anti-fascist alternative Olympics scheduled for Spain (only to be canceled due to the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War)," he wrote. "That was true in 1968, when hundreds of students were killed by paramilitary squads associated with the Mexican government only days before the games began, and when issues regarding race and sport in the United States led to the protest by Tommie Smith and John Carlos."

David Bachman, a professor with the University of Washington's Jackson School of International Studies, wrote in an e-mail that the Summer Games have typically "taken place in democratic countries." In 1980, however, "when the games were in Moscow, the U.S. and many other western teams boycotted, so the issue wasn't picked up much, at least in the U.S."

Ultimately, Ruck wrote, "While I think that China cares about how the world perceives these games, the most important audience [for the government] is the domestic audience. The government sees the games as a means to build national identity and hold China together during what will likely be troubling times."

This week, watchdog groups and lawmakers continued to blast China for its treatment of journalists and alleged human rights abuses. "In the eyes of the Chinese authorities, everyone is an enemy of the state, to be jailed, detained, deported or denied entry," said Congressional Human Rights Caucus Co-Chairman Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass, in a statement Thursday.

The watchdog group Human Rights Watch said Friday that foreign journalists in China are facing a "host of severe restrictions, ranging from harassment to a censored Internet."

"On August 4, two Japanese journalists were detained and beaten in Kashgar, while on August 6 an ESPN producer at the scene of a Students for a Free Tibet protest in Beijing was harassed," the group said in a statement. "In addition to obstruction by uniformed police in Beijing, foreign media have to contend with close monitoring and harassment by large numbers of plainclothes police and Olympic volunteers working under police instruction. Their tactics include aggressively following, videotaping, or photographing journalists in an attempt to hinder their work."

Human Rights Watch said Web sites deemed sensitive by the government continue to be blocked -- including those linked to Tibetan groups and the Falun Gong as well as the Chinese-language pages of Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, China Rights Defenders and Human Rights in China, ChineseNews.net and Radio Free Asia's Mandarin service.

China's state-run media has continued to publish articles defending the country's environment for the Olympics and drawing attention to positive developments surrounding the Games. "We have made it very clear that we oppose any attempts to politicize the Games," Sun Weide, a Beijing Games spokesman, was quoted as saying in a July report from Xinhua News Agency. "Regarding the human rights, preparations for the Beijing Games have promoted the social and economic progress in China, especially in Beijing, and such preparations have brought about better understanding between China and the world," Sun said.

President Bush, on his trip to Asia this week, criticized China's human rights record, drawing a rebuke from Beijing. In a statement today, however, he focused on the U.S. athletes. "It's got to be really exciting -- thinking about marching in that stadium and representing our country. So I guess all I've got to say is, go forth, give it all you've got, and may God bless you."