BEIJING - The blocking of human rights Web sites in China leading up to the Olympics is part of an information control and surveillance network awaiting visitors that will include monitoring devices in hotels and taxis and snoops almost everywhere.

Government agents or their proxies are suspected of stepping up cyber-attacks on overseas Tibetan, human rights and press freedom groups and the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement in recent weeks. And China is spending huge sums on sophisticated surveillance systems that incorporate face-recognition technology, biometrics and massive databases to help control the population.

China has installed approximately 300,000 cameras in Beijing under an estimated $6.5 billion seven-year program dubbed "Grand Beijing Safeguard Sphere." Though face recognition software still isn't good enough to work with rapidly moving images, China hopes it will soon be able to electronically identify faces out of a vast crowd.

"China is trying to project a picture and a narrative about the Olympics," said Nicholas Bequelin, Hong Kong-based researcher with Human Rights Watch. "By limiting journalists, shutting down the Internet, arresting activists, it's hoping to control the message."

The world's most populous nation has legitimate concerns, as seen by an attack in the far western province of Xinjiang this week that killed 16 police officers. But few expect China's security infrastructure to be even partially dismantled, a step Greece took after hosting the 2004 games.

Left in place, critics said, these systems give China more advanced tools in its bid to control domestic critics, activists and media. In recent months, China has recruited thousands of Beijing taxi drivers and hundreds of thousands of neighborhood busybodies to keep an eye on foreigners and Chinese citizens.

"Everyone feels they're entering a police state, which by the way it is, duh," said Sharon Hom, executive director of New York-based Human Rights in China.

Know 'em when I see 'em

Near the second ring road in downtown Beijing, Wu Naimei, 74, sat on a folding chair fanning herself. "If we see any suspicious people, we call the police and report on them," the retired subway worker said, adding that she can't define a suspicious person but knows one when she sees one. "We are happy to help protect our motherland, assist the nation and help our leaders relax."

Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., announced in late July that foreign-owned hotel owners in China were under pressure to sign contracts authorizing police to install hardware and software that monitored their guest's online activity. Hotel managers contacted in Beijing declined to comment.

This followed a State Department warning in March that "all hotel rooms and offices are considered to be subject to on-site or remote technical monitoring at all times."

Li Wei, a counterterrorism expert with the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, a semiofficial research organization, said most Chinese surveillance is in line with other Olympic host nations and doesn't dangerously compromise privacy.

Still, experts like Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center and author of a recent report on Chinese surveillance, believe China is pushing the envelope.

"With Internet controls, there are ways around," Rotenberg said. "But with surveillance technologies you're getting into the fabric of the state."