China attacked those it accused of seeking to politicise this summer's Olympics yesterday, predicting that attempts to use the Games to change national policy were doomed to failure.

The rare outburst from the usually secretive Government appeared in an angry opinion piece in the People's Daily, the mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party. It offered an insight into increasing sensitivity within the leadership towards criticism by international activists of its policies, ranging from freedom of religion to independence for the island of Taiwan.

The author, a veteran People's Daily journalist, said: “As the Beijing Olympics have become a popular talking point around the world, some who look at the Chinese people with tinted spectacles have created a sort of baffling ‘excitement'.”

Some groups had tried to recruit “stars” to take up their cause, he wrote, in an apparent reference to the actress Mia Farrow, who has been leading a global campaign for China to change its policies in Sudan. China sells weapons to the Government and is a leading buyer of Sudan's oil.

China would not be cowed, the article insisted. Its author wrote: “They believe they can exert enough pressure on the Chinese Government to force China into a situation where it cannot but do their bidding. These people have made the wrong calculation.”

Officials have shied away for months from questions on whether international criticism, particularly over Sudan, was resulting in a politicisation of the Games, which begin on August 8 in Beijing. They have insisted that they are purely a sporting event.

The headline in the People's Daily read: “Olympics building a bridge not putting up a wall.” The writer cited international approval for Chinese efforts to exert its influence, which is widely regarded as having been instrumental in convincing Sudan to accept a United Nations peacekeeping force for Darfur. China may have been partly stung into action by widespread references to the summer Games as the “Genocide Olympics”.

The article attempted to answer critics by citing the importance of respect for the Olympic spirit. “There is no country in the world hosting an Olympics that would compromise on its own core interests.” While China was open to criticism and shouldered its share of taunts and harsh nitpicking, it could not accept being dragged into a miasma of politics, the piece said. Critics were hurting not only the feelings of 1.3 billion Chinese, but were dragging the Games into a whirlpool of politicisation. That politicisation may have started as early as 2001, when China's own Olympics bid committee argued that awarding the Games to Beijing would help the development of human rights.

However, as recently as last month police took into custody a soft-spoken 34-year-old activist who had been effectively confined for 222 days to his apartment in suburban Beijing by plainclothes officers. The authorities defended the arrest of Hu Jia, saying that all legal procedures had been observed and he faced charges of subversion.

Most human rights activists, inside China and without, have said that the detention is intended to take Mr Hu out of circulation well in advance of the summer Games, thus reducing publicity and curbing his activities.

Human rights defenders said in a January report that a crackdown on those determined to draw attention to human rights violations in China was expected to intensify in the lead-up to the games.

The People's Daily commented: “If at each subsequent Olympics people stand up and use politics to maliciously attack the host nation, and use ideology to draw up boycotts, where does that leave the Olympic spirit?”