It takes some imagination to connect the dots between the Beijing Olympic Games, a plastics factory in Guangzhou, an explosion and a Uighur separatist group called the Turkestan Islamic Party.

But the Turkestan group made such a linkage by claiming responsibility for four recent explosions in China in an online video statement transcribed by the Washington-based IntelCenter. The group threatened to target the Beijing Olympics scheduled to open next week.

One of the four terrorist attacks claimed by the group was "a July 17 explosion in a plastics factory in Guangzhou." However, Guangzhou police refuted the claim and said they had no record of such explosion in Guangzhou on the particular day.

Chinese public security officials denied the claims and said the other three explosions -- May 5 in Shanghai, July 21 in Kunming, Yunnan province, and May 17 in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province -- had no connections with terrorist activities, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

Chinese and foreign media have pointed out the poor production quality and the factual errors in the narratives. The Wenzhou incident was referred to with a wrong date. The video also mentioned "the eight Olympics cities in China," while in fact there are only seven such cities.

An official with the Guangdong Plastic Industry Association in Guangzhou told Plastics News Asia Bureau Chief Steve Toloken on July 28 that they were not familiar with any bombing or terrorist activity in local factories.

There was speculation in some media, including the Washington Post, that the Turkestan group may have been referring to a March 13 explosion at a Guangzhou vehicle repair facility and residential building that killed seven people. According to local media reports, that explosion occurred during an accident involving a truck delivering a large load of plastic caps or discs used in toy guns.

A Chinese vegetable vendor also claimed responsibility for the Kunming explosion via the online forums, who later admitted to the police that he made up the story to gain attention.

While denying the Turkestan group's claims, the Chinese government also is reinforcing security measures at Olympic venues and other public space in a number of major cities, according to various local media.