The exceptional guest list for Friday's Big Event suggests that fears of losing Chinese business crossed continents and oceans, and ultimately outweighed outrage over China's human rights failings.

The American President is going, as is Australia's Premier. To the dismay of many in a country that considers itself the cradle of human rights, so is French President Nicolas Sarkozy -- who first threatened to boycott but later climbed down. Even rival Taiwan is sending a representative to the ceremony.

Other leading democracies were divided. The leaders of Britain, Germany and Canada are skipping the show. Probably to the relief of Chinese authorities, so too are the authoritarian chiefs of Sudan, Zimbabwe and Iran, as is North Korea's dictator Kim Jong Il.

For China, the net result is a winning one. The international turnout for the spectacle at the Bird's Nest national stadium will drive home to Chinese viewers and spectators worldwide the message Beijing has been intoning since winning the bid for the games seven years ago: China has arrived, whether its critics like it or not.

The unprecedented number of senior statesmen -- 104, organisers say -- has touched a nerve among some Chinese, who have likened it to imperial times when vassal states were expected to offer tokens of respect to Chinese emperors.

"It's like the practice in Chinese tradition of having all parts of the world come to pay tribute," said Xu Youyu, a retired philosophy professor and frequently outspoken critic of government policies.

"The Olympics also lets your own people know that the rest of the world confers legitimacy on and supports the government."

A total of 104 "national government dignitaries" from around the world will attend the Games, Chinese organising committee chief Liu Qi said on Tuesday.

He did not specify whether that meant heads of state or whether all would attend the opening ceremony.

Western diplomats in Beijing believe more than 100 foreign leaders were asked and 80 or so are believed to be coming.

China has held the invite list closely. Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said China did not solicit the foreign leaders, but that each country's Olympic committee did the inviting.

Deadly riots and a crackdown on protests in Tibet in March turned the opening ceremony invitation into a hot potato for leaders of major democracies. Tales of abused Tibetan monks reminded governments worldwide of the qualms many had over granting Beijing the Games in the first place.

Sarkozy was the first leader to threaten a boycott, urging talks between China and representatives of the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. That threat, followed by a rough run for the Olympic torch through protest-packed Paris, prompted a backlash by Chinese consumers and bloggers against France.

French desires to cool those tensions -- and to sell Airbus planes and nuclear equipment to Chinese customers -- eventually persuaded Sarkozy to climb down.

"Commercial and political reality took hold," said Douglas Paal, China specialist at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.

"Knowing that the Chinese would take stock of those decisions ... very few statesmen could avoid showing up."

On Friday, Sarkozy will represent both France and the European Union, since his country now holds the EU's rotating presidency.

Next week comes another test for the French leader: The Dalai Lama is coming to France during the Olympics, and Sarkozy has said he could meet with him despite China's displeasure.

Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Rudd -- a fluent Chinese speaker -- is heading Beijing-ward even after raising Chinese ire by suggesting in March that China's leaders should engage more with the Dalai Lama. He kept up the pressure on a visit the next month in Beijing.

But China's and Australia's economies are increasingly linked, and Rudd has said he does not believe in boycotting the Olympics.

US President George W Bush decided to attend the opening ceremony; too, saying it would be an "affront to the Chinese people" if he stayed away.

The President of the European Parliament is among the few who has announced a formal boycott. Hans-Gert Poettering said he would skip the ceremony because of a lack of progress in talks between China and the Dalai Lama's representatives.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown will only attend the closing ceremony. Though he announced the decision after the trouble in Tibet, he insisted the two were unrelated.

Brown has been careful to sidestep diplomatic tensions with China, which just signed a deal with Britain this year to increase trade between the countries.

No major German leader is attending the Games. Chancellor Angela Merkel has said, repeatedly, that the opening ceremony conflicts with her vacation.

German President Koehler is going instead to the Paralympics after the Olympic Games. Sport Minister Wolfgang Schaueble is going but about midway through the event.

Merkel has been more willing to address awkward issues in relations with China than her predecessor Gerhard Schroeder, and angered Beijing by welcoming the Dalai Lama to her Berlin officein 2007.

Other leaders were glad to accept the invitation of the century -- and hope to gain political and economic mileage from increasingly mighty China out of making the journey to Beijing.

"The Chinese leadership has signalled that coming earns points for the countries concerned," Paal said.

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva plans to lobby for Rio de Janeiro's bid for the 2016 Olympics. Lula has said nothing about human rights in China -- a huge and growing customer for Brazil's resources such as soy and iron ore.

Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister of growing Chinese trading partner Russia, is also going, as is Wu Poh-hsiung, chairman of Taiwan's ruling Nationalist Party.