Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has promised to raise human rights issues with China's leaders during a visit to Beijing for the Olympic Games opening ceremony.

"We will always raise our human rights concerns with them," Mr Rudd told reporters as pro-Tibet activists announced that he would be targeted in a television campaign as the Games begin.

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"I've done it in the past, I've done it privately, I've done it publicly, I'll be doing it again," he said, ahead of his departure for the Chinese capital on Thursday.

During a visit to Beijing in April, the Chinese-speaking former diplomat publicly voiced concern over human rights abuses in Tibet in a speech to university students.

But activists said they had spent tens of thousands of dollars on a TV advertisement to be screened before and after Friday's opening ceremony urging Rudd to raise the issue with the leadership.

'Opportune time' to speak out

The ad, by the political action group Get Up and the Australia Tibet Council, features an Australian-Tibetan woman in traditional dress sitting in a meditation pose, pleading with the prime minister.

"Please, Mr Rudd, do not leave Beijing without speaking out about Tibet," she says.

Get Up executive director Brett Solomon told reporters the group believed "this is the opportune time, when he's directly face-to-face with people who can change this, to actually speak out".

Australian Tibet Council officer Paul Bourke said China was going through the motions and appearing to address the Tibet issue without coming up with a solution.

"If Mr Rudd and other world leaders attending the opening ceremony remain silent, the Chinese government will interpret this as acceptance of the current situation in Tibet," he said.

Activists have long campaigned against what they see as Chinese repression in Tibet, which has been under Chinese rule since 1951.

The issue came to a head in March when peaceful protests erupted into riots in the regional capital Lhasa, prompting a brutal crackdown by Chinese authorities that has been widely condemned around the world.