Age of Deception
This is not breaking news. In fact, it’s a story that’s been doing the rounds for some time, with the exception of the Chinese media, whose silence is often a good barometer for ‘we’ve got something to hide’. We can safely dismiss the ’sour grapes’ theories of apologists in this case as doubts were first voiced well before the Games began. I think it deserves to stay in the spotlight a while longer.
The apparent deception in this case concerns the age of two (or more) of China’s female gymnasts in Beijing. Chinese authorities have decided to censor online discussion of the matter, omit the issue from media coverage altogether, delete or revise incriminating evidence, and rage with defensive indignation if the issue is raised at press conferences. Sound familiar? It also sounds like they’ve been rumbled and have reverted to type by wrapping themselves up in denial. The story has been gaining traction for several months now, ever since online records and reports relating to pre-Olympic domestic competitions clearly indicated that both He Kexin and Yang Yilin were barely old enough to be out of diapers.
Initial queries about the online records were labeled as western meddling and rebuffed by waving shiny new passports that ‘proved’ the darling cherubs really were 16. Unfortunately, and exasperatingly, for Chinese authorities (and their IOC buddies), western media - not to mention athletes cheated out of medals - are not so easily put off. Nor should they be.
At this stage, the gymnasts and their guardians knew what the questions were going to be at the post-gold press conference. And they were ready with perfectly choreographed answers that actually answered nothing at all. What the responses did reveal was that the girls had been turned into liars on behalf of their masters. Needless to say, western journalists didn’t take this lying down and have kept the story simmering nicely on the back burner waiting for the next opening. They didn’t have to wait long. Hat tip to Imagethief for that link to some pretty compelling evidence.
He and Yang are, of course, blameless in this episode. They are merely doing what they are told - tools of the State whose tiny lives have been micro-managed within a punishing training regimen since the day their gymnastic potential was first identified. The culprits are the adults masquerading as their caregivers and the authorities to whom they must answer.
Years of unquestioning obedience and acceptance of whatever the government does and says have made for complacency. Thus, China’s crude answer to the age problem seems to have been to deduct a couple of years from the gymnast’s birth dates, issue new passports, and re-educate the girls about the year they arrived on the planet. The really stupid part of this strategy is that they expected to sweep gold, accept the plaudits, and have any suggestion of wrongdoing eliminated at the stroke of a pen. Then again, this strategy has been perfected on a domestic testing ground, and it seems increasingly that the Games have been orchestrated with the primary goal of satisfying the home audience. Therefore, offending western moral sensibilities doesn’t come close to bothering team China, and whose IOC lapdogs are too weak to act on a clear breach of Olympic rules.
A more recent defence of the flexible fledglings’ ages has been to state that it’s common practice in China to falsify records to show that an individual is younger than they truly are, and, so some would have us believe, that this is clearly what happened when the girls were registered for previous competitions (the evidence found online). Well, that’s alright then. To be fair, I’ve encountered this phenomenon in China several times; they really do falsify documents to show themselves to be younger - when it’s to their social, educational, professional, or financial advantage. A recent sporting example of how falsifying documents to appear younger can be advantageous comes in the form of NBA star Yi Jianlian. In the case of our diminutive darlings there was no conceivable gain to registering as two years younger for the domestic competitions that preceded the Games. If you read the linked-to articles you’ll be aware that He Kexin was registered for those competitions with a birthdate of 1 January 1994.
If anyone needs a guide as to the chances that these gymnasts were competing within IOC age regulations, let me offer a helpful comparison: it’s about the same chance that I would have of beating Usain Bolt in a sprint. Hope that makes things clear.
There are a couple of points that warrant closer attention here. First, the falsification of passports and revision (or removal) of online documents and media content can only have been achieved with the full assistance of the State and high-level authorisation. No wonder BOCOG and Chinese officials want this one to go away. Second, the pathetically toothless IOC’s reluctance to get involved in this issue (and many others) reinforces my belief that Beijing have got Jacques Rogge well and truly in their pocket. The CCP certainly knows a thing or two about corrupting coercing those that it needs in order to get its own way. In Rogge they found their man. Under his presidency, and in particular with his kowtowing to Beijing, the integrity of both the IOC and the Games has been further undermined.
China isn’t the first nation to engage in state-sponsored cheating, and they won’t be the last. But when not one domestic voice is prepared to call them on the matter (whether through fear or nationalistic fervour), it’s a red flag to foreign journalists and bloggers to set the record straight. I can’t tell you that the age rules for Olympic gymnasts are sensible, but I can tell you that those rules were breached by the Chinese female team and that it was done with the full knowledge of their relevant governing body.
- Censorship , Media , Olympics
August 24th, 2008 at 10:23 pm
I thought the Chinese Gymastics Federation also turned in He Kexin’s old passport and ID card (shenfenzheng)? When was the old passport issued, does anybody know? Unless you are saying that they falsified her age when they issued her old passport because they expected her to compete in the Olympics many years later; or they altered her date of birth on her old passport before this whole thing was scrutinized?
“it’s a red flag to foreign journalists and bloggers to set the record straight”
Stuart, as a foreign blogger living in China, what do you propose?
“The CCP certainly knows a thing or two about coercing those that it needs in order to get its own way.”
They haven’t coerced you, have they?
So you see, they are not that invincible.
“China sucks!”
August 25th, 2008 at 2:37 am
pffefer - I’m not sure that turning over ‘old’ passports changes anything.
Age concerns aside, I admire those that keep their word.
Even without the gymnast controversy (and some dodgy judging here and there), China certainly didn’t suck at these Games. Your opinion is noted, though.
August 26th, 2008 at 7:24 am
[...] for anyone with a dissenting voice; exceptionally blatant circumventing of the rules in order to field underage gymnasts; exceptional levels of lies and disregard for joe public in the distribution of Olympic tickets; [...]
August 26th, 2008 at 11:34 pm
By now it’s obvious the issue isn’t a lack of proof, proof is abundant… it is the lack of willingness to address it.
Many even acknowledge the duplicity as factual but pass off attempts to enforce the rules against the host as “whining”.
I’m sure they’d be just as understanding if the US won gold with a gymnastics team packed with participants our own records proved ineligible.
I’m just as sure those same people would not mind if the USOC went into the same hyperdrive mode of censorship and altered or removed years of previously published age verifications that inconveniently disagreed with current claims.
Face it… gymnasts weren’t the only ones there missing secondary sexual characteristics normally developed by a certain age. The IOC’s Jacques Rogge and the FIG’s Bruni have proven to be missing some of those too.
August 27th, 2008 at 12:34 am
Thanks for stopping by, Rob.
Yes, this is will go down in Chinese folklore as the west’s attempt to derail the Olympic party rather than an effort to see fair play. Such is the situation when the state is prepared to endorse the falsification of official documents and the removal of incriminating media content.
August 28th, 2008 at 10:52 am
If she is underage then she will have to lose her medal. But she shouldn’t be any other sanctions against the girl - if she is in fact underage she is an innocent pawn.
But to tell the truth, some bitter US hacker in cahoots with Falun Gong’s Epoch Times?
If I was a betting man I’d say that everything is actually just fine and its some bullshit stirred up by bitter, resentful whites.
August 29th, 2008 at 2:15 am
“..if she is in fact underage she is an innocent pawn.”
That is absolutely correct, and I made that point.
“If I was a betting man I’d say that everything is actually just fine and its some bullshit stirred up by bitter, resentful whites.”
If there was definitive proof you’d lose, MW.
October 3rd, 2008 at 5:39 pm
Well, the 2nd age investigation prompted by USOC exec Jim Schurr has again exhonorated He Kexin and her teammates.
Do we hate China so much, that even after two investigation by international body, we’re still gonna throw He Kexin under the bus?
I hope your daughter or sister will never be put thru the ringer like this.
October 4th, 2008 at 3:25 am
Charles - nobody was putting He Kexin and her team mates ‘through the ringer’, but rather the officialdom that forced deception upon them. Everyone, myself included, was at pains to point out the girls’ innocence in this matter.
Exonerated, you say? Hardly! Here’s the money quote from Andre Gueisbuhler, secretary general of the FIG:
“We have received all we could possibly ask for,” Gueisbuhler said. “All of them confirm the age that they should be, so what can we do?”
What can we do, indeed!
He knows. Chinese documents produced by Chinese authorities do not represent proof that these gymnasts were not underage (passports, ID cards and family registers for He Kexin, Yang Yilin, Jiang Yuyuan, Deng Linlin and Li Shanshan all showed the girls were 16 or would turn 16 this year). It’s just all there is; except the far more compelling evidence to the contrary linked to above and in a thousand other online articles.
The truth will out eventually, as in the case of Sydney bronze medallist, Dong Fangxiao:
Gueisbuhler said the documents Dong used for her Beijing credential would have made her too young for the Sydney Games. Dong was a national technical official in Beijing, working as the secretary on vault. She was not part of any judging panel.
“If that document is the correct one, that would suggest she was 14 years old at the Sydney Olympic Games,” Gueisbuhler said.
Dong’s blog also says she was born in the Year of the Ox in the Chinese zodiac, which dated from Feb. 20, 1985, to Feb. 8, 1986. Dong has not denied that, but she refused to answer any questions about her age, telling the AP last week, “I’ve left the gymnastics team.”
“If the FIG wants to investigate this matter,” she added, “I will provide every form of documentation.”
The FIG also has a copy of Yang’s 2007 interview, in which she seems to contradict her official birthdate. Yang’s birthdate is listed as Dec. 2, 1984.
“At the time I was only 14,” she said in the CCTV interview, done in Chinese. “I thought that if I failed this time, I’ll do it again next time. There’s still hope.”
But Yang told the AP last week that she had misspoken, declining further comment.
“Everyone has misspoken before. On television shows, there are always slips of the tongue,” she said, declining to comment further.
And so it goes on. Pressure applied from above in an endless cycle of denial, falsification, and obfuscation.
I reiterate that China isn’t the only country guilty of such obvious, if ultimately unproved cheating, but at some point we need people to stand up for fair play and integrity. On these counts, in this instance, China failed spectacularly.