In reading about the possible lying that occurred WRT to the age of these Chinese athletes, I will admit I am NOT surprised! I just came back from 3 years of teaching in China and regrettably NOT all but MUCH of the Chinese society is based on playing and manipulating the "grey zones". Corruption, lying and deceit is rampant and is 'par for the course' there. I was lied to, sooo many times in China (by college masters and Foreign Affairs people) and cheated of money by college masters! They say one thing, and yet do another. Police and FEB are useless. Western world needs to open their eyes and do so very quickly. China, as a whole, is truly not what they pretend to be. Very disappointing experience and this has completely changed my views and impressions of China from being pro-China to being neutral and wary of Chinese society and people. They also need to stop "harping" about we"re the oldest society in the world and we have suffered terribly from foreign invasion " hence our anger and bitterness against foreign people. ** I feel most sorry for other athletes around the world who worked hard to compete and respect the rules, and who might have lost out because one country again decided to "bend rules" once again. **

I for one believe the accusations against the Chinese government are true. Hasn't anyone thought that the links being disabled is a sure way the government is trying to cover their tracks? If they really aren't guilty of this crime then why did they do that? They do not want to be incriminated any further than they already are.
Furthermore, I understand each country wanting to get the most medals, but being underhanded isn't the way. This is supposed to represent world peace and yet it doesn't. With China, the host country putting children in at the age of 14 and younger, shows they aren't really with the program.

This case is based on accusations with no solid proof. These athletes have passports saying their 16 years of age... yet people say the passports are fake. Then comes the documents saying their 14 years old, couldn't they be fake as well?.
This case is still under investigation, nobody cheated as far as I know.

It's not just that being younger, smaller, and lighter gives an advantage, but ignoring the age rule also greatly increases the pool of athletes the country can choose from. It's funny how smaller countries like Romania, N. Korea and Australia obeyed the age rule despite being so disadvantaged compared to China with 1.3 billion people. As some examples of what small, young girls have done see videos on Kim Gwan Suk (1991-1992 bars), Shantessa Pama (2004 bars dismount), Nastia Liukin (2005 floor and quad attempt). Could they still do those skills at age 18? How many exceptional juniors were left off Olympic and world teams for the past 20 years because they were underage?

One word...
Totalitarianism.
You'd think that China would have tried a bit harder to clean up the truth, you know, before the Olympics started. Should have used Nineteen Eighty-four as a instructional booklet, imo.
This whole affiar reeks of newspeak and big brother.