Makes You Go, "Hmmm"

Apparently, there is a case to be made for under-aged Chinese gymnasts, as ESPN is reporting the Chinese organ, Xinhua, itself reported He Kexin was 13. Thus, ESPN concludes, she would have been "ineligible to be on the team that won a gold medal".

Interestingly enough and predictably, mums-the-word:

The Associated Press found the Xinhua report on the site Thursday morning and saved a copy of the page. Later that afternoon, the Web site was still working but the page was no longer accessible.

The paper reported He's age to be 14 this past May, although that was quickly corrected. In a statement, He herself backs the party line,

"my real age is 16. I don't pay any attention to what everyone says."

Because, of course, her word and her Chinese-government-issued passport is proof enough (end sarcasm here). Granted, she won and won going away, even at whatever-age-she-is. There is no question about that.

The question is not just, "Are the Chinese playing by the same rules for age?" You should be able to guess what my answer is to that. The question really is, "Are the Chinese abiding by ALL the rules?"

How else might they be cheating? Frankly, without an open society or viable third-party verification, we will never know He's age as it has been lost in the misty and redacted past of state revisionism.