Ethnic children faked at Games opening

Reuters
Friday, 15 August 2008

Fake fireworks, a fake singer and now fake children at the Olympics
opening ceremony.

Organisers of the Games acknowledged today that children dressed in
ethnic costumes from around China who carried the Chinese flag at the
ceremony were not actually from those ethnic groups, some of whom have
tense relations with the government.

This is the third faking incident to emerge from the 8 August ceremony
after it was revealed an angelic nine-year-old girl lip-synched the
song "Ode to the Motherland" as the real singer was not pretty enough
and some "live" fireworks were pre-recorded. Games Vice President Wang
Wei played down the latest incident, saying he did not know exactly
where these children were from as they were performers representing
China's 56 minority groups.

"It is typical for Chinese performers to wear different apparel from
different ethnic groups. There is nothing special about it," Wang told
reporters.

"They will wear different apparel to signify people are friendly and
happy together."

But China's attempt to control every aspect of the ceremony, even if
it meant some trickery and substitutions, and other manipulation at
the Beijing Games such as bussing in cheering crowds has come under
heavy criticism internationally.

"Rather than announcing China's arrival as a modern, dynamic country,
they risk reinforcing the view that the Beijing government is
comprised of control-freaks," said a commentary by the Financial
Times.

Media reports said the children were from the Galaxy Children's Art
Troupe, which involves young actors and actresses mainly from the
dominant Han ethnic group which makes up about 92 per cent of China's
1.3 billion population.

But the programme for the four-hour ceremony had said the children
were from different ethnic groups.

"56 children from 56 Chinese ethnic groups cluster around the Chinese
national flag, representing the 56 ethnic groups," read the media
guide for the opening ceremony.

The fill-ins came as China struggles to keep conflicts with its ethnic
groups out of the spotlight during the Olympics.

Human rights groups have tried to use the world's focus on the
Olympics to highlight what they say is repression of Tibetans and
Muslim Uighurs of Xinjiang by China's government.

Today pro-Tibet independence campaigners staged a protest outside the
state TV headquarters, the CCTV building, in Beijing.

"This is a very unwelcome and unacceptable action in China," said
Wang, adding that most of the protesters were not Chinese.

"Tibet is part of China and the whole world recognise it. The free
Tibet movement is not welcome here."