Beijing Blocks Reports Of Fakery

Sky News
Friday, Aug 29, 2008

China has blocked internet reports that it faked one of the centrepieces of the Olympic Games opening ceremony involving a seven-year-old singer.

Lin Miaoke was picked to mime at the event in Beijing because the real singer - another seven-year-old girl - had crooked teeth and was not deemed to be sufficiently good-looking.

The story appeared around the world, but was much harder to find in China, where internet articles were blocked to prevent embarrassment to the Communist regime.

A trawl for the story on Google and leading Chinese search engine Baidu led to messages saying "page temporarily unavailable".

Links to the article on the website of Chinese national newspaper Guangming were also blocked.

The seven-year-old was watched by millions around the world as she appeared at the ceremony.