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Are Three Olympic Gymnasts Products of China’s Culture of Cheating?
Written by Robert Vance on August 15, 2008 – 11:11 amWe should not be surprised to hear that three of China’s women gymnasts are not actually old enough to be participating in the 2008 Olympics. After all, the Chinese are good at cheating and they will tell you so unabashedly. Some months ago, I wrote an article entitled Cheating in China — It’s an Epidemic in which I explained how cheating is viewed as a way to survive in China. I have had dozens of Chinese students and adults alike tell me that they have cheated often and that they will cheat again if it means that they could ‘get ahead’ in life. Quite simply, cheating is a part of the culture here and this fact has been confirmed by many of my Chinese students and friends.
Only the Chinese themselves could possibly believe that the three gymnasts in question, Yang Yilin, He Kexin, and Jian Yuyuan, are sixteen years of age. There is a growing mountain of evidence from archived Chinese newspaper articles as well as local competition records, that these girls were not eligible to compete this year. Combining this evidence with the fact that these girls simply look far too young, there is little doubt in my mind that the Chinese women’s gymnastics team should not have been given a gold medal on Thursday.
If it is proven that these girls were in fact too young to participate in the 2008 Olympics, I hold the Chinese government and the IOC directly responsible for this deception. The Chinese government issues passports to its citizens. Someone in the government purposely ‘overlooked’ or simply ‘changed’ certain information to make sure that the passports displayed ages that would make the girls eligible for the Games. The IOC should have known better than to accept passports as the only means of verifying athletes’ ages. In a country like China, were few see anything immoral or unethical about cheating, such a policy by the IOC was basically inviting China to try to pull something off like this.
“America is making this up,” a Chinese friend told me today. “Of course the girls were old enough to compete. People always criticise the gold medal winners.” Do they? I did not hear or read about anyone criticizing Chinese athlete Yang Wei yesterday after he dramatically won the gold medal in men’s gymnastics. The fact is, the whole world recognizes that this has been a great week for Team China. Nevertheless, cheating is cheating and China should not be given a free pass just because this is its first time to host the Olympic Games.
Even when they are faced with evidence of cheating from their own media, the Chinese people will undoubtedly accuse America and the rest of the world of trying to sabotage their precious Olympic Games. So what? The IOC, which has so far been silent on the issue, needs to ’step up to the plate’ and begin investigating this matter immediately. If the IOC does not live up to its responsibilities, then it may very well be allowing China to sabotage the Olympic hopes of other countries.
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You can only do business with china if you check EVERTHING to see if it meets your contract specifications. U S business that import without 100% inspection of Chinese made products are greedy fools.
Cheating is found in all cultures.
By pointing this out, I am at least more honest than those claiming to be from more “honest” culture.
@Yugung,
Thanks for pointing out the obvious. Of course it is found in all cultures. However, I would argue that it is much more prevalent in China than most other countries…
If the IOC will allow this type of cheating, then how can they DQ anyone for doping? This is a double standard.
[...] 16? Maybe not — It’s a story that’s been out for a few weeks now but has received new life in the wake of China’s success in women’s gymnastics this week. Three Chinese gymnasts who look way too young to be sixteen may very well be under the legal age [...]
I think other country existes found more skillful in cheating than China, eg. cheat to start a war maybe?
@Chen,
Such a response is exactly what I expected. Chinese people have a habit of pointing fingers at everyone but themselves. We are not talking about the U.S.A. and its war in Iraq. Believe me, there are plenty of Americans who are angry about that and suggest that a grave mistake was made. Why can’t the Chinese ever admit that they have made mistakes or that something wrong was done? Could it have to do with the fact that no one that I know ever praises the athletes who won silver and bronze medals in the Olympics? Could it have to do with the fact that even though there is a mountain of evidence that these girls are underage (and CCTV has more or less admitted it) that people here will deny it up and down and say that it’s impossible? Yes…for the Chinese, there are no mistakes…everything must be perfect…there is no way that this country could ever do anything bad…
@Robert Vance
So I’m not supposed to talk about war in Iraq, for what reason? because I’m a Chinese?I know “plenty of Americans who are angry about that and suggest that a grave mistake was made”, but do they REALLY make a difference? Iet’s see about Iran.
If He Kexin violates IOC regulations, she should return her gold medal.
Admit your own mistakes first before pointing at other’s is a good old manner in China, I know it sounds like a lazy excuse for not taking any advices, but it can at least make Chinese willing to listen.
@Chen,
Let’s see about Iran? How about let’s see about the 2008 election. That’s how people make a difference in America; they can vote.
Of course you can talk about Iraq just like I can talk about China. Iraq, however, is not the topic at hand. American has admitted that mistakes were made in the Iraq war…the government has admitted that…the citizens have admitted that. What more do you want?
What about China? What have they admitted?
@Robert Vance
No comment on American election.
What have they admitted? e.g they admitted culture revolution is wrong publicly in 1978, in case you don’t know.
@Chen,
True. The Chinese government was more than willing to admit that the cultural revolution was a mistake after Mao died. 1978…two years after Mao died…the government pretty much took credit for everything good that had happened in China and blamed Mao for all of the bad…in other words, Deng Xiaoping and company were not apologizing for the current government’s actions. They were condemning Mao’s actions..
Besides, that was 30 years ago. How about more recently?
Good,This article is a Vance Report , so I can post.
@Robert Vance
Better late than never right? At least I prove you wrong. CPC DID admit their wrong doings.
What are you trying to prove? China makes no progress in the last 30 years?
@Chen,
If you ’sniff’ around this website a little bit, you will discover that I have defended China many times. I went on a radio show in the US a few weeks ago to talk about China’s tremendous progress over the past 30 years. It has been remarkable. I have often argued that we need to give China a chance because many great changes are still occurring in this relatively new ‘republic.’
However, even when there is mounting evidence that these gymnasts cheated, people here still deny the possibility and suggest that the U.S. is making it up because they are jealous. When I’m talking about admissions of guilt or apologies, I am talking about now…not thirty years ago. The people that I know, at least, say that China can do no wrong…and that everything bad that has happened in China in 2008 in relation to the Olympics is someone else’s fault. That is what bothers me.
@Chen on August 17th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
“What are you trying to prove? China makes no progress in the last 30 years?”
China has made great strides in economic progress. Cultural? I think not. They’ve somehow managed to destroy 5000 years of culture in 30 years.
@Robert Vance
I noticed your effort of making outside world know more about China. Great work, carry it on.
Those Chinese you described bothers me too. I’m not totally against you, just suggesting there’s room to improve. In fact I agree with you on many aspects. It’s good someone can point out our problems. but I must make clear some stereotypes.
You write:
The people that I know, at least, say that China can do no wrong…and that everything bad that has happened in China in 2008 in relation to the Olympics is someone else’s fault.
What’s wrong with them, maybe I should talk to them directly.
@Mydnight
Thank you for bring it up. We do need to preserve our culture inheritance. Oh and the enviroment too.
There is basically no denying that China has cheated the IOC out of some gold medals. It was mentioned in domestic and foreign media a few different times the ages of these girls; if you snoop around the net a bit, you can find it in English and Chinese dated prior to the Olympic oath. I don’t really have the interest in this subject enough to search it but feel free to try yourself.
The reason nothing is being done: I suspect someone or several people got hefty bribes. That’s the way to do business in China if you want to get things done quickly. I’ve done it; we’ve all done it.
Vance said correctly that nobody wants to take blame for anything here. Most cultures experience this to some extent but not in the exaggerated fashion that Chinese do. What happens when something bad happens in a place, like the Sichuan earthquake? A scapegoat is quickly found and executed or fired regardless to whether he had anything to do with the incident or not. Chinese people fear responsibility with the propensity that your average Joe is afraid of rattlesnake. It’s been this way for thousands of years? Do you think talking to them will do anything?
And, that’s exactly the point. When you point the finger at someone else, you still have four of your own fingers pointing back at you.
Robert , you are not ‘quite’ correct in saying [to Chen] that after Mao’s death, his successors blamed Mao for all of the bad……….It is more that they blamed Mao’s WIFE [Jiang Qing] and ‘The Gang of Four’, because with ‘dear’ Mao no longer around, there was then nobody to protect her, so she made a ‘convenient scapegoat.’[Though 'evil' she certainly was, just like Mao.]
[...] the West of how an authoritarian state censors truth and confuses information with propaganda. One blogger goes so far as to say that cheating has become an epidemic in Chinese culture. At any rate, honesty [...]
China wasn’t the only country to have competitors under the age of 16:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/olympics/2529552/Tom-Daley-should-not-be-in-Beijing—Olympics.html
Just becasue the rules say it’s ok for a 14 year old to compete in diving, doesn’t mean it’s ok.
Big deal. You know how many people live in China? And they all look alike. I’m not surprised at all if the Chinese themselves have trouble telling themselves a part and keeping it all a matter of systemitized record. Didn’t anyone learn anything from the beaucracy of the holocaust or The Trial (Orson Welles)? Or the movie Brazil by Terry Gilliam. Mistakes get made, I mean most of their athletes were of the appropriate ages.
The point I’m trying to make is that if the Chinese were trying to cheat during the Olympics they would have used a lot more girls and boys instead of women and men for their athletes. They made a few mistakes. We probably made some mistakes too. I mean in the psat there’s been controversies about athletes taking medicine to get stronger and we have drug tests and regulations to try to stop that, but maybe a couple of people slipped through, and if China or Europe or Africa was more powerful they would have the power to critique us and provide an objective investigation into seeing if our athletes have been cheating.
Or something like that.