Mick Hartley

Of all the little fakeries pulled by the Chinese in the Olympics so far - the singer who wasn't cute enough; the specially enhanced firework display – this has to be the best:

As they paraded cheerfully into the Bird’s Nest stadium in their brightly coloured cultural costumes, the 56 smiling children were described as coming from China’s 56 ethnic groups.

Their different hats, dresses and robes may indeed have represented the diversity of the world’s most populous nation. But an official from the children’s dance troupe revealed yesterday that the youngsters did not.

There were no Uighurs, no Zhuangs, no Huis, no Tujias, no Mongols and definitely no Tibetans. Indeed, in the latest in a series of manipulations that have soured memories of the spectacular opening ceremony, all 56 were revealed to be Han Chinese, who make up more than 90 per cent of the country’s 1.3 billion people….

“I think you are being very meticulous,” said Wang Wei, vice-president of the Beijing Olympic Organising Committee, trying to brush the latest revelation aside. “It is rather normal and usual for actors and actresses to be dressed in costumes from different ethnic groups. There is nothing special about it.”

But that was not how the official programme announced the Galaxy Children’s Art Troupe. It declared that the children who clustered around the national flag in a show of unity were from all the various ethnic groups.

Han Chinese children dressed as Tibetans, Uighurs, Mongols… Perfect.