The state of protest in China

Just wanted to share this paragraph from an article in The Sun:

Also vacant are the spaces Chinese officials designated for protest during the Games. Some hailed the zones as evidence of a breakthrough for civil liberties in China, but the state-run news agency, Xinhua, said Monday that none of the 77 applications to demonstrate had been approved. Two people were reportedly sentenced to one-year terms of "re-education by labor" after applying to use the zones, which are far from the main Olympic venues. Several others have reportedly been detained or deported to other cities after making similar requests.

Oh, fine, I'll comment further: The Beijing Olympics are a hollow propaganda piece, devoid of substance, meaning, or truth.

• Most of the fireworks at the opening ceremonies were computer generated and the opening ceremony was lip-synched.
• Despite that, the Chinese spent more money on the Olympics than any other nation or city has ever done - several billion on the buildings, and over 40 billion $ upgrading the city's infrastructure.
• They implemented strict restrictions on driving and factories during the games so foreign journalists wouldn't film any smog - but normally Beijing has terrible smog problems.
• To hide the typical over-crowding of Beijing, they banned all migrant workers from entering the city during the games.
• Five months ago, China claimed they had new weather control technology that would prevent it from raining during the Olympics, yet when I flipped past the games on the dial yesterday, I saw rain falling on some track and field event.

Not that any of that should surprise us, given China's track history of human rights abuses, propaganda and control, invading Tibet, employing political prisoners to manufacture American flags for Walmart, etc.