Something Else at the Olympics Rings False

According to that article, written by Loretta Chao and Jason Leow, about 92 percent of China's 1.3 billion people are Han and they dominate the economy and politics. The other 8 percent, about 104 million people, belong to various other groups.

The Opening Ceremonies costume ruse, the article said, recalls the custom at some U.S. sporting events of having non-Native Americans perform in traditional garb. The custom has become controversial, the article explains, and some schools have dropped their "Indian nicknames and mascots."

In the article, a resident of the capital of Tibet called the Opening Ceremonies "wonderful" and "recognized the third child on the left was wearing Tibetan clothes. . . . It's OK if they're not real minorities."

NBC's crack journalists had been all over this wardrobe scandal when it occurred during their network's broadcast of the ceremonies:

"All of the children you're going to be seeing tonight -- it's important to the organizers -- are average Chinese children from average families, chosen from some art schools around the area," Matt Lauer told the 34 million or so viewers back home.

"Joshua, what do we make of this now, from the children to the soldiers?" Bob Costas asked NBC's China analyst (and former Time foreign editor) Joshua Cooper Ramo, as the non-ethnic children in ethnic costumes handed the flag to the Scary Goose-Stepping Soldiers.

"I think it's a profound statement that will resonate in the hearts of the more than 1 billion Chinese watching this tonight, the idea that the state is the guarantor of the future of those children in a country that for so long could not guarantee the safety or stability of the society for generations of children," Ramo replied.

Oops.