Here is our latest report about the so-called “protest parks” issue and the two grandmothers being sentenced to re-education through labor for their attempts to register to protest. This is so coldly callous –and such bad publicity– that I assume it must have been ordered at a fairly low level, though I am not quite sure at what level such an order is issued. Anyway, I’d guess that someone higher up will step in an reverse it as they don’t want more stories about half-blind 79 year olds being sent to re-education through labor. I hope so.
Separately, while we’re on the news updating front, the London Times has a piece saying that the International Olympic Committee has launched an investigation into the age of gymnastics gold medal winner He Kexin (our previous post here), crediting stories from the New York Times, our own Hannah Beech at Time and finally the uncovering of official records that had been deleted by blogger Stryde Hax (here) for the change of mind. (In characteristic fashion, the IOC previously said it wouldn’t/couldn’t interfere). My gut says there’s no way they’ll conclude this was a fraud and withdraw her medals but we’ll see. The evidence appears pretty strong.