Topic: News: China Censoring Internet to Hide Evidence of their Age Fraud

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

Link

Hacker exposes alleged Olympics age fraud

A security researcher has unearthed evidence via Google and its Chinese counterpart that supports claims that several Chinese gymnasts are younger than they should be for competing.

The New York Times was probably the first to report about digital evidence that the Chinese athletes are underage.

"Online records listing Chinese gymnasts and their ages that were posted on official Web sites in China, along with ages given in the official Chinese news media, however, seem to contradict the passport information, indicating that He (Kexin) and Jiang (Yuyuan) may be as young as 14--two years below the Olympic limit," stated the Times article, posted about three weeks ago.

Then last week, the Associated Press found evidence of its own--a Xinhua state news agency report listing He's age as 13 just nine months before the Olympics began. The AP saved a copy of the Web page, which it said could not be accessed later in the day.

 This week security researcher "Stryde Hax" detailed his findings about discrepancies in the gymnasts' ages that he found via his own Internet searches. The data he gathered bolsters the claims made by the Times and the AP.

Stryde, who says he is a consultant at security firm Intrepidus Group, wrote on Tuesday about how he searched Chinese Web sites for Excel spreadsheets containing "He Kexin" and "1994," which is her alleged birthday, according to some of the uncovered Internet evidence.

Stryde found only one result, on an official Chinese government sports site, but when the result was clicked on, the page had been removed, and He's name had been removed from the cached results.

Stryde had a similar experience searching on Baidu, China's most popular search engine, except that he found that two spreadsheets with the 1994 birth year for He remained in the cache. He asked readers to mirror the caches and post them online to thwart attempts by the Chinese government to deny the existence of the evidence.

On Wednesday, Stryde had a follow-up entry on his blog, in which he details what happened when he ran his search on Google.cn, Google's Chinese-language search site. There he found the original spreadsheet he found the day before and another one. A few hours later, when he checked, however, the original spreadsheet had been removed. He then found the result in Baidu.

Stryde's conclusions are insightful and chilling: "What is this post really about? I don't really feel that it's about the gymnastics age limit, or even really about whether fraud occurred. At this point, I believe that any reasonable observer already understands that age records have been forged. This story now is really about Internet censorship, the act of removing evidence while at the same time claiming that the evidence is wrong. For the first time, I watched search records shift under my feet like sand, facts draining down a hole in the Internet. Will this stand?"

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

Link

Age of Chinese gymnasts investigated

BEIJING, China (CNN) -- The International Olympic Committee has asked gymnastics officials to look into whether China's women's gymnastics team used underaged competitors, an IOC spokeswoman said Friday.

The committee asked the International Gymnastics Federation to clarify the situation, said spokeswoman Giselle Davis. She said she wouldn't call it a formal investigation.

The Chinese women's gymnastics team won a gold medal in a team competition at the Summer Olympics Games. Five members won medals in individual competitions.

Yet commentators, bloggers and others have raised questions about whether about half the members of China's team were old enough to compete -- athletes must be at least 16 in the year the games take place.

In women's gymnastics, younger teenage girls can have an advantage over older competitors due to their often smaller, more agile bodies and lighter frames.

"We have asked the gymnastics federation to look into what have been a number questions and apparent discrepancies on this case," Davis said.

A top Chinese Olympic official said questions regarding the ages of the athletes have been dealt with previously.

"The eligibility of the athletes has already been investigated and authorized by the international federation and, if they hadn't been cleared, they wouldn't have participated in the games," said Wang Wei, executive vice president of the Beijing Olympic Committee.

Chinese officials provided the Olympic committee with passports, showing that team members were of legal age, but numerous challenges have been made.

The latest came from a blogger known as "Stryde Hax." The blogger claims to have uncovered proof that Chinese gymnast He Kexin is only 14. Video Watch bloggers question China's gymnasts.

In Internet searches, "Stryde Hax" allegedly uncovered Web pages showing lists complied by China's General Administration of Sport that show a 1994 date of birth for He. That would make her 14 -- too young to compete in the Olympic Games.

CNN has not been able to independently verify the information, but snapshots of the Web pages appear to back up the claim. Other bloggers have joined the search and reported similar results.

The New York Times conducted its own investigation, producing similar results that seem to implicate He and two other members of the team. The Times uncovered a 2006 biography on He that lists her birthday as January 1, 1994.

"According to online sports registration lists in China, half the team - He Kexin, Yang Yilin, Jiang Yuyuan - would be under age," the Times reported in July.

The International Gymnastics Federation, however, has said that those gymnasts were eligible and that the ages on their passports were correct.

Chinese gymnastics coaches defended their team Friday.

"Our athletes participating in these games all conform to the age regulations of the Olympics," said Huang Yubin, head coach of the men's and women's teams.

"Asians have different figures than people from the West, so that's what caused their suspicion," Huang said, referring to media inquiries. "They shouldn't be suspicious."

[Chris Betancourt]

I heard today that the gov't says it was a typo. 

[Tomasz Numrych]

http://www.nbcolympics.com/gymnastics/news/newsid=253637.html#rogge+gymnasts+enough+compete