However, I think the more damaging lies on the run up to the Olympics have concerned rights to protest, press freedom, internet access. The opening ceremony ‘illusion’ doesn’t really hurt anyone, although the gymnasts – through no fault of their own – must now live a lifetime lie unless one of them comes clean.

And there are far greater areas of concern than those connected with the recent Games. What of the appalling quality of reporting that passes for journalism in China? And, on a related note, the history printed in school textbooks is so selective (particularly CCP era history) that it can scarcely be regarded as having any connection with the truth.

I’ve lived in China for some time and sense a greater lack of moral values here than other countries that I’ve called home, and it’s not good enough to pass it off as an example of cultural relativism. Unfortunately, it seems to be working for them, so I don’t see things changing anytime soon.

But the accusation of lying during the Games would have gone down much better if not for the hypocrisy of it. The media had jumped up and down over lip-synching in BJ while Sydney was given barely a shrug.

We have a Taiwanese, international-school-raised, American-married friend here in Tianjin who sometimes acts as something of a cultural ‘double agent’ between Chinese and foreigners. Americans accept her as a American (her English is flawless and worldview Western), but she can do the same thing in Chinese with groups of Mainlanders.

She says that when her Chinese friends complain about their Western friends, one of their biggest annoyances is being accused of dishonesty by foreigners. To them, such foreigners are clearly in the wrong.

I blogged about ‘Chinese lying,’ though with an emphasis on personal relationships, the relationship between words and meaing, and communication styles: To “lie” or not to “lie”