Time to clear the air: That's not smog hovering over Beijing, swallowing entire office buildings like a mighty python. It's just ''a funny mist,'' says the city's environmental chief, who insists that the Chinese government has eliminated air pollution in the capital. And he's right: By moving its monitoring stations as far as 40 miles from the city center, Beijing's air-quality reports read like Irving Berlin lyrics: Blue skies, smilin' at me. Nothin' but blue skies do I see . . .

If Berlin ought to be the official songwriter of the Beijing Olympics, the official currency should be the $3 bill. That's as in the phrase ''phony as . . .'' From Spielbergian digitized fireworks to Milli Vanilli-esque lip syncing to let's-pretend newscasts, these Olympics have been the biggest public exercise in media-inspired fakery since Orson Welles' Martians terrorized New Jersey.

That cute-as-a-button little girl who sang during the Opening Ceremony? Actually, the voice belonged to another kid, whose big nose and crooked teeth were deemed unsuitable for the TV cameras. Those crowds of noisy fans in yellow T-shirts, banging inflatable batons? Government shills, ''cheer squads'' recruited to fill all the empty seats left by no-show tourists.

And the stunning display of opening-night fireworks that seemed to show a series of Godzilla-sized footprints approaching Beijing? Computerized special effects inserted into the television broadcast. A reporter for The Oregonian in Portland, watching with a crowd in Tiananmen Square when the real fireworks went off, wrote that they saw only ``two tiny flare-like blasts pop in the sky, followed by a lot of nothing.''

Literally nothing at the Olympics is too important or too trivial for the Chinese to counterfeit. On the high end is free speech. China's totalitarian government swore it would permit protests and demonstrations during the Games, albeit only at three designated parks distant from Olympic venues. But apparently there's been a sudden burst of public contentment just in time for the Olympics; the parks are deserted, and Chinese authorities can't remember if they've issued any permits for demonstrations.

Then there's the matter of those statues of mice with big black ears and white gloves, hoisting the Olympic torch. They sure look like the Rodent King of Orlando, which might raise some uncomfortable questions about international trademark infringement. But a Chinese government spokesman told the Japanese newspaper Daily Yomiuri that only a fool would fail to notice the differences between Mickey and the Beijing mice: ``They have square holes in their ears. They are not copies.''

The dubious mice are part of a long-standing tradition of ripping off American intellectual property for commercial gain, a problem that's by no means limited to China. Years ago, when I was a foreign correspondent, I listened in amazement to a Nicaraguan radio station that played not only a Miami station's jingles -- including its call letters and frequency, both incorrect -- but also the patter of its disc jockeys. The mice aren't even the most extreme example of Chinese piracy -- that would surely be the Beijing fast-food chain MFC, where the Big-Macs-'n'-Extra-Crispy menu reads like the illicit love child of Ronald McDonald and Colonel Sanders.

But much of the rest of the Olympic fakery reflects less venality than a willful contempt for reality, a belief that the world can be remade with airbrushes and Photoshop. The Chinese, from the beginning, saw the Olympics as an exercise in image control, to the point that they originally hired Steven Spielberg to help oversee the production.

Join the discussion

Note: If this is your first time using our NEW commenting system, you will have to LOG OUT and then LOG BACK IN.

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.CommentBody@

@Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@