The Chinese government hoped the 2008 Summer Olympics, currently being held in Beijing, would cast in a positive light a nation long reviled for human rights violations, the oppression of its own people and many old Communist ways.

So far, since the Games opened, China has:

* Used computer trickery to make the opening-night fireworks look more spectacular than they actually were.
* Had an adorable Chinese girl lip-sync a song at the opening ceremonies over the voice of a slightly-less-adorable Chinese girl.
* Fielded a girls’ gymnastics team that, most likely, has members who are younger than the minimum allowed age of 16. (A photo in the Sports section of today’s New York Times clearly shows that Chinese gymnast Deng Linlin in missing an upper front tooth. How many 16-year-old girls do you know who still are losing their baby teeth?)

I didn’t think it possible, but China apparently will have a worse reputation after the Games end than it did before they began.