August 20, 2008
With 43 gold medals under its belt, China’s Olympic team seems to have a lock on the top position of the medal table, and the country’s newspapers are declaring victory even before the Games have closed.
Today’s Life News ran with “43:26, it is settled” as the top headline, implying that China has already defeated the US in the medal race. Dongguan Times printed a big number 43 on today’s front page along with the caption “China is not confused.”
This afternoon, windsurfer Yin Jian won a gold to bring China’s total to 44.
A second big Olympics-related news item in today’s papers was Liu Xiang’s public apology for exiting the 110m hurdles on August 18 due to injury. He asked his fans for their continued support: “Please believe me that I feel no less sad and pained than you do. Please believe that I am still the Liu Xiang who I always have been.”
August 20, 2008
Beijing papers reported on efforts to crack down on Olympic ticket scalping: so far, police have caught 276 scalpers, including 37 foreigners. A more detailed story can be found at Xinhua.
In other news, yesterday was the 100th day after the Wenchuan earthquake. The Beijing News reported that people in the quake zone are holding memorial ceremonies for their deceased relatives. Beichuan, the evacuated town which has been sealed off for nearly three months, reopened today to people who came for the memorial.
Note: As one of our commenters pointed out: the “不惑” on the front page of the Dongguan Times is an Analects reference, which should better be interpreted here as a shorthand for “China has won 40 gold medals”.
- Xinhuanet via Netease (Chinese): Liu Xiang: You will see a faster me
- The Beijing News (Chinese): Beichuan opens on 100th day commemoration of the earthquake