And here is exactly the sort of stuff that we knew would happen in Red China during the Games, which is why freedom-lovers around the world called for the cancellation or boycott of the 2008 Tiananmen Olympics.

Two elderly Chinese women have been sentenced to a year of “re-education through labor” after they repeatedly sought a permit to demonstrate in one of the official Olympic protest areas, according to family members and human rights advocates.

The women, Wu Dianyuan, 79, and Wang Xiuying, 77, had made five visits to the police this month in an effort to get permission to protest what they contended was inadequate compensation for the demolition of their homes in Beijing.

During their final visit on Monday, public security officials informed them that they had been given administrative sentences for “disturbing the public order,” according to Li Xuehui, Ms. Wu’s son.

While the women were released with an admonition that they could be sent to the camps at any time if they continued their efforts, at least half a dozen would-be protesters have been detained for the crime of seeking a protest permit.

So even though Mao's hardliners are dying out, the Maoist hard-line is not going anywhere.

H/T Malkin