Chinese officials have owned up to deceiving the public over the fact that the perfect schoolgirl who sang the Chinese anthem as the flag was entering the stadium was actually lip syncing to another girl’s voice who was deemed unsuitable because of her buck teeth.

The shows musical designer admitted to the farce and said that the real singer was a seven year old girl Yang Peiyi, who had won the grueling competition to go on to sing the Chinese anthem “Hymn to the Motherland”. Chen Qigang, the musical designer said,

“This was a last-minute question, a choice we had to make. ur rehearsals had already been vetted several times - they were all very strict. When we had the dress rehearsals, there were spectators from various divisions, including above all a member of the politburo who gave us his verdict: we had to make the swap.”

He continued, “We have a responsibility to face the audience of the whole country, and to be open with this explanation. We should all understand it like this: it is a question of the national interest. It is a question of the image of our national music, our national culture. Especially at the entrance of our national flag, this is an extremely important, an extremely serious matter. So we made the choice. I think it is fair to both Lin Miaoke and Yang Peiyi - after all, we have a perfect voice, a perfect image and a perfect show, in our team’s view, all together.”

And why was Lin Miaoke giving all the interviews? Mr. Chen said that she probably did not know that her voice was muted and Yang’s voice was playing instead. Meanwhile Yang seems to have taken the disappointment well, and said, “I am proud to have been chosen to sing at all.”