When most people hear the words "The Chinese Government", they think of two things: 1) The "In Soviet China, party finds you!" joke, and 2) I wonder how much interest they're charging us.

But you have to hand it to them. Most people would have given up on these two elderly women, both of whom are pushing 80. But not the Chinese Government. They're so invested in their people that by sending these two seniors to re-education camp, they're proving that you can teach an old dog new tricks. Besides, they should be so lucky after applying for a permit to protest in a designated protest zone! What the fuck do they have to protest about, anyway?

Labour camp for elderly protesters
Two elderly Chinese women who applied during the Olympic Games to protest the loss of their homes have been ordered to spend a year in a labour camp, a relative said.

The women were still at home three days after being officially notified they would have to serve a year-long term of re-education through labour, but were under surveillance by a neighbourhood watch group, said Li Xuehui, the son of one of the women.

A rights group said the threat of prison appeared to be an intimidation tactic.

Li said no cause was given for the order to imprison his 79-year-old mother, Wu Dianyuan, and her neighbour Wang Xiuying, 77.

"Wang Xiuying is almost blind and disabled. What sort of re-education through labour can she serve?" Li said. "But they can also be taken away at any time."

The Public Security Bureau had no immediate comment. A spokeswoman for the Beijing re-education through labour bureau said: "We have no records of these two names in our system."

The elderly women, Wu and Wang, have repeatedly tried to apply for permission to hold a protest at one of three areas designated by the government as available for demonstrations during the games, which end Sunday.

Beijing has used the existence of the protest areas as a way to defend its promise to improve human rights in China that was crucial to its bid to win the games.

Some 77 applications were lodged to hold protests, none went ahead.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch said the cases of Wu and Wang "show that while China has now proven it is able to host international events to perfection, it still has a long way to go before it respects even minimal international human rights standards".

Cheers,
Henry