New of China's Milli Vanilli moment at the opening ceremonies of the Olympics spread across the Globe last night, splashing on to page A1 of The Times this morning.

The incident wasn't surprising though the involvement of the highest members of China's government was, according to this thorough report from Bloomberg's Beijing bureau:

Recordings of the two girls were circulated all the way up to members of the Communist Party's Political Bureau, whose 25 members represent the country's top leaders, and ceremony organizers were ordered to replace Yang with Lin, Beijing Radio reported.

One could argue China is doing a pretty good job in enhancing its imagine in the face of Tibet, the earthquake, and environmental problems, or at least the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games (BOCOG) is (Hill & Knowlton is literally, carrying the PR torch for them).

As these extreme command-and-control incidents reveal themselves, the "increasing crescendo of negative commentary" is bound to happen.

Read more on China's image via Spiked's "The People's Republic of PR".