Although the Beijing Winter Olympics are now over, they happened amid the COVID-19 pandemic. We have learned that the Chinese communist authorities canceled  tickets sales to the public and instead gave tickets to carefully selected employees of Chinese state-owned enterprises. Organizers didn’t want the venues to look empty, so the day before the opening ceremony of the Games they invited about 150,000 people to attend various events. Those chosen included diplomats, businessmen, students, local residents, and sponsors, but their exact identities were kept secret. All were told they had to abide by confidentiality rules and not post on social media or discuss their game-watching with the outside world without authorization. The Chinese organizers of the Beijing Winter Olympics conducted a series of strict checks on people entering to keep them outside the closed loop used only by athletes and coaches, and ensure there was no direct contact with them, according …