Many Chinese who have entered the ranks of the middle class are fond of collecting masks made of porcelain or jade. Having observed the Olympic events in Beijing, I am not surprised by this tradition. For what one sees in this Olympics in China is a mask that conceals an unpleasant reality.

From fireworks that were artfully computerized at the opening ceremony even though they weren’t real to some of the Chinese gymnasts that are supposedly underage to the faux singer who merely looked like the right Chinese representative, these Olympics are a well-rehearsed Chinese mask, or a Chinese Potemkin Village.

Clearly China wants to create a global impression as an emerging economic power, not unlike Germany in the 1936 Olympics and Russia in 1980. And with few exceptions, NBC’s coverage of the Games, inured to politically correct commentary, has been complicit.

It is instructive that a description of the “20 year old” captain of the women’s gymnastic team informed the viewing audience that she was taken from her home, and brought to a training facility after having been identified as a prospective Olympic athlete. After a year, she wanted to return to her family, but was told her training is for the greater glory of China and she must constrain her adolescent nostalgia for hearth and home. This story was related without the slightest hint of criticism by a NBC Olympic commentator, Al Trautwig, during the women’s gymnastics team final.

Compare the ebullient, youthful American gymnastic team that embraced after every event, shouted encouragement, and consoled teammates who didn’t perform well with the almost automaton-like girls on the Chinese gymnastic team, who feigned smiles and could barely conceal their fear of failure.

I am reminded that the Olympic tradition is based on amateur sports with the Latin root of amateur being love. But the athletes from China and other dictatorial nations are not amateurs. Neither, of course, are American basketball players, and few display love of the Games, which was the initial reason to compete in them.

Now the Olympics are a political spectacle. The athletes are mere pawns in a staged event for the delectation of viewers. Surely there are spectacular moments such as Michael Phelps’s medals and Usain Bolt’s world records. But on the whole, there is too much that is formulaic and staged. Any sport where judges decide the quality of performance enters the cauldron of political judgment.

Clearly the Chinese hoped to influence world opinion with these games. But what the Olympic mask concealed is as notable as what it discloses. Demonstrators were rounded up and in several instances beaten by baton bashing Chinese police officers. Tibetan sympathizers were mistreated from the outset. And with all the hoopla, China comes across as a gray, joyless society, notwithstanding occasional spurts of enthusiasm from fans. Even the attendance figures are fraudulent as the number of empty seats in the stadium and gyms attest.

It has been argued that the Olympics should transcend politics. I agree. Yet, the International Olympic Committee is politicized. There is no escaping the reality that these Chinese Olympics were designed as and for a political agenda.

Whether the public will buy the idea that China is a world power poised to lead the global community in the 21st century remains to be seen. On one matter, however, there isn’t any doubt: The Chinese mask offers the world only what it wants you to see. Once the mask is removed much of what you observe is false, misleading, and manipulated.

Mr. London, president of Hudson Institute, is a professor emeritus of New York University.