According to China’s official Xinhua News Agency, Chinese authorities have not approved any of the 77 applications to hold protests in the three areas specially designated for such purposes by the Chinese government.

Citing a Public Security Bureau spokesperson, Xinhua said 74 of the applications were withdrawn because the problems “were properly addressed by relevant authorities or departments through consultations.”

Confirming the spokesperson’s account of the problems being “properly addressed,” rights groups and applicant relatives have reported that a number of the applicants were taken away for “consultation” by security agents immediately after filing an application.

Two other applications were filed with insufficient information. Dark Side is fairly certain that the Chinese government is still tracking those applicants down for a free “consultation” despite their incomplete submissions.

The final application was reported to have violated laws against demonstrations and protests. Specifically, the application is believed to have requested that a demonstration and/or protest be held in one of the areas designated for demonstrations and protests by the Chinese government.

Xinhua first announced Beijing’s Olympic protest plan to allow strictly regulated protests in the three designated areas as the games approached in early August. The plan was viewed as a response to the growing human rights criticism resulting from the general belief that China has failed to make good on promises to improve human rights made while bidding to host the games.

Wang Wei, vice president of the Beijing Olympics Committee told reporters on Monday that China’s many human rights problems have not been solved by years of U.N. effort, so the idea that they would be solved during the Olympic Games was simply “not realistic.”

“We think that you do not really understand China’s reality,” Wang told reporters. “China has its own version and way of exercising our democracy.”

Wang then took the opportunity to plug his recently published book “Creating harmony through the annihilation of dissent: A Chinese guide to exercising democracy.”

Wang’s forthcoming statement correcting the recognition of any Chinese human rights problems and Wang’s subsequent resignation, trial and execution are all expected before the closing ceremonies on Sunday.

For more on this story, visit ESPN.

And while Dark Side hates to say we told you so… Actually, that’s not true. Dark Side loves saying we told you so. So without further ado: we so told you so.