Beijing's unused Olympic protest parks are to be closed – Chinese officials say they have served their purpose. Okay, well never mind the minor fact that no one actually got to stage a protest in any of the parks.

The country's state-run news agency, Xinhua, says the three protest parks – which were specially set up for the Olympics – will "cease to function" after the Paralympics end. They finished on Wednesday, so that's it.

From Xinhua:

The three parks were set up to be demonstration areas during the two Games in line with official Olympic requirements – common practice of host cities of major international events, says an official.

" … "In future, relevant departments will continue to accept and handle demonstration applications in accordance with China's law on assemblies, processions and demonstrations as well as the law's implementation methods," said Liu Shaowu, director of the security department under the Beijing Organizing Committee of the 29th Olympic Games (BOCOG) …"

No applications approved

Officials announced, on 18 August, they had received 77 applications from people wanting to use the parks since. But none of the applications were approved.

The state media have said the main reason why the protest parks weren't used during the Olympics is because all the issues the protesters had were resolved beforehand, writes Reuters.

" … for most the cases, there was no need for protest once the "relevant authorities" stepped in to help out, the semi-official China News Service cited Olympic security official Liu Shaowu as saying …

" … "After consultations between relevant authorities and the applicants, all the specific issues were appropriately resolved, and the applicants themselves abandoned their applications." …"

Detained and locked up

Well that's probably not how many of the people who wanted to protest would see it. What about Wu Dianyuan and Wang Xiuying, two women in their seventies who were sentenced to a labour camp after they applied to protest – their sentences were later revoked?

Or some of the others who unsuccessfully asked for permission to protest – among them Ji Sizun, Zhang Wei, Gao Chuancai, Tang Xuefen, Ge Yifei and Zhang Dongfang.

Earlier this week, the New York Times reported on the fate of 10 people who were arrested after traveling to Beijing to protest property losses.

The group, which included a 79-year-old woman and a four-month-old baby, have been in policy custody since 10 September. Some of the group had been beaten by officers.

" … The group has been split up and no one knows exactly where the other petitioners are, including the baby, Ms. Huang said. According to her mother, she said, the police took away cellphones and identification cards …'