So the People's Republic of China is acting like the

PRC; nobody should be surprised.
Years ago, the Chinese government promised there would be open access to the Internet during the games. This despite the fact that the Chinese Internet is designed to be easily monitored by a huge (over 30,000 people) bureaucracy that does nothing but monitor Internet use (and imprisons those who say anything the state does not approve of.)

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has apologized to member nations for China's failure to allow free access to the Internet during the games. The IOC is meeting with Chinese officials to try and resolve this matter.

Yeah, the PRC is just shaking in their shoes at the thought of the IOC being upset with them. This is real simple: the PRC lied. They had no intention of allowing open access.

Meanwhile, intelligence officials are trying to figure out what the Chinese are up to here, as none of the facts presented so far fit together.
I realize I'm just a dummy from flyover country; but if I can figure this out, why can't the boobs at the IOC? Or anywhere else?

In one of the Matt Helm books, Helm tells someone he was amazed at the shock and outrage when the Soviets shot down KLA flight 007; near as I can recall the line was "They're a communist dictatorship, and they acted like one; so why was anybody surprised?" Well, the PRC is a commie dictatorship, too; so why is anybody surprised they're acting like one?