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Another similar category of strategies is disclaimer, i.e., prospective excuses. Similar types of excuses could be found, for instance, tiredness of gymnasts (September 18th, 1986); inexperience of athletes (20 August, 1985); new gymnasts (21 August, 1985) etc. The strength of rivals (20 September, 1986; 15 July, 1987) and weakness of Chinese representatives (19 September, 1986) were also cited. A more popular form of disclaimer was the blame on the draw in events, such as the order of competition in gymnastics (23 July, 1984), the order of play in women's fencing (8 July, 1987). Softening of the tone for gold-winning targets was evident amidst the rise of Koreans in the medal standing (1 and 4 October, 1986).
The context of any information is vital when a reader interprets an article. The Chinese press also spent some efforts in creating favourable contexts for unfavourable contents. The men's gymnastics team total score, second place in team competition was put against a very good background of six perfect scores (31 July, 1984). Women fencers' loss was to be read in the light of China's share in the total fencing medals, equal to that of Korea (2 October, 1986). Previous successes or records were cited to buffer losses in the Games (women discuss, 15 July, 1987; soccer, 20 July, 1987). Sometimes, the press would play over the figures, for example, in the loss to the USA in women's volleyball tournament, the report stated that in terms of total marks gained in the match, the Chinese team should win the match (5 August, 1984); in the final medal standing, China was placed fourth, but the People's Daily mentioned the total golds gained to counter this relatively unfavourable position.
A more forceful class of strategy, justification, could also be witnessed in the sample. The "reasons" were more or less the same as mentioned in the foregone paragraphs concerning other strategies, but only the tone and/or the voice were different. Strength of rivals (31 July, 1984); new and young players (13 August, 1984; 19 July, 1987) and so on were handy examples. More often, these would be added with the hard work of Chinese athletes, their improvement from their previous standards to make these "reasons" forceful (diving, 10 August, 1984; women gymnastics, 12 July, 1987; men's basketball, 17 July, 1987). A play of figures could be seen in 1984 when the rank of the Chinese delegation, being fourth, was justified by the her size, being eighth.
Moreover, there were times when the press admitted the failures of Chinese athletes. Very often, they were factual accounts of the losses and