A Nod To His Friends

Tough, macho, swaggering George W. Bush, in Thailand today on the first of three stops on his Asian tour. He said, with little courage,

Change in China will arrive on its own terms and in keeping with its own history and traditions. Yet change will arrive.

Change will eventually come- on the regime's "own terms and in keeping with its own history and traditions." Sometime, and in ways inoffensive to the world's largest dictatorship, a proud Communist tyranny.

In its 7/9/08 newstand edition, the editors of The New Republic note that President Bill Clinton also thought change would come to Mainland China. They quote the then-President predicting "when over 100 million people in China can get on the Net, it will be impossible to maintain a closed political and economic society."

They explain

How convenient for a president to argue that he needn't look out for American principles abroad because technology would do the job for him. History, of course, has made a mockery of this sentiment: Today, there are more than 220 million Chinese online, and the country is little closer to political freedom.

The Chinese government did not embark on a period of reform upon the prediction of the 42nd president, and it won't do so upon the hope of the current president. Especially when the Butchers of Beijing will be honored with the presence of the President of the United States and leader of the Free World.