The China syndrome

National | Two big reasons the American press loved the little dictator

Guess who's "humorous," "earning applause," calling for "deeper understanding and friendship," and defending "world peace, stability, prosperity, and progress"? It is Jiang Zemin, President of China!

Although the blood is still damp from the latest Christian martyrs, student protesters, and democracy activists, Mr. Jiang spent a week visiting America and giving civics lessons to Americans-and the U.S. media seemed to stumble over itself to give him a forum.

What about all the things we "hold to be self-evident"? The media didn't have much to say about that. Most reports helped readers to understand that the Chinese strongman laughs, he sings, he tells funny stories, he even makes "gentle allusion to the protests that have followed him everywhere." One paper wrote that protests "produced laughter and applause as he steadily ignored" a man who stood with his back to the stage wearing a human-rights protest T-shirt at Harvard.