The last time I checked, Red China was a vicious communist dictatorship. Things like torture, murder, graft, and other human rights violations are commonplace. Correct me if I'm wrong, but 60 Minutes even ran a segment wherein they exposed the harvesting of organs from criminals ( even executing ones with the correct blood types for ordered body parts ). So, watching excerpts from Bill Clinton's recent trip to China has given me cause to both rejoice and pause.

Clinton's public appearances there were superb and his representation of life here in the US should give many Chinese something to think about for the future of their country. He did seem a little tentative at the first news conference, the one with both heads of state. He did warm up when on the streets and on a radio show taking questions from students. This is possibly our best chance at showing them the error in their country's strict and oppressive regime. One student asked him what he was hiding behind his sweet smile; the answer is freedom of expression!

He and Chelsea walking through the streets in public and interacting with the common folk was pure genius and will really help in showing their common citizens how an American President can come to them personally. Some may see this as too sugary sweet and patronzing; but I believe he did the right thing!

Some may say he was coddling dictatorships, or possibly making up for massive Chinese government donations to the DNC. I think he has done the correct thing in these public outings. The Chinese people must change their country themselves. This change must come from within, and not pressure from the outside world. With the Internet and globalization of trade, our Earth has truly become a "small" planet!

The other great revelation was getting the Chinese to un-target US cities from their ICBMs. Folks living on the west coast should be happy about this! My only problem is, can we trust them to do it ( I hope Bill Clinton wasn't playing the same part as Neville Chamberlain did back in the 30s with Hitler ). My other reservation is that we traded the un-targeting of at most a dozen missiles for our undoubtedly many more than that targeted at Red China. Without any ABM system to protect us; our only deterrent is pointing ours at our enemies.

Not to dwell on the downside, as only future history will tell if Clinton did the right thing for the survival of our country and the good of the entire world, Clinton did give them our best technology for generating electricity through nuclear reaction. I sincerely hope this doesn't backfire on us ( and the world ) in the future. The Chinese could give this technology to third-world nations allowing them to produce fissionable material as a by-product. And this from an administration that has allowed our best ICBM guidance technology to fall into their hands just last year. I do hope this is not connected in some way to Chinese donations to the DNC as some form of payback...the jury is still out on this.

In closing, many people may think he was too easy on them concerning their human rights violations. But he was in their country, after all, and scolding them would only serve to further isolate their regime. Isolation would only help to keep the current repression in place; getting everything out in the open will help the citizens of China. He said what he could about the massacre of freedom loving students by the Communist Chinese military without being overly rude; which could have easily turned off the major portion of their populace who were watching on live television. All in all, a major public relations victory, but the overall effect on helping to move the Chinese toward democracy is still to be seen!

- Bongo ( some call me the " voice of reason" and others " the voice of insanity " )