Anniversary

In Hong Kong, they lit candles today to commemorate the suppression of pro-democracy demonstrators by the Beijing government. Let's look at it from the other side of the argument for a moment.

The Chinese government were hosting Mikhail Gorbachev at the time. His glasnost and perestroika policies were causing the Soviet Union to teeter on the edge of collapsing entirely, as centripetal forces both inside and outside the Union tried to tear down the edifice that Lenin and Stalin built. Clearly, Beijing didn't want that to happen. So they acted to enforce the status quo.

I'm not apologizing for their actions, merely offering a different viewpoint on the matter.

Of course, Don Rumsfeld took the occasion as a signal to criticize China for its military modernization program. I don't think that criticizing a country that we are depending on to entice North Korea back to the bargaining table is a smart idea, but Rumsfeld never really struck me as a smart man. Oh sure, he's got diplomas and experience in government (he was one of Nixon's apparatchiks), but he's woefully inadequate at diplomacy.

And in Hong Kong, the candles are still lit, in hope.