We are in trouble when China looks better than the US on civil rights

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.msnbc.com/news/999366.asp?cp1=1

No Way to Make Friends

Bush could surely have arranged to meet in Baghdad with troops from allied countries who are also fighting and dying in Iraq

<snip>TRAVELING THROUGH East Asia last week, I noted how poorly most observers rated President Bush’s recent trip there. Even more striking, however, was the comparison repeatedly made between Bush’s visit and that of Chinese leader Hu Jintao—with a thumping majority believing Hu had done better.

In Thailand at the meeting for Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation, “there was no question that Hu was the better appreciated one,” a Thai official said to me. “He outshone Bush in most of the attendees’ eyes.” The trips ended with the two making back-to-back visits to Australia. Bush was greeted with demonstrations, his address to Parliament interrupted by hecklers. Hu, on the other hand, got a 20-minute standing ovation from Parliament. “It is Hu’s visit rather than George W. Bush’s that will provide a lingering sense of satisfaction and security about Australia’s place in the region,” wrote The Australian, a newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch and not given to knee-jerk anti-Americanism.

What is going on here? How does the chief representative of the world’s oldest constitutional democracy lose a popularity contest to the leader of a Leninist party?

Let’s start with the atmospherics. Everywhere Bush travels, his security is handled with the usual American overkill—thousands of guards and aides, walled-off compounds, tightly scripted movements from one bubble to another. Hu, by contrast, had a modest security detail, traveled freely and mingled with other leaders and even the general public. (Tony Blair sometimes manages to travel abroad with a total of six people.)

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[Old and In the Way]

1. Australia has an interesting relationship with China

Far and away, I've met more Australians then any other Westerners in China. Lots of young folks teaching English there.

I had an interesting night with a group of them at a dinner party. One guy was pure Chinese (his parents had emigrated to Australia), but he spoke with a perfect Australian accent! Very disorienting....