■"China Backs Uzbek, Splitting With U.S. on Crackdown," by C.J. Chivers, New York Times, 25 May 2005, p. A3.

■"China Gives Strategic 21-Gun Salute to Visiting Uzbek President," by Joseph Kahn and Chris Buckley, New York Times, 26 May 2005, p. A7.

Prior to 9/11, China had led the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a collection of great and not-so-great powers surrounding Central Asia that were interested in maintaining stability there at a time when the U.S. evinced absolutely no interest in making any effort to do the same. That all got pushed aside in the subsequent Global War on Terrorism, and all of a sudden the U.S. acted like it was calling all the shots in the region: picking winners and losers at will.

Well, not in China's backyard. We have our favored dictators andóguess what?óso does Beijing! And they have them for the same reasons: sometimes they value stability over change, especially when energy is involved.

We can view this as throwing sand into the face of the U.S., as one American Sinologist put it, or we can be a little more cognizant that not everyone's definition of the military-market nexus will match ours in every single Gap state. Until we're ready to start openly condemning the House of Saud, that's a good one to keep in mind.