■"To Win Friends, China Takes Its Message on a U.S. Road Trip: Nation Steps Up Diplomacy, Hire Big Lobbying Firm; An Offer to Cut Red Tape," by Neil King Jr., Wall Street Journal, 18 November 2005, p. A1.

■"Bush's Weakness May Benefit China Talks," by Jason Dean and Neil King Jr., Wall Street Journal, 18 November 2005, p. A4.

Used to be that both sides worked to demonize China: our red-baiters and China's over-the-top leader Mao competed to see who could make China seem nuttier (no contest, as Mao goes down as the century's biggest mass murderer by far, easily outpacing both Hitler and Stalin).

Old pro Joe Prueher, former commander of Pacific Command and former U.S. ambassador to China, notes that "China's diplomats have gotten a lot more confident and a lot more sophisticated."

Buddy, you ain't seen nothing yet.

We're witnessing the stay-at-home Fourth Generation leadership work us via lobbyists, media and PR people. Just think what happens when the Fifth and Sixth Generation leaderships come on line in 2012 and beyond. Unlike the 4ths, who were trapped in China during the Cultural Revolution, the following two crews traveled abroad after Nixon went to China, with many of them coming here for their college educations.

I have met more than a few of these guys, and they are more than sophisticated. They're just plain smart--about us, the world, and economics and power.

Bush's neocons might think they'll be containing China in coming years, but their days are numbered, as measured by the growing isolationism expressed in public polls.

No, I don't make too much of that. Bush and the neocons leave and a new foreign policy emerges, and that "isolationism" will evaporate as quickly as it arose.

Meanwhile, China's leaders increasingly realize their power, and will use it far more cleverly than the neocons with their bluster and myopic focus on military means of expressing national will.

Locking in at today's prices, my friends--today's prices.

In the end, you pay the piper. All Bush does in these last three years with this "big hat, no cattle" approach is raise the price of the final sale.

Oh yes, the CEO presidency all right.

Funny, because Bush supports small business better than most, and yet he seems to distrust the capitalism staring him in the face from China.

My favorite bit in the first piece?

When Deputy Secretary of State Bob Zoellick warns China in a tough-love speech that they better learn how to become a "stakeholder" in the global community.

The Chinese were apopletic, searching English dictionaries. They knew of "hegemon" and "competitors" and "peers," but what did "stakeholder" mean (I'm lifting completely from Neil King's very clever end to this article; he's truly a masterful reporter).

Rest assured, the Chinese read and learned. And the reason why they freaked was not the term so much as that Zoellick was the man using it. They know him to be both smart and fair--and non-ideological. Rumsfeld blows hard and that's to be expected, but if Bob says something, by God they check it out!