ARTICLE: China Celebrates 60 Years of Communist Rule, By MICHAEL WINES and SHARON LaFRANIERE, New York Times, October 1, 2009

What I found interesting about the 60th anniversary celebration in China is how divorced it is from everything that's made China powerful in the last three decades. Think about it: the PLA has nothing to do with China's rise, and honestly, it wasn't Party leadership that was the key either, but rather how much the Party backed off trying to run everything economically. A weird disjunction, in my mind. But Americans love parades, so we're duly impressed. Still, I watch and I see a celebration of everything that's stood in the way of China's return to growth and prosperity. But since the Chinese are so paranoid of the subject of the country's coherence, this security-blanket-style thinking won't end for a while. I await the truly confident China to someday appear.