It’s hard to speak calmly about China because it’s so damned complex. You look at Tiananmen Square and what’s being done to Tibet, you look at how they make the poor people of China live while polluting rivers that for thousands of years fed tiny living towns. These people, their families, now live in danger and the people are at risk. And then you look at the fantastic art and dance and design and music that comes out of china and it boggles the mind. The fact that they own most of our debt and, on a whim, could send our country tumbling even more also boggles the mind. I know that we, in America, have sold our souls for China’s yen. So what do I think of China since Tiananmen Square? Same ole country, new Olympics.

I think Napoleon was prescient when he said, “China is a sleeping giant. When she wakes, the world will be sorry.” I am sorry already. But before China takes over the world (and it seems they already own most of the United States in truth), China may have to face up to its own daunting interior problems — overpopulation, totally polluted rivers and environmentally un-livable cities poisoned by burning coal and industrialism, their new world choked with cars and traffic and millions of smokers adding to a gigantic health problem. Maybe they’ll be so busy solving their own problems, they’ll leave us alone. But I wonder … I think I am too troubled by these stated worries to spend too much time on their human rights abuses because, no matter what we boycott or protest, we are like mosquitoes stinging a giant. Democracy and America scored when the Nazis hosted the Olympics in Germany in 1936. Even Hitler’s parades and storm troopers couldn’t win out over the magnificent Jesse Owens. So I hope the Olympics will be held in China without too much carrying on and making of statements because showing the world democracy with our athletes is probably a better lesson than trying to slap China’s hands over Tibet. President Bush, whatever he does, is not a goodwill ambassador or a positive symbol. So what does it matter whether he goes to Beijing or not or does something or doesn’t? He gave up on diplomacy long ago; it’s too late now for him to embrace it. Let the west’s athletes speak for the west!

1966: A million red guards mass in Tiananmen Square. Grim faces on the young students — students holding up the little red book as they create the cultural revolution. Such determination and passion is oddly exciting to teenagers in London and Paris. China is exciting. Between 1966 and 1976, the Cultural Revolution purges intellectuals and artists, sends teachers to the country while education is suspended and the past erased. Untold numbers of Chinese suffer and die, monasteries in Tibet are destroyed. China’s communists are fanatics. Venice, 1974. Antonioni shows his documentary about China at the Film Festival. The Italian Maoists protest because it shows people engaged in private bartering for a pig. A woman is shown undergoing an operation with only acupuncture for anesthetic. China is backwards. New York, 1980. A friend’s brother arrives from China, with his wife and daughter, part of the first wave released from Mao’s re-education camps and prisons. His front teeth have all been replaced by steel. He was once an actor. No more. China is cruel. 1992. The films of Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige show China as a place where human beings suffer, get by, dream. Gong Li plays a series of beautiful young women, often peasants. China is human. 1999. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, directed by Ang Lee, who is actually from Taiwan, shows ancient China to be a place of marvels and wonders. Sword fights happen in mid-air. China is super-human. 1999. The meditation practice of Falun Gong is outlawed. China is still intolerant. 1999. Rupert Murdoch marries Wendi Deng. China is rip roaring. 2000. Everyone in China has cell phones. China is catching up. 2004. China closes more than 12,000 Internet cafés. But not really catching up. 2005. Everything in Wal-Mart comes from China China provides mass-made goods for U.S. masses at low cost. 2005. Acupuncturists practice all over the United States. China will save our bodies 2006. Chinese pet food kills pets. Chinese toys full of lead. China hates dogs, cats, and children. 2007. China is said to own U.S. debt. China owns our future. 2008. China hosts Olympic Games; dogs and cats rounded up. Told you so.

Whoopi’s got it right. Even though we may deplore China’s human rights record, we are totally dependent on their money to fund our budget profligacy and on their goods to hold inflation down. I find us hypocritical and confusing when it comes to China. And I’ll NEVER understand why China was awarded the Olympics ‘08.

It is easy to complain about China but can you find a country you fully admire and have no complaints about? Including America? There have been big differences in China since Tiananmen Square and if you haven’t been there in awhile a visit there is astonishing. You can’t think about Tibet without being reminded of America’s own mistakes and you can’t visit Beijing without being reminded of America’s past capitalistic growth. It is not bad that Beijing has and is building some of the world’s best hotels and that one has a butler rated the best in the world – I keep imagining Mao turning over in his grave about the best butler in the world being in China – because along with the massive building in China has come a middle class that did not exist before and far, far more healthy and comfortable people. Although you cough in the seriously dirty air in china you also gasp at the brilliant art blooming there. Evolution isn’t perfect, clean or without thrills and chills. What interested me the most there is the change in attitude in the many people doing many new things. You don’t feel like such a stranger and you feel welcome and accepted in the large cities now. I think this is the time to start encouraging our young people to learn to speak and to write Chinese in school. I would guess that in their primary career years the timing will be such that to be expert in Chinese will enhance a career and, in an important competition, make the difference. And I would encourage everyone to explore the many, many different collections of Chinese contemporary art showing up in Western cities. Young Chinese artists are examples of everything we should appreciate and encourage in China now. The art scene there is important - it’s independence and strength is new - the image it sets in China is a surprise and deserves applause.