October was a good month for Chinese President Jiang Zemin. First, he presided over the 50th-anniversary celebrations of the Chinese People's Republic. Those festivities helped him shore up his claim to stand alongside Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping as the third great leader of the country. He was spared potential embarrassment when the Nobel Peace Prize committee passed over Chinese dissidents when handing out this year's award. And he closed the month with a tour of Europe, during which he received red-carpet treatment from Britain, France and Portugal. Sadly, those governments bent over backward to accommodate Mr. Jiang just when his government was cracking down on protest. The wrong signal has been sent.
In London, Prime Minister Tony Blair went all out to honor the first Chinese leader to visit Britain since the 1949 revolution. He spent a night at Buckingham Palace, was driven with pomp and ceremony in a horse-drawn coach and dined with Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip. Both sides were doing their best to bury the bitter memories of the Hong Kong handover in 1997, and apparently they succeeded. The Chinese media crowed over the special treatment given to Mr. Jiang.
The stay was not without controversy, however. Prince Charles missed a dinner with Mr. Jiang, which the British press reported -- and the palace denied -- was because the prince was offended by China's treatment of the Dalai Lama, whom he much admires. Human-rights demonstrators dogged Mr. Jiang throughout his stay. The Chinese leader dismissed the protesters, claiming he did not know exactly what their concerns were. Unfortunately, the British government was not so sanguine. Police used strong-arm tactics to clear demonstrators, marring their country's long tradition of honoring freedom of speech.