LOS ANGELES -- Extreme conservatives would have you simply bomb 'em; extreme liberals would simply have you love 'em. Real life, though, often comes down to a difficult choice between questionable alternatives. And when the issue relates to how to relate to more than a 1.3 billion people, perhaps the only sane choice is to strike a pose somewhere in between: Try to live with them in peace as best as one can by understanding them as best you can.
In this spirit, try for a moment to forget what you have read about China in the Western media: You know, the predictable Western media stuff; the locked-up dissidents, the intimidation of critics (broad as well as at home, the unsubtle party propaganda machine, the military's macho muscle-flexing over Taiwan.
It's all true, to be sure; but try to put this negative picture aside for once and aim at comprehending what many Americans would find utterly astonishing: That in Asia, Jiang Zemin, the current numero uno of China, is thought to be, overall, a big plus.