Bush in Asia.
Posted here Wednesday, December 03, 2003 at 9:42:05 AM 
This from the Washington Post
In Thailand at the meeting for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, "there was no question that Hu was the better appreciated one," a Thai official said to me. "He outshone Bush in most of the attendees' eyes." The trips ended with the two making back-to-back visits to Australia. Bush was greeted with demonstrations, his address to Parliament interrupted by hecklers. Hu, on the other hand, got a 20-minute standing ovation from Parliament. "It is Hu's visit rather than George W. Bush's that will provide a lingering sense of satisfaction and security about Australia's place in the region," wrote the Australian, a newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch and not given to knee-jerk anti-Americanism.
What is going on here? How does the chief representative of the world's oldest constitutional democracy lose a popularity contest to the leader of a Leninist party?
A society in the 21st C. needs a leader that can be admired. Not necessarily charismatic, but above alreasonable, humane, ethical, a good listener as well as an articulate spokesperson.
And even stronger, this must read, on China while the US is absent.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/03/international/asia/03LETT.html?hp
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