Going backwards

Philip Taubman has an ill-thought-out piece in the Times, When the Kremlin Tried a Little Openness:

A dash of openness can be a dangerous thing in an autocratic state.

Mikhail Gorbachev discovered this two decades ago when his campaign to inject some daylight into Soviet society doubled back on him like a heat-seeking missile.

Now China’s leaders are playing with the same volatile political chemistry as they give their own citizens and the world an unexpectedly vivid look at the earthquake devastation in the nation’s southwest regions.

China has had the fastest-growing economy in the world for the past decade; comparing that to the moribund Soviet economy of the 80s is weird at best, stupid at worst.

It's fashionable to bash China, but at least pick the right sticks.