But You're Still Not Free

But You’re Still Not Free to Leave
Say what you will about Communists, but they always make us look good — if only by setting the bar so low. The Washington Post reports that Chinese Top Whoop-Tee-Do, Jiang Zemin claimed — right in front of the world press and President Bush — that China “has freedom of religion.” Zemin went on to say, “Since founding of the People’s Republic of China, all our institutions, various versions, have provided for the freedom of religious belief.”

Yeah, the freedom to practice at a state-approved, -licensed, and -run church. The freedom to be beaten, arrested, and killed for meditating in public. The freedom to be martyred.

But Zemin makes the same mistake Gorbachev made in the ’80s. By paying lip service to freedom, he helps both to corrode and expose his regime. Time will tell for the butchers of Beijing.