LIKE THE MANDARINS of old, the rulers of China live behind high walls. When they emerge, which they rarely do, they travel in cars with rear windows curtained like sedan chairs. They live in the Chung Nan Hai, a walled park adjacent to the Forbidden City from where ancient dynasties ruled the Celestial Empire. The wall surrounding the Chung Nan Hai is high and wide, painted vermilion in keeping with the decor of the Forbidden City. It has a circumference of many miles, intersected at intervals by gates guarded day and night by armed soldiers.

Remember [George H. W.] Bush’s response to the clamor to do something about assault weapons after a lunatic with a Chinese-made AK-47 massacred a playgroundful of children in Stockton, Calif.

Such a kind of transparency, as that of a Sive, a piece of Cyprus, or a Love-Hood.

You are McGlade's suck.