Inscrutible

What to Make of China? Let Me Tell You a Little Story - Ricochet.com: "Having a cup of coffee here at Stanford a couple of years ago, I found myself approached by an amiable young Asian man who spoke English with a thick Chinese accent.  He explained that he was doing graduate work in Sino-American relations, then requested my permission to ask a personal question.  'Someone told me you were a speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan.  Is that true?'  I allowed that it was.  'And that you wrote his 'tear down this wall speech.'  Is that true, too?'  Again, I said that it was.  'Oh,' he replied, grinning with delight, 'what an honor to meet someone who worked for that great man.  What an honor!'  He kept grinning, and he more or less bowed a couple of times. To change the subject--I can take flattery, but I draw the line at bowing--I asked what he intended to do when he completed his studies.  'Go back to Beijing' he replied. 'You see, I am a member of the foreign ministry.'

I know, I know. An anecdote is merely an anecdote, and there are plenty of aspects of the Communist regime--the one child policy, for example--that remain, simply, inhuman.  But an employee of foreign ministry, enthusing over Ronald Reagan.  That can't have been a bad sign, right?"