Crouching Tiger, Hidden Message

He walks in, smiles, sits down. under his arm is a small blue box, the obligatory Chinese gift for visitors. The suit fits perfectly. His English, polished at Harvard, flows like hot green tea with honey. He settles back into his chair, looks you deep in the eyes and begins the seduction. "Zhou Mingwei," says a U.S. official, "is the best salesman the Chinese have."

How do you begin with a new U.S. Administration? Not well, from China's perspective. In the past two weeks, Washington has been hosing down China with acid, suggesting that a high-tech Chinese fiber-optic...

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