"Let us imagine", says Lin Chong-pin, president of Taiwan's Foundation on International and Cross-Strait Studies, "how President Hu Jintao in his dreams might wish the opening of his Beijing Olympics to be." Not only, says Mr Lin, will he have brought the world's finest athletes there, but also its artists and celebrities. So far, so plausible. He will also have, on his right hand, the leader of the communists' civil-war foe, the Kuomintang, newly elected in the spring of 2008 as president of Taiwan. And on his left a beaming Dalai Lama, thankful to be back on Chinese soil once more after an exile of nearly 50 years. "It would", says Mr Lin, "be the heavenly dynasty all over again, and the barbarians coming to worship." That this happy vision, though technically possible, is still implausible provides insights into the paradox of China's rise.
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