Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

"Things fall apart; the center cannot hold." In China, the Bo Xilai scandal continues to unravel and with it the continued cracks in the nation's economic strength and anti-corruption walls are getting wider and wider. Some pundits still cry "Run to China, it will become a responsible stakeholder and will still solve the manufacturing problems of nations." But others are finally beginning to have their doubts. For as the cracks widen, the realization dawns that peaceful-rising China is in reality an "Enron China" in the making, an upcoming disaster replete with the corruption, shady deals and cooked books that previously blew up in the faces of those who once touted Enron as the model to be emulated. "Things fall apart; the center cannot hold," this line from Yeats's, The Second Coming, now takes on greater relevance.

Chen Guangcheng, second from left, walks with Kurt Campbell, U.S. assistant secretary of state, fourth from left, Gary Locke, U.S. Ambassador to China, third from left, and U.S. State Department legal adviser Harold Koh, left, in Beijing, China, on Wednesday.
Photo: Bloomberg

US President Barack Obama administration’s diplomatic predicament deepened yesterday, when a blind Chinese legal activist who took refuge in the US embassy said he now wants to go abroad, rejecting a deal that was supposed to keep him safely in China.

Only hours after Chen Guangcheng (陳光誠) left the embassy for a hospital checkup and reunion with his family, he began telling friends and foreign media they feel threatened and want to go abroad. At first taken aback at the reversal, the US State Department said officials spoke twice by phone with Chen and met with his wife, with both affirming their desire to leave.