You can talk untapped markets and engineering prowess all you want, but China is still a hardcore dictatorship

There have been a few columns, blog posts and TV show segments excoriating the State Department and this regime generally for the way it's handled the Chen affair, but Kirsten Powers, Democrat pundit, offers the most right-between-the-eyes take I've seen so far.

What's at stake is nothing less than America's standing as the force in the world for rescuing desperate individuals from the kinds of fates tyrannies routinely dish out.