China's fading communism.

• Author: Kristof, Nicholas D.
• Position: Opinion - Brief Article

Fifteen years after the Tiananmen Square massacre--the Communist Party's answer to millions of protesters demanding democracy--Communism is fading, in part because of Western engagement with China. Trade, investment, Michael Jordan, and Vogue have triumphed over Marx. It's often said that an impoverished, poorly educated, agrarian country like China cannot sustain democracy. Yet my most powerful memory of that night 15 years ago is of the peasants who had come to Beijing to work as...