Testing times

It was an important week in China. But The Washington Post was bored. "China's communist leadership has spent the last few days bombarding the country's long suffering population, and anyone in the outside world who will listen, with skull-numbing speeches about the supposed philosophical breakthrough of President Jiang Zemin." The leader writers may have spent too long with The China Daily, which unsurprisingly took a rather different view: "China's determination to preserve its state sovereignty and national dignity, along with the wisdom it has shown in dealing with crisis, has earned it acclaim and support from the international community", claimed the state-controlled paper.

But commentators elsewhere in Asia were keenest to dissect what a change of leadership from Zemin to Hu Jintao would mean. The conference rhetoric had laid the ghost of Marx to rest - the party would now embrace business entrepreneurs as well as the workers. But did outgoing leader Jiang Zemin's new position as President of the Military Commission mean that any changes would be merely cosmetic? "As the ranking (in the politburo) made clear," commented Francesco Sisci in The Asia Times, "there is no room for doubt: ultimately Jiang will be on top of Hu, although Hu will run the day to day business."

The dissection of the political manouverings threatened to obscure a broader weakness, argued Frank Ching in The Japan Times: "What counts in Chinese politics is still the force of personality...53 years after the establishment of the People's Republic of China, the Chinese political system has still not been institutionalised. Until that day arrives, the party will remain immature and China will be without the political institutions it needs to function effectively in the 21st century."

The dominant theme for many China watchers around the world was the inevitable tensions which would arise as China's new leadership sought to combine greater economic freedoms with the tightest political control. As The Christian Science Monitor put it, "It's a difficult balance to allow aspirations of wealth to flourish while denying political aspirations. Pressures for faster change are building in China - in rural poverty, party corruption, pollution, etc. - and the party may not be nimble enough to keep one step ahead of the masses."

Who inspects the inspectors?

Saddam's acceptance of the UN resolution means that the threat of a US-led invasion into Iraq has receded for the moment at least. Washington's best-known public hawk did little to conceal his disappointment. Richard Perle said, "Europe has lost its moral compass. Many Europeans have become so obsessed by the prospect of violence they have failed to notice who we are dealing with" and expressed serious doubts about the United Nations chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix, and the ability of his team to disarm Iraq. In The Financial Times, Michael O'Hanlon wanted to give Blix a chance. "We cannot yet know how the process will play out; much depends on how much Mr Hussein wants to save his own neck. But it is wrong to dismiss the possibility that inspections can succeed." Japan's Daily Yomiuri thinks "the inspections will be more effective if Iraqi scientists and high-ranking government officials, who are believed to have confidential information, are questioned outside Iraq, where Saddam's influence does not reach." But The Times of India argues that there are already conditions laid down in the UN resolution "which no sovereign ruler can be expected to willingly swallow" and that Saddam will continue to obstruct inspections. One way to sweeten the pill is to concede the legitimacy of some of the demands of Baghdad and the Arab world. "The inclusion of Arabs in the inspection team and the presence of a neutral international media are unexceptionable demands that can only lend credibility to the UN inspections." An inspections crisis may not be far away but The Melbourne Ageurges extreme caution on the west: "Washington must take care, by its words and deeds, to maintain the united coalition now facing Iraq."

A plague on the Royal houses

British tabloids weren't alone in scrutinising the skeletons in the Royal closet lately. Maureen Dowd, writing in The New York Times, compares Princess Diana to panoply of Shakespeare's tragic heroines.

"There was also some mad Ophelia about her, a fragile, self-destructive flower wilting - but with a thorny talent for manipulation and a New Age compulsion for confession. Lady Macbeth on her own, surrounded by aromatherapists, numerologists and psychics. A glamorous, vindictive Empress Tamara in furs and jewels, juggling Muslim boyfriends, dialling tabloid reporters and plotting against enemies."

The latest threat to the monarchy has also led to speculations that the throne will skip Charles and go to her son William. "Diana's ghost may well be sated by vengeance, finally able to rest. Or she may pull another 'Carrie,' reaching her bejewelled and manicured hand up from the grave yet again."