I ask questions through a translator and receive for my pains a stream of self-righteous dogma. My next interviewee is quite a contrast. He suggests an eatery that serves cuisine from Xinjiang, the northwestern Muslim region battling for autonomy. We're quaffing beers, listening to lively Turkic music, while my source rails about the system. Even they know it.
Corruption is our worst problem.
He's the ranking Communist official. In contrast, Ren Wanding, the dissident, seems trapped in time. Ren is dressed in a green sweater and brown, leather coat. Wearing a neat goatee any radical would love. Shams to fool the West.