Whose idea? Hu's idea!

I discovered the other day that one of my oldest Chinese friends here had been contemplating joining the anti-foreigner demonstration last Saturday.

I found this a particularly depressing reminder of just how effective the propaganda here is.

A reminder, also, of the shocking naivety of so many of the Chinese. My friend really had no awareness of exactly what he was to have been protesting against. Yet he seemed to believe very passionately in it, whatever it was. And he was completely convinced that this was a "spontaneous" event, organized by a group of his friends, entirely of their own volition. They just happened to be university students. And there was a very detailed programme of what they were supposed to do and where they were supposed to go, but it wasn't very clear where this had come from. And their plan to participate in the demonstration was called off - before it had even begun to happen - because the police told them to cancel it. But my friend really had no conception that this whole event might have been centrally organised by the Party.

Sigh.