You know that the world is screwed up when a ruthless dictatorship is willing to do what the democratically elected President of South Africa won’t.  Turns out that China, fearing bad publicity due to its close relationship with Zimbabwe, has told Robert Mugabe and his gang of thugs to cool it for a while:

A demand by China that the Zimbabwean government “behave” in the run-up to the Olympics lies behind Robert Mugabe’s surprise decision to open negotiations with the opposition.  Beijing put pressure on Mr Mugabe to begin talks because of fears that the continuing crisis in Zimbabwe risked overshadowing the Olympics, according to government and diplomatic sources.

China’s leaders, who have have long enjoyed a close relationship with Zimbabwe’s beleagured president, feared growing protests in the run-up to the Games and so leaned on Mr Mugabe to agree to the historic talks….

So the score is ChiComs 1, Thabo “the Mbekster” Mbeki, 0.  I have to wonder whether South Africans have a countdown clock for him the way we do for Bush.

And does this mean that Mugabe will renege on the power-sharing agreement as soon as the Olympics are over?

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