That’s when the duck hit me on the head.

As I was writing a column in reaction to the opening of the talks on Stalinist North Korea’s nuclear weapons, I noted the fact that much of the recent discussions about Unocal, the Communist military buildup, and the overseas espionage network will likely be shoved to the background as the “engagement” crowd peddles the “good cop” image of Communist China, i.e., without the cooperation of the Chinese Communist regime, we may never get the Stalinists to agree to stop breaking their promise to agree to stop breaking their promise not to develop nuclear weapons. No, that wasn’t a text-copy typo, the Stalinists agreed not to develop nukes in 1985. In 1993, they went back on their word; next year under the Agreed Framework they promised to reverse their 1993 reversal.

Anyhow, it was in my pondering of the near-perfect storm of rising debate on Communist China that – as we like to say here – the duck hit me on the head. I quickly went back to find out when the Stalinists – allies of Communist China for over fifty years and dependent upon it for their very survival – agreed to the new round of talks. Wouldn’t you know it? The talks were officially on again three days after Australia granted a protection visa to Chen Yonglin, and less than two weeks after Bill Gertz’s exposé on the Communist military buildup. Does anyone really think that was purely coincidental?