RECALL the days when members of the American foreign policy establishment were reassuring us that growing US diplomatic and economic ties with Beijing and the entry of China into the post-Cold War international system and its integration into the global economy would transform the Middle Kingdom into a vibrant liberal democracy committed to free market principles and adhering to the rules of the American-dominated international order?

Indeed, the conventional wisdom in Washington in the early 1990s, advanced by both Democratic and Republican presidents and lawmakers, as well as by most pundits and columnists, was that sooner or later, China would follow in the footsteps of Taiwan and South Korea, as the expansion of trade and investment ties with the West, not to mention the liberalising impact of the Internet, would help create the foundations of a growing middle class that would challenge the authoritarian rulers in Beijing and demand more political freedom.

In a way, being bullish about China prospects and supporting US "engagement" with Beijing has become part of the political DNA of America's ruling elites. Not that these politicians, business executives, lobbyists and op-ed writers, were naive and unaware of the major obstacles to political and economic reform in China, its government's violations of human rights and press freedom.