Rosett: ‘Bordering on Tyranny’
Claudia Rosett goes to the increasingly porous border between China and North Korea — for those with money, anyway. This has to be one of the few places where one could see the Chinese side as a land of relative freedom, but that wouldn’t be true if China didn’t prop up so many exceedingly noxious satellite regimes.
I stood on that same border in Tumen in the dead of winter in my down jacket and insulated boots, gazing at the silent smokestacks across the river. Unlike Claudia, I did not see any ordinary citizens moving about, only soldiers ducking in and out of foxholes as they watched us. My Canadian traveling buddy and I were presumed by locals to be Russian, for not many Westerners make it up to Tumen, preferring the more conveniently located border city of Dandong. A band of young Chinese soldiers marched by with a German Shepherd, smiling at us curiously.
Who was smiling more, the soldiers or the Alsatian?
Accompanied by a German Shepherd, a band of young Chinese soldiers marched by, smiling at us curiously.