It all started going downhill when we stopped referring to them as “Red China”; our government has cozied up to them (in a manner reminiscent of our whitewashing of “Uncle Joe” Stalin) for decades, and they are the envy of every government that wants to rule its population with an iron fist.
Hillary spoke at a women’s conference there years ago (maybe when BJ was president); apparently nobody thought it was ironic that a country that limited women to one child apiece was hosting it.
Bill Clinton never should have extended them MFN status without guarantees of human rights reforms. There should have been further guarantees that a failure on their part to enact these reforms would result in immediate termination of MFN status. Just another bad deal for americans made by American politicians.