China and the Olympics

Because China won more gold medals at the Beijing Olympics than the United States, knucklehead reporter Nicholas Kristof (NY Times), projects that it means that the Chinese have had a similar "surge" in "the arts, in business, in science, in education..."

Wow.

Michael Medved responds: "Actually, past Olympic success for communist dictatorships didn't signal any rise in power or prosperity. The U.S. lost the medals race to the Soviet Union in Munich in 1972, and we even finished third--behind both the USSR and East Germany--in Seoul in 1988.

Within two years, the Soviet Union had collapsed and East Germany had disappeared entirely as a separate nation. Athletic achievements assist propaganda, but despite "oohs" and "ahs" from China's admirers, they're no real proof of national strength or dynamism."

All it means Mr. Kristoff is that ... well ... China won more medals.