Human rights: the White House and China

If you missed Shen Yun this time, it will return. In the meantime, do not miss seeing Mao’s Last Dancer, an award-winning film now running in local cinemas. Based on the best-selling autobiography of Li Cunxin, it tells the fascinating story of 11-year-old Li, one of six brothers born to an impoverished Chinese peasant family. Selected by Madame Mao’s Ballet Academy for ideological and artistic training, Li became one of the first exchange students the Mao regime allowed to visit America. Dancing with the Houston Ballet, Li discovered freedom and refused to return to China. That led to an abduction standoff at the Chinese consulate that made world headlines.

Since Li Cunxin now lives “down under,” it’s not surprising that the film was directed by Bruce Beresford, the Australian who brought us dozens of films like Tender Mercies, The Contract, and Driving Miss Daisy. The movie is another of his masterpieces. Whether you like ballet or not, you will be taken by Beresford’s mesmerizing blend of dance, drama, and romance until, like me, you find yourself applauding the perfect finale. Then, like me, on the street outside the theatre you will remember it was the rulers of Mao’s communist China who caused the anguish in Li’s life.

The brutal masters of today’s China are no different.

Chet Nagle is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and the author of Iran Covenant.