China: Battling Spiritual Pollution

The government tries to close the door on Western influence

When Chinese Leader Deng Xiaoping decreed an "open door" policy for foreign capital and technology a few years ago, he somberly warned his people that "the penetration of bourgeois ideas is inevitable." Sure enough, leggy beauties now glide along sleek runways in Peking modeling the latest Pierre Cardin fashions. Not far away, well-heeled tourists tuck into French cuisine at Cardin's elegant new Maxim's de Pékin. Even in rustic glades, jeans-clad teen-agers blast out punk rock from ubiquitous cassette players. Free enterprise has also brought in its wake less innocent forms of...