Did the Chinese Authorities Release Dr. Jiang Because They Do Not Understand His Metaphors?

Don't let it be said Comp. Lit is unimportant -- fail to grasp a metaphor, and you could
make an enormous political blunder.

That seems to be the case with the military authority in China which took to "re-educating" Dr. Jiang. According to this NYTimes report: "Dr. Jiang's supporters grew optimistic about the prospects for his release earlier this month. On July 7, two officers from the military's General Logistics Department visited Dr. Jiang's wife, Hua Zhongwei, and informed her that Dr. Jiang had 'shown progress in his thoughts.' Ms. Hua was shown a seven-page statement written by Dr. Jiang that contained reflections that authorities argued were confessional in tone. The doctor, this person said, wrote that he had learned that the 'Communist Party confronted by the student protests was much like a patient with complicated colorectal cancer where, without emergency surgery, death was imminent.' The statement suggests that Dr. Jiang acknowledged the threat the party perceived in the student-led protests. It does not directly endorse the decision to crush dissent."

Ummmmmmmm..... actually, that statment suggests Dr. Jiang diagnoses the Chinese governement with a terminal disease, being eaten up by cancer from the inside. It doesn't imply anything about his regard for the protests -- although he may have regarded the protests as a symptom of the disease, the inevitable outcry of the offended body politic.

Whooopsy.