China's Army Under Fire

For a Chinese military chauffeur, it was all in a day's drive. After all, there was a traffic jam and his boss wanted to impress the American guests in the back of his big black Lexus. So the chauffeur turned on his siren and flashing red light and swung onto a crowded sidewalk in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou. The driver barked through the car's loudspeakers at pedestrians, scattering them in his path. Then the sedan zipped ahead of the congested traffic. For the American executive in the car, who was considering a business venture with a People's Liberation Army-linked company, it was a powerful testament to the might of the Chinese military and the carte blanche that its official license plates provide. "I was impressed," says the executive.