Word: spasms
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...strange week of unrest is why the authoritarian leadership permitted it to get started. One possibility is that with Mikhail Gorbachev due in Beijing on May 15, China's rulers were loath to set the stage with a crackdown. Some cynics speculated that conservatives plan to use the spasm of protest to claim a new liberal victim, possibly Hu's successor, Party General Secretary Zhao Ziyang. But a Western diplomat in Beijing disagreed, suggesting that the era of fall-guy politics has ended. Said he: "Can they let another guy go down the tubes, given the growing cynicism...
...spasm was yet another manifestation of ethnic tensions that confront General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev with a formidable challenge. The Nagorno- Karabakh dispute has revived the historic hostility between Armenians, who are largely Christians, and Azerbaijanis, who are mainly Muslims. Armenia's call for restoration of the enclave and its 160,000 people to Armenian control has been rebuffed by the central government, which fears that any such adjustment might trigger territorial demands elsewhere...
EASY DOES IT, YOUNG MAN. Will Communist Party General Secretary Zhao Ziyang, 68, eventually succeed Deng Xiaoping, 84, as China's leader? A recent spasm of economic unrest did not help his chances. Zhao reluctantly called for a slowdown in the pace of reform. But that decision is likely to slow his ascension. China's veteran military commanders will now wait to see if Zhao, once considered a shoo-in to succeed Deng, can put the economy back on course...
...shiny black Secret Service van with black tinted windows, an agent standing on the tailgate with his hand inside a black nylon bag that concealed his automatic weapon. The sunshine itself became sinister and a chill of premonition crossed the mind -- the dank American underdream -- and in a small spasm of panic one frisked the faces in the crowd, looking for the wrong one. The sudden foreboding had a specific primal antecedent in time and place and noon sunshine: the nerves were reaching back exactly to the imprint made upon the American mind on Nov. 22, 1963, in Dallas...
Another acid-tongued writer once observed in a spasm of humanity that, "It is hard to laugh at people's need for romance and beauty"--a process Wolfe has made a career of. No matter what your avocation, you should take his advice. The best way to transcend the limits society imposes is to have sympathy when there is a knock on the door...