Ive been a regular visitor to China since 1990, and heres what strikes me most: Each year that Ive come here, Chinas people seem to speak with greater ease and breathe with greater difficultyYes, you can now have amazingly frank talks with officials and joalists here. But when I walked out of my room the ming after I arrived in Shanghai,the air was so smoky-from the bing of farm fields after the harvest-that for a moment I honestly thought my hotel was on fire.