Illusions about China.

I doubt very much that a democratic China is ready
to emerge any moment now. Nor that it would be
that much better in what comes to human rights and
rights of minorities. It would resemble more Vladimir
Putin´s Russia than any western democracy.

A democratically elected Chinese government would
probably be rather authoritarian, very nationalistic
and so on. If you want to stay in power in China
you have to look and act tough. No true autonomy
for Tibet. It doesn´t matter whether you are elected by
the elder members of the Communist Party or in a
democractic election.

You earn your credentials by keeping up the order,
stability and unity of China, and at the same
time bringing at least a modest positive change to
the quality of life of the majority of the people.

One of the reasons why the Kuomingtang lost in 1949
was that it failed in all four. It was weak both
internally and externally. Ironically one could say
that today´s China in it´s most succesful areas
resembles what the Kuomingtang hoped to achieve.
After all, it was then a party of rightwing socialism,
whose slogan was "Socialism without class struggle".
This is one of the facts of the Chinese civil war that
many in the West tend to forget, if they ever knew it.