China syndrome

This guy has it right:

Whether Beijing can achieve these goals depends on how long its rigid political system can survive, and on the reaction of other powers to China's ambitions. A middle-class push for property rights, rural discontent, increased use of the Internet, huge numbers of unemployed, and a suddenly aging population bringing financial and social strains all dramatize the contradictions inherent in ''market Leninism." Traveling one road in economics and another in politics does not make for a settled destination.

China's economy may continue to grow at its present rate. Or China may retain its Leninist party state. But it can hardly do both. Either the economic or the political logic will soon gain the upper hand.

Pretty much what I've been saying all along.