I'm always thrilled to see countries that have been so poor for so long find success, but, unfortunately, I think political freedom may well take decades to come to China.

Part of the problem is that the Western and central provinces can't offer the skills, education, and geographical position of the Southeast.  Taxes are also high in areas dominated by agriculture.

A strong democratic movement may or may not require the middle class.  My sense is that, in this case, it will not involve that class.  What incentive do they have to join such a cause?  Voting is great, but these people are worried about paying the rent and continuing the massive improvements in welfare they've gained.  The risk of the middle-class pushing the democratic movement is incredibly high.

We in America and Europe have the real power, because our two economies dwarf China's, and China is dependent on trade with us.  And we ought to be using that strength to push the human rights agenda.  The fact that we have not been pounding on China enough for the Communist Party's brutality towards dissidents and oppression of people in the rural provinces is disgusting to me.  The Republicans here in America like to claim that they are all about fighting the evil, oppressive Commies.  But they've always been strangely silent when the Commies happened to be from China.

I never followed the reasoning behind the double standard.  I have a pretty good idea -- namely, that we engaged China in the '70s when relations between the CPC and the CPSU were, shall we say, less than spectacular -- but it's still no excuse.

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.