China at the Tipping Point?
What will be the future of China’s authoritarian political system? Many predicted that China’s rapid development over the past several decades would inevitably lead to gradual liberalization. Economic growth was expected to generate a cascade of changes—first to society, then law, and eventually politics. Events appeared to confirm these projections. As Chinese authorities opened up the economy in the late twentieth century, they also launched sweeping reforms of the nation’s legislative and judicial institutions. The events of the past decade, however, have called these assumptions i...
Source: chinafile.com