[Vigilanteman]

I find this article very interesting and generally like Singaporeans-- not only for their keen understanding of China but their distrust of communism.

However, the major fallacy in the essay is his belief that a Communist-Fascist elitist society will peacefully evolve into a somewhat autocratic but relatively free society like Singapore.

Communist-Fascist govenments do not ever voluntarly relinquish power or allow such evolution to take place. Autocratic anti-communist governments such as Taiwan under Chaing-Kai Shek, South Korea under Sygman Rhee and Singapore today do, however, evolve into functioning democratic republics.

[maui_hawaii]

I found the article very interesting also. I particularly like the format. Although I largely do not agree with the professor on many things, this is a very useful article for discussion purposes.

I think a lot of people talk of China but (as always) get divided up into camps, but don't talk about the facts.

Economically some describe China's economy as "good" or "bad" or "small" or "big"...but none of those are qualifiable measures. What one considers "good" is merely subjective, thus adding to the division amongst camps regarding China.

Of those 4 camps he mentioned, I am probably 40% in the second camp, 25% of the first and third camp, and 10% the last. I would be a pie chart of all of the above, not one or the other.

The only way we will end up with the last one is if we REALLY push them on it and seriously require it of them. It won't happen any time soon though.

[Filibuster_60]

Dictatorships aren't created equal. China's present leaders were molded by the Cultural Revolution and the post-Mao reforms of Deng Xiaoping. They've never been subjected to substantial western influences like Taiwan, South Korea or Singapore have. Even if the central authorities were, most regional party bosses and bureaucrats they rely on weren't. A country as vast as China simply can't use a city-state like Singapore as a nationwide development model.

[taiwansemi]

All the former fascist military dictatorships you mentioned before(in Korea, Taiwan, etc.) are currently some of the biggest investors in China today. When they see China today, they see a mirror image of themselves about 3 decades ago.