Is China Next?

China will grow stronger!!!

No, their friends with Syria

Talk of a popular uprising in China is wishful thinking. And, it should really be emphasised, anyone who wishes for that will probably regret it if their wish is granted.:rolleyes: The last thing the world needs is a colossus like that in turmoil. :eek:

China can not be compared to the Arab world, where small, corrupt and wealthy minorities have lorded it over masses who have virtually no hope of making a better life for themselves, at the same time as their countries have been humiliated time and time again by the savage actions of the zionazi terrorist rogue entity that, with the full support of the world's leading superpower, has brought millions of mainly Russians into the land of Palestine and is busy slowly exterminating the Palestinian people and stealing their land and water and other resources.:(

China is suffering no such humiliation at the hands of foreigners, is growing stronger by the day (even if they have just downgraded their forecast for economic growth this year to 7.5%) and millions of rural peasants have been lifted out of poverty in the past few decades and even the poorest today can still have justifiable hope that life will improve for them.:)

Naturally, China still has huge problems to overcome and protest movements, some of which have become violent, still happen locally and regionally, but the general trend is positive.

There are also hopeful signs that attitudes to human rights are improving, albeit slowly. Some years ago, I worked on a project under which Swedish and Finnish legal experts provided the Chinese with training on trial procedures, legal remedies, protection under the law and things like that. This was at the request of the Chinese, so I assume they want to see their society evolve on all fronts, not just economically and militarily.

No country developing at such a breakneck pace as China is doing can avoid big problems, but there are also solutions. On the question of democracy, this may not be such a huge problem to the ordinary people of China as long as they get a little bigger say, greater guarantees of the rule of law and they continue to have a decent material standard of living.

Like the people of, say, Singapore they will settle for "democracy lite" for a long time before they seek to become like western European countries.:cool:

blatantrereg wrote: »

*Thread moved to 10.10am

Or 11.10am because he's in Berlin.:P

patwicklow wrote: »

They also have raised a question in many people's minds: Are all authoritarian regimes now threatened by this new democratic wave? In particular, is China, a rising superpower, vulnerable to these forces?

No, China is different from the revolutions in MENA. Yes, it's not a democracy but I don't think the people there will rise any time soon.

The "democratic wave" you speak of is not very democratic since after each toppled dictator an islamistic government is stepping in and tbh they're not known for their democracy. So instead of creating democracies in MENA the EU/NATO has managed to copy the toppling of the Shah of Iran and the rise of the Mullahs, but in a whole region rather than one single country. Poor people revolted against the dictator because they were poor, and the likes of the Muslim Brotherhood quickly stepped in to lead the poor masses and grab power.

And again, the worst offender against democracy, Saudi Arabia is playing everyone to have their way.
“What we’re seeing is a Sunni-Shiite divide reemerge in the Middle East with Washington clearly backing the Sunni powerhouse Saudi Arabia, a close American ally. And Saudi Arabia in turn along with Qatar has taken control of the revolutions elsewhere.
“For example it’s funding the Ennahda, the main Islamist party in Tunisia. The Muslim Brotherhood and more extremist Salafi groups in Egypt on the record were saying they received substantial funds from Saudi Arabia. The Yemeni government has openly criticized Qatar for interfering in its internal affairs and funding radical Islamists. And of course in Syria the main civilian opposition is dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood, and the so-called Free Syrian Army is dominated by not only radical jihadists from within Syria, but also by jihadists from throughout the region."
John R. Bradley, British author and expert on the Middle East.