> It was believed that economic development would result in a growing middle class and in turn a demand for more political freedom, that ... authoritarianism wo

> It was believed that economic development would result in a growing middle class and in turn a demand for more political freedom, that ... authoritarianism would ultimately be unsustainable For the record, this is pretty much what happened historically e.g. in South Korea, and in Taiwan (which is culturally part of China). However, it did take a higher degree of development than we see in the mainland today, for there to be a real 'demand' for these sorts of changes.