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I'm curious why parent is down-voted, is this line of thinking completely out of wack? I thought China is definitely going to become more democratic, following

• president 7y ago
  In what way is China becoming more democratic? Last time I heard, China doesn't have free elections and those that spoke against the government got jailed, beaten, or disappeared.
  • retrac 7y ago
    China has indeed gone through a number of phases of relative (relative being the key word) openness. Similar to the Krushchev thaw, subsequent re-tightening, and then re-loosening in the late Soviet era. After the Mao era, things became increasingly unrestricted until the '89 crackdown. A second relative period of relatively lax censorship came in the new century. It has been tightening again since Xi came to power, but arguably still less strict and totalitarian than under Mao.
• CharlesColeman 7y ago
  > I'm curious why parent is down-voted, is this line of thinking completely out of wack? I thought China is definitely going to become more democratic, following similar path as Japan and Korea. China is not following a similar path. The CCP has been tightening its grip, and China is arguably less liberal now than it was when Xi took power (for instance: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/25/magazine/the-lonely-crusade-of-chinas-human-rights-lawyers.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/25/magazine/the-lonely-crusa...). The CCP has been much more successful at fusing authoritarianism with capitalism than anyone anticipated.