> At the time, the belief among most policy people was that China’s economic growth would lead to democracy. Obviously, that didn’t happen A late point to this

> At the time, the belief among most policy people was that China’s economic growth would lead to democracy. Obviously, that didn’t happen A late point to this discussion. Democracy is the wrong bar. Increased liberalism is the measurement, and the vast economic expansion was made possible by the same exact (slowly expanding) liberalism that was going on in China in the post Mao era. China was legitimately on a liberalization path, quite clearly, prior to Xi. People very commonly get all of this confused. The thing - the cultural decisions - that made the economic opening possible, is the liberalization (letting people be more free in numerous ways, simply put). It wasn't the economic expansion that might lead to democracy, it was the same thing that was causing the economic expansion, that made that vast expansion possible. That expansion would not have been nearly so powerful if Xi had had the same control, he would have (by necessity of his survival) smothered much of it just as he's doing now. And now Xi can't turn back, they (the remaining old power in the system) will kill him at this point. Xi would be executed for "corruption." So he'll have to keep going forward in terms of more rigid authoritarianism to protect himself, and it's obvious what that's going to cause.