From the AP:
Jittery Chinese authorities wary of any domestic dissent staged a concerted show of force Sunday to squelch a mysterious online call for a “Jasmine Revolution” apparently modeled after pro-democracy demonstrations sweeping the Middle East.
Authorities detained activists, increased the number of police on the streets, disconnected some mobile phone text messaging services and censored Internet postings about the call to stage protests at 2 p.m. in Beijing, Shanghai and 11 other major cities…
Rebellion won’t, at the moment, get anywhere in China – the Chinese government is still too strong and has too much experience in oppressing the Chinese people. But as China gets further and further in to acute economic crisis – and rising food prices – tensions will rise and all bets will be off. Whether this will take days or months to develope remains to be seen…but China is about to enter a period of crisis.
Fundamentally, an unfree nation cannot have long-term economic success. It just isn’t possible to free up an economy while leaving a people unfree. China has had what looks like success in this effort, but all that has really happened in a select group of people have been allowed to rake off enormous profits on the backs of the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people. The Chinese economy isn’t so much free as it is gangsterized…everyone who pays protection to the Chinese government gets to rip off everyone else (including us in America, as it turns out). The inconsistencies of the Chinese economy are now starting to rip it to shreds and only genuine economic and political liberty can fix what is going wrong…but that would mean the end of China’s current ruling class.
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