A specter stalks lands in which tyrants remain, and that specter is cyberspace. Cyberspace brings to civil society opportunties to make informed judgements, which everywhere undermines one-party states. Once fear of the Party fades, unfulfilled expectations will combine with perceptions of unfairness to mobilize via civil society. Belief in the Party will evaporate. The only defenders of the Party will be those who have perks via the Party, which is never enough to rescue one-party societies from being dumped into the dustbin of history.

I have reserved two of your books at my local library and recommended your article on my FB page.

My friends and I are having a heated argument tonight about China calling US out on our Human Rights score card. For the record I am calling China out on their propaganda tactics and the whereabouts of Liu Xia.

It's the 1950s all over again!

The Arab Spring is nothing more than a Spring Mouse Plague Syndrome. An excess of people demanding jobs food and freedom to reproduce.
The difference with mice is that humans can articulate to the world their needs while we revile the mice for their excesses. The biology is the same - we are animals!

Welcome to the future unattainable demands unfulfilled needs, hunger and anarchy but freedom to fornicate.

The Chinese have no fear for control and can use violence to attain it.
What they fear is disorder and food riots!

I enjoyed the article. It is encouraging to know that the government is not popular in China.

The article reminded me of a book I read a few years ago. "Breaking the Real Axis of Evil: How to Oust the World's Last Dictators by 2025" by Mark Malmer. I think maybe I need to dust it off and read it again.

I realize this may sound quaint, but I'm curious whether any ideological figures in the Communist Party hav attempted an actual Marxist analysis of the Arab uprisings. I suppose that the Deng-style leaders today aren't really interested in how those musty old Marx-Lenin fuddy-duddies would view the class/dialectical nature of what's going on. I doubt that kind of lens would give much in the way of an accurate impression, nor have any predictive value, but I'd be astounded if there hasn't been any attempt whatsoever.

Great article that reminds me of André Malraux's great novel La Condition Humaine (Man's Fate).