Thanks for the ping!
Steyn scores another bullseye hit of the fawning self-loathing liberal class. Falling for the "Potemkin Villages v. 2.0" of China, hook, line and sinker.
Follow the rose-colored glasses. And you will find liberals.
Anyways, I have read an analysis that, the Communist Party, which lines it's own and its families pockets, that would represent a wealthy ruling class of about 150-250 million people. As many as well-to-do as our own country.
That many wealthy can put on a good front to foreigners to conceal the state of affairs for the other 1 billion souls under their heels, and noses chained to grindstones.
I agree. Sooner or later, those 1 billion folks in the backwoods are gonna want a slice of the faux prosperity pie. There's already unrest in some of the Muslim provinces in western China, and Tibet is always a hotspot. Throw in the fact that communism is completely antithetical to basic human nature(why else would they so fear Falun Gong?), and I could see the regime folding like a house of cards within the next 20-30 years.
I live in Vietnam part of each year. One day, I asked a taxi driver whether he had read one of the local commie run fishwrappers. He just chuckled and said that no one reads those things. The populace understands the hand they've been dealt, they all want out.