Do they serve cats in Starbucks? They may have cellphones...but just like living in the White House...it doesn't necessarily give one class. There are surely many more poor souls in China than the ones who have cellphones. Anyway...it's a matter of culture, and freedom. Our prisons have tv's and air conditioners. They still live and die like dogs in the dirt. Free China.
20 years ago, over 90% of China's population was peasants. Now, it's about 67%. Economic development doesn't occur overnight, but it's a process. China's already got 100 mil. people with a standard of living on par with S. Korea or Taiwan. 100 mil. is almost as big as Japan's entire population or the entire US workforce. In the next 20 years, another 100-200 mil. Chinese will achieve First World status.
Representative democracy is great in theory, but most of today's Third World republics are dysfunctional jokes. China's achieved more in 20 years than democratic India has in 50. Just today, democratic Brazil needed a $30 bil. IMF bailout. Third World republics have majority-poor populations and, consequently, majority-socialist populations who oppose capitalist reforms and maintain their beloved welfare states in perpetuity. It's like if the US had a majority-poor population, Gephardt and Daschle would have a lock on Congress almost forever.