The Revolution In the Middle

Nick Kristof, writing from the Middle Kingdom, opines that blogs will ultimately bring down the Chinese Communist kleptocracy:

I tried my own experiment, posting comments on Internet chat rooms. In a Chinese-language chat room on Sohu.com, I called for multiparty elections and said, "If Chinese on the other side of the Taiwan Strait can choose their leaders, why can't we choose our leaders?" That went on the site automatically, like all other messages. But after 10 minutes, the censor spotted it and removed it.

Then I toned it down: "Under the Communist Party's great leadership, China has changed tremendously. I wonder if in 20 years the party will introduce competing parties, because that could benefit us greatly." That stayed up for all to see, even though any Chinese would read it as an implicit call for a multiparty system.

So where is China going? I think the Internet is hastening China along the same path that South Korea, Chile and especially Taiwan pioneered. In each place, a booming economy nurtured a middle class, rising education, increased international contact and a growing squeamishness about torturing dissidents.

Kristof's view of democracy is a healthy compromise between the neo-conservatives' and the neo-progressives. The Neocons believe that democracy is good for and longed for by everyone, regardless of their socioeconomic state. The neoprogs apparently believe that no culture has the authority to promote any aspect of itself over another, including the system of government. They believe that society is so deterministic that democracy is simply unfit for certain cultures. Kristof finds the middle way: democracy is good for and desired by all cultures, but is not generally attainable without certain underlying circumstances, which are generally called "civil society". A free press, a middle class, and economic opportunity are among the keystones in this foundation for democracy, and China is beginning to realize all of them.