[ScottSolomon]

I think you are falling into the trap of seeing capitalism and communism in black and white terms. Many nations have socialist and capitalist aspects - like Japan and Sweden. They are not like oil and water. For instance, America is not even a pure capitalist economy. Most economists agree that pure capitalism is as unmanagable as is pure communism.

China has been making a great deal of progress. I would love to see the establishment of a set bill of rights similar to the U.S. constitution's bill of rights. That would not necessarily mean that the communist party had to suppress speech or tolerate dissent, they can simply adopt the American style of public coercion.

I think that China is part of the reason for our current war on terrorism. I am quite sure that the land grab in Iraq was an effort to seize control of the levers of oil power before China became a challenging force. China will need a massive amount of oil if it is to grow into the industrial powerhouse that it can be. I think that we will be controlling that oil to a large extent and that we will be at odds with them in a few years - if the neocons stay in power. I think that China will be the leader internationally in biotech and cloning in a few years if we keep the same ideologues in office.

But anyway - what were we talking about?

Oh yeah - i wonder how the Chinese people feel about government censorship of the news and the net. Is there even an awareness about this among the population?