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Comment by chvid | Hacker News Reader

I think China take will the path to democracy most other democratic nations have taken including my own: As the middle class eventually grows big enough it will demand and get political influence ultimately creating democratic institutions (formal freedom of speech, parliaments, elections, referendums) as we have it in the west.

It is easy to focus on a single news story and forgetting that China is a much freer society today than it was 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago.

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As a matter of fact --- what you said used to be a belief shared widely among public intellectuals in China 10-20 years ago. No one believes in it now.

As a Chinese, I'm inclined to agree with you. One thing above all is the education level of the population has gone up quite a bit. I personally think that's a cornerstone for any future social reforms.

By no measure is China a freer society today than it was 10 years ago.

>By no measure is China a freer society today than it was 10 years ago.

That's debatable but we know for a fact the USA was freer 10 years ago.

That is not the subject though

really? source please?

The FISA court system, Patriot Act & Freedom Act punch enough holes in the 4th amendment to make it useless.

Pretty clear that less liberty is the outcome for all.

Thanks! My reply is to your comment's parent though :)

Chosen at random (because I'm not your on-demand research assistant): https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/21...

Thanks. I didn't mean to make you a research assistant. In this age of misinformation, I think it's good manner to back up our claims with some evidence. And as a Chinese I was pretty surprised by the claim itself.

China is big, so it ebbs and flows depending on who's in power.

Two steps forward one step back. In the last ten years, more people have travelled, studied, or learned about the world than ever before. The people running the show will die one day, that's not representative of what will happen. It's what the people think that determines what will happen. What the younger generations have experienced in their personal lives will translate to what they want for society, and that's my measure: the younger people are much freer in their personal lives than those 10 years ago. They know what they want, and one day they will get it.

Unless, of course, they are Muslim or falun gong.

Having said that is there any way to combine democracy and a single party fully embedded to the Government?

Yeah see Singapore more or less.

>The PAP has been returned to power in every general election and has thus formed the Cabinet since 1959

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_of_Singapore

Sure.. right now there's a selection process for the National Congress... just make it so anyone can run for that position (and maybe the Central Committee too). Then hold free and fair elections in each province.

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