Liberalization in China

For many years, as China rushed through a process of industrialization in a third of the time it took Britain, Europe and America, it was commonly held that an inevitable corollary of this would be increasing pressure for, and moves toward, democracy.

The logic, I assume, ran that industrialization could not be achieved without education and with a more educated populous, demands for freedom of expression and democracy would necessarily follow.  

What this argument misses is as old as the Roman Empire; "Bread and Circuses". Industrialization has forged ahead, and education too; but while standards of living have been rising people are willing to trade freedom for increasing prosperity.

Demands for political reform can be held in abeyance as long as prosperity continues to grow. When that stops, expect trouble.