Yizi Chen is president and vice-chairman of the board of directors of the Center for Modern China in Princeton, New Jersey. Prior to 1989, he was director of the Institute for Reform of the Economic System in Beijing.
Seymour Martin Lipset argued that economic development would enlarge the middle class, and that the middle class would support democracy. To what extent will this general proposition prove true of China?
Our goal at present is the thorough modernization of China. We all have a compelling sense of the need for this. There is a widespread feeling of dissatisfaction with the…