July 24, 2015
Can Economic Dynamism and Political Stability Survive China’s Battle against Freedom?

by Doug Bandow

Beijing—China’s capital looks like an American big city. Tall office buildings. Large shopping malls. Squat government offices. Student-filled universities. Police and security barriers. Political monuments. Luxury retailers. Lots of cars. Horrid traffic jams.

The casual summer uniform is the same: shorts, athletic shoes, skirts, t-shirts, sandals, blouses. Even an occasional baseball cap.

It is a country which the Communist revolutionaries who ruled only four decades ago would not recognize. It’s not just the availability of McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, and KFC. As I sat in a German restaurant featuring steins full of beer and platters covered with sausages listening to a Chinese band cover American pop songs I had to remind myself that I was only a short drive from Tiananmen Square, Mao’s mausoleum, and Zhongnanhai, the Communist Party’s leadership compound.

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