Painting China as the Borg

In the run-up to Chinese President Hu Jintao's state visit, the Economist offers some sobering thoughts:

”What so many Americans can't seem to accept, is that the Chinese mode of governance seems to be quite stable. There is no plausible threat to the political monopoly of the Chinese Communist Party. Eastern Europeans abandoned belief in Soviet Communism because its economic model was a pathetic shambles, and even so, it took decades to collapse. The Chinese economic model, meanwhile, is a productive powerhouse. As long as it maintains the confidence of its citizens, there's little reason to think that China's political system is going to change on any timescale subject to punditry.”

“... It's by no means clear that the United States or any other welfare-state capitalist liberal democracy is the goal. It's not clear where we're heading, and we should keep our wits about us and adapt; we can be left behind, just as others were before us.”

These points are well taken and worth pondering. It is true that in recent decades, China has been as disciplined, unremitting and seemingly unstoppable as the cybernetic Borg of Star Trek. There’s no denying its economic prowess. Yet, the West painted Japan and its vaunted “business is war” ethic in much the same way during the 1980s. But the “Rising Sun” overreached and ultimately sputtered.

I suspect we are similarly misreading China and its potential. Though mighty, its economic foundation rests on an unexploded political bomb. Unless it grants fundamental freedom to its peoples, an implosion seems all but inevitable at some future point. Moving toward democracy remains anathema to China’s communist Mandarins. But, as the Borg would say, resistance is futile.