China’s Long March to Freedom

Issue Date July 2007
Volume 18
Issue 3
Page Numbers 58-64
file Print
arrow-down-thin Download from Project MUSE
external View Citation

Yang highlights several factors that augur well for freedom in China. These factors include growing elite discourse on human rights and democracy as well as a massive expansion of tertiary education that will make a new generation more capable of articulating its interests. International factors include the expansion of democracy in Asia and China’s aspirations to be a responsible global power in a world in which the leading powers are democracies. Ultimately China’s political transformation will not be determined by the top elite alone but will be subject to negotiation and contestation among diverse interests.