Fang Li-Zhi, a Chinese dissident, reminds us that China’s growing economy means little for its commitment — actually, lack of commitment — to democracy and human rights. Using the occasion of Liu Xiaobo’s winning of the Nobel Peace Prize, Li-Zhi commends the Nobel committee for
challeng(ing) the West to re-examine a dangerous notion that has become prevalent since the 1989 Tiananmen massacre: that economic development will inevitably lead to democracy in China.
Increasingly, throughout the late 1990s and into the new century, this argument gained sway. Some no doubt believed it; others perhaps found it convenient for their business interests. Many trusted the top Chinese policymakers who sought to persuade the outside world that if they continued pouring in their investments without an embarrassing “linkage” to human rights principles, all would get better at China’s own pace.
More than 20 years have passed since Tiananmen. China has officially become the world’s second-largest economy. Yet the hardly radical Liu Xiaobo and thousands of others rot in jail for merely demanding basic rights enshrined by the U.N. and taken for granted by all Western investors in their own countries. Apparently, human rights have not “inevitably” improved despite a soaring economy.
This seemed obvious to those of us critical of mindless globalization (a globalization that eschewed an imposition of international rules). Maybe Xiaobo’s peace prize will wake everyone else up to the idea.
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Hank Kalet 
Amen to this article. Capitalism has absolutely nothing to do with freedom, democracy or republicanism. Capitalism can flourish in a fascist state (Mussolini's Italy, Hitler's Germany, Pinochet's Chile, Batista's Cuba) or a communist police state like China. Capitalism is not a governmental system, it's an economic system. US capitalists and Chinese communist capitalists love the slave labor, lack of real independent unions and lax or no regulations.The US Chamber of Commerce, Walmart, and Dell, for example, which hate unions, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, a minimum wage or any social safety net in the US, promote predatory capitalism. They label the social safety net as SOCIALISM, SOCIALISM, SOACIALISM!!!!! They have no problem whatsoever with Chinese communist goods, no problem with shipping US factories to commie China. They are worse than hypocrites, they are vultures. Don't fall for the Ayn Rand and libertarian crap load of nonsense which ultimately leads to communist capitalism.