Will China's Rich Thwart Democracy?

My latest column for CNN.com examines the continuing support for Communist one-party rule amongst China's rich and middle-class.

My latest column for CNN.com examines the continuing support for Communist one-party rule amongst China's rich and middle-class.  While China's wealthy seem reluctant to embrace Western-style democracy, they could still act as a force for greater freedoms.

'Why do you assume that we want Western democracy?' The question was put by an English-speaking Chinese woman, a graduate of an American university, over an elegant dinner served in a private dining room at an expensive restaurant in the most fashionable neighborhood of Beijing.

It's a grim ironic paradox of modern China: China's vast new middle class -- not to mention its estimated 600,000 millionaires -- look to one-party rule by Mao Zedong's communists as the best protectors of private property.

That middle class has a lot to protect: handsome new suburban villas, opulent new apartments (they are just putting the finishing touches on a Four Seasons condominium tower), 4 million cars in Beijing alone.

The middle class also has a lot to fear. After I said good night to my democracy-skeptical acquaintance, I stepped into the main room of the restaurant. It had emptied out, and the kitchen staff were settling down to a late-evening meal: steamed rice and a watery cabbage stew, ladled into Tupperware tubs.

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