In response to the IIP eJournal Markets and Democracy, a reader self-identifed as “a Chinese citizen” submitted the following comment:

… What you termed as “marketization without democratization” is actually one phase in China’s democratization process, and it is a phenomenon of the process. The Chinese people have recognized that “marketization with democratization” is the hope for China and they will never allow “marketization without democratization” to persist for long. Social change takes time.

In order for China to realize “marketization with democratization” sooner, please do your best and in all possible ways to spread the idea of “marketization with democratization” and to help the Chinese people build a media where they can express their views. Meanwhile, please do not be deluded by the media of the power holders; because you are not living among the ordinary people at the grassroots level, and without understanding of the real situation, you are prone to being misled. (Telling lies is a common practice of the clique of the power holders in China). The key is, once becoming aware of the idea of “marketization with democratization,” the Chinese people will heroically fight for their own interests at any cost. Thousands of years of Chinese civilization attests to this.

The reader was responding to an observation by Kellee S. Tsai, professor of political science at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, that China’s booming economy is bolstering its communist government. Tsai, citing ongoing censorship or repression of those who criticize the government, says that “the spread of market forces has bolstered authoritarian resilience and regime durability in China.”

Will China progress to “marketization with democratization” as our Chinese reader believes? Or will, as Professor Tsai says, China’s economic success prove “to be the party’s source of legitimacy rather than downfall?