People seem to think, or want, that China will somehow become democratic, or will collapse...but neither is realistic. China will continue as the massive and united society it is for a couple of hundred years at least, growing more powerful etc yet not war-like. In this way China is very different from every other rising power in our Western histories. It doesn't make war. We will have to get used to that. Sure, within China, there will be better organised more representational forms within government, but never anything as stupid as what we define as democracy. China is doing well and will continue to do well. As for the government...a solid party core at the centre of a free wheeling yet controlled capitalism, it will do very well indeed. The world has never seen a society like China as it now begins to just emerge on the world scene, so we have no way of understanding it. Our histories of rising and collapsing empires isnt what China is doing at all. it is not like what we know or understand. Tibet will not be free to sell its resources to India or America. Hong Kong will remain a city in China. Taiwan will be accommodated. China operates on the basis of the Walled World Concept, whilst utilising globalism as it is. The Great Gates of China, well, some open, and some close, as it suits the times, but it remains China. One China, intact. Certain.