Create the middle class, you get the questions
Sunday, October 1, 2006 at 2:34PM
Thomas P.M. Barnett

ARTICLE: In China, Churches Challenge the Rules: Bold Congregations Risk Official Wrath, By Maureen Fan, Washington Post, October 1, 2006; Page A19

Care to bet who's gonna win this struggle over the long haul? China's adding consumers (disposable-income spenders) like crazy and you know what happens to any society when such a critical mass appears? They start asking questions beyond the usual "how do I survive?" They ask political questions, sure. But more and more they ask religious ones.

China's government will be able to squelch neither, just channel them through solutions that increasingly bolster the public's confidence in asking even more questions.

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