Thomas P.M. Barnett

The Nobel Committee's decision to award jailed Chinese democracy activist Liu Xiaobo the 2010 Peace Prize came just days before China's Communist Party elite anointed political princeling Xi Jinping as President Hu Jintao's clear successor, highlighting the two Chinas that now seem to be passing one another like ships in the night. One China is propelled from below by a coastal workforce that is increasingly self-confident in its skills and accomplishments and growing income. The other, larger China is managed from above by political leaders who increasingly worry over the nation's social stability as they grow more self-defensive in their ruling style.

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