Rock on, Charles.

Charles, thanks for putting things much more eloquently than I could. I'll roll with this idea if we're calling freedom of information and aspect of Marx's bourgeoisie.

Great post, Charles. Both in the observation about this being the second act of China walling itself off to its own detriment and in the Marx citation. It's remarkable to me how, as much as his philosophy may have been discredited, so much of Marx continues to be eerily relevant today.

I've been thinking lately myself about a somewhat similar disadvantage China has. China is not a destination for immigrants. And immigrants will always inherently be outsiders there. You only really belong in China if you're Chinese--if you belong to one of the many ethnic groups that make up the Chinese nation. Now, this is hardly an original thought on my part. The NY Times's Tom Friedman just riffed on much the same theme in a recent column.