China Rising: The Last Frontier

China's leaders, ever conscious of history, argue that stability must come first. "If you haven't been through the Cultural Revolution, you don't know what human rights means," says Sun Chao, a Shanghai official who is pushing for transparent government. "In my compound, people were jumping off the rooftops." Given that legacy, Sun goes on, "China is developing human rights faster than any country in the world." Taiwan and South Korea, of course, survived for decades as dictatorships even as they opened up their economies. But as more Chinese like Wang start demanding their rights, the government may learn to adapt. "History was pushed forward by people like me," says Wang. After all, look at Taiwan and South Korea today: they are both democracies.