Agreed. China is open enough to be a manufacturing and trading powerhouse but, as you mentioned, still not open enough to be a major financial hub and a power on the global stage. The way I look at it is, necessity is the mother of invention, and as the need arises the Chinese will be forced to open up more and refine their financial institutions, banking and insurance laws, and do a better job with fraud and copyright infringement. Can this be done within a communist framework or will China need a democracy to achieve this is still a topic of debate amongst both Chinese and foreigners. If things come to a point where the political system becomes a constraining factor on the aspirations of the Chinese, I am of the opinion we could see it replaced by a system that will facilitate such aspirations. Also, as Taiwan and Korea have shown, economic liberalization is often followed by a political one. These days people in Chines cities, who have moved from the villages, are forming action committees to protest things like poor housing management and the communist party has been allowing such activities so far. Given these signs and China's hot hot economy, I feel there are reasonable chances that either the communist party will need to open up more or will be sidelined from power. Again, I should stressed the communists are pretty entrenched in Beijing, but they will be forced to change things as per the need of the times. If the past is anything to go by, they have been pretty good at doing this for the last 20 years.