one of the reasons behind chinese economic prosperity is cheap labor they have. they are able to go for mass production and sell their products in low unit cost yet make a lucrative profit in whole. once china will emerge as a democratic nation. first thing that will happen is their labor cost will rise and hence the cost of their products. this will have a negative impact on their sales and hence in the economy. unless they resort to bilateral trade with foreign countries, the economic growth will only be a distant dream. hence there is a trade off as well in being an open market. the bottom line is, china have to either shake hands with US or rise as a closed market which seems to bring a rather dicey future for them. we all know what happened to the former soviet union. LooTe