The Silencing Effect of Money
Since China entered the WTO, it has reverted back to or continued in its ways of human rights violations and information control. Now that so many companies have stakes in this sizzling hot economy, foreign investors seem willing to overlook the wrong done for the sake of money. This superficial layer of progress disguises the fact that China is still a communist government with an extensive secret police network that monitors and disciplines its people's devotion to the Party. I myself was fooled and enchanted by the current boom to mistake economic progress for moral progress.

I suspect the irony to this is that all the money, technology, training, and intelligence that other nations pour into China now, will be taken; and eventually the Chinese will discard foreign ties and become competitors against the very companies helping them now. The Chinese have more engineers graduating each year than the United States does; they have a longer history of producing business men and women; they are able to draw from the world's largest body of manpower; and the people are willing to work harder, longer, for less return. China is too shrewd to completely sever foreign ties-- they still need distributors in other countries; this may be a small issue since China's largest market will probably be its own citizens. For now it may look like history repeating the Spheres of Influence, but this time China is dictating its future and its people.