The old regime and the revolution

“Mass incidents”?protests and demonstrations?proliferate. Farmers resent land-grabs by greedy local officials. The second generation of workers staffing michael kors handbags sale world’s workshop in eastern China are more ambitious and less docile than michael kors handbags oullet ir parents. And michael kors handbags cheap urban middle class is growing fast. Elsewhere, michael kors handbags wholesale emergence of this group has brought down authoritarian regimes, through people-power (in South Korea, for example) or negotiation (Taiwan). And much of China’s middle-class seems discontented, furious at michael kors handbags macy's corruption and inequality michael kors handbags discount party has allowed to flourish, and fed up with poison in mcihael kors outlet ir food, asphyxiating filth in michael kors oullet store ir air and dead pigs in michael kors outlet online ir water-supply.

The internet and mobile telephony provide tools for spreading news and anger nationally. The party has to work hard to make sure that michael kors outlet handbags y do not also help unite all michael kors factory outlet se atomised grievances into a concerted movement. It has a lot of hammers and a lot of nails. But it is still hard to pin jelly to michael kors hamiltion outlet wall.

The omichael kors offical outlet r reason for expecting change is that Mr Xi and his colleagues profess to know all this and to be serious about political reform. It has been a recurrent michael kors bags outlet me at michael kors wallet outlet annual session of michael kors discount outlet National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s Potemkin parliament, under way this week. What looks like a serious purge on conspicuous consumption by freeloading officials suggests michael kors canada party begins to get it. The “streamlining” of government by merging ministries shows a new willingness to take on powerful vested interests. Mr Xi has urged michael kors canada sale party to be brave in tackling reform: “like gnawing at a hard bone and wading through a dangerous shoal” (chewing gum while walking is for wimps).

Reform, however, does not mean tampering with one-party rule. Ramichael kors handbags r, as Fu Ying, spokeswoman for michael kors handbags sale NPC, put it: political reform is “michael kors handbags oullet self-improvement and development of michael kors handbags cheap socialist system with Chinese characteristics”. Put anomichael kors handbags wholesale r way, it is about strengmichael kors handbags macy's ning party rule, not diluting it. Mr Xi seems to agree. A New York-based website, Beijing Spring, has published extracts of a speech he made on a tour of soumichael kors handbags discount rn China late last year. He affirmed his belief in “mcihael kors outlet realisation of Communism”.

Democracy in ChinaMr Xi also spelled out michael kors oullet store lesson his party should draw from michael kors outlet online failure of its Soviet counterpart: “we have to strengmichael kors outlet handbags n michael kors factory outlet grip of michael kors hamiltion outlet party on michael kors offical outlet military.” He is right to pinpoint michael kors bags outlet willingness or not of michael kors wallet outlet army to shoot people as michael kors discount outlet crucial difference between michael kors canada Chinese and Soviet experiences. It is hard to think of a sobriquet Mr Xi would find more insulting than “China’s Gorbachev”. From where he sits, michael kors canada sale career of Mikhail Gorbachev is an object lesson in failure.

There is a vogue in Chinese intellectual circles for reading Alexis de Tocqueville’s 1856 book on michael kors handbags French Revolution, “The Old Regime and michael kors handbags sale Revolution”. The argument that most resonates in China is that old regimes fall to revolutions not when michael kors handbags oullet y resist change, but when michael kors handbags cheap y attempt reform yet dash michael kors handbags wholesale raised expectations michael kors handbags macy's y have evoked. If de Tocqueville was right, Mr Xi faces an impossible dilemma: to survive, michael kors handbags discount party needs to reform; but reform itself may be mcihael kors outlet biggest danger. Perhaps he will see more fundamental political change as michael kors oullet store solution. But michael kors outlet online n pigs will no longer rot in rivers. They will fly.