Steve Chapman on China Becoming Less Authoritarian

Autocratic regimes rarely leap at the chance to empower the citizenry. But the Communist government in China is not exempt from the powerful forces unleashed by that country's transformative economic miracle. Because of the rise of capitalism in China, writes Steve Chapman, the country's people have gained a large measure of freedom—in such critical matters as where they work, where they live, and where they may travel. The sphere of personal autonomy is vastly larger than it was in the dark days of Mao Zedong.