While these are probably wise guidelines, they overlook another very real possibility.  What if things move in a different direction in China?  What happens if an overheated economy, rising domestic instability and the extraordinarily difficult conditions under which tens of millions of Chinese toil combine render China’s current rate of growth unsustainable.  From the outside China continues to look like an unequivocal success story, but this is to a great extent a triumph of media repression over reality.  Many of those glittering skyscrapers remain largely devoid of tenants.  China’s authoritarian system is fraying as numerous demonstrations occur annually in both Han and non-Han parts of China.  China’sworkers are among the most oppressed workers on the planet, living in dormitories, seeing their children once a year and in many cases, poorly paid and forced to move illegally from city to city to find work.  If Karl Marx came back to life and took a global tour he would almost certainly conclude that China is currently the country in the world most ready for Communist revolution.