Nick Kristof's column on China overplays how rapidly their development is actually progressing (Westerners will not have to know the difference between "guanxi and Guangxi" for a long time yet), but it makes one point that doesn't get enough emphasis. "Communist leaders used to actually believe in Communism; now they simply believe in Communist Party rule." One of the problems with coverage of China is that it's fit into a frame meant for coverage of the Soviet Union. There's a lot of emphasis on how China is trying to amass influence and befriend smaller countries and show the power of their model of soft authoritarianism. But that's not really what they're trying to do. Unlike Russia, China isn't particularly interested in the expansion of its governance structure or idelogy. Rather, they want to make a profit, and become a more powerful regional player. Within that context, they do plenty of bad things, and should come in for plenty of criticism. But the implication that they post some sort of ideological threat is fairl off-base. Not only is their government's ideology, at this point, extremely muddled and opaque, but they've shown no real interest in anything but the greater glory, and more rapid economic advancement, of China. So far as anyone can really tell, that's the ideology they're actually trying to export, and while it has its problems, it's unlikely to become the national mission of many non-Chinese countries.
