“Is China democratizing? The country’s leaders do not think of democracy as people in the West generally do, but they are increasingly backing local elections, judicial independence, and oversight of Chinese Communist Party officials. How far China’s liberalization will ultimately go and what Chinese politics will look like when it stops are open questions.”

Read this great article by John Thornton in the last issue of Foreign Affairs:
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20080101faessay87101-p0/john-l-thornton/long-time-coming.html