Since the 1989 crackdown, Schell said, Chinese leaders showed an “ability to roll with the punches and to be at once opportunistic and also pragmatic.” But, he asked, “How much further can they get on more tinkering? It seems to me that, at some point, they’re going to have something like an earthquake. Why? Because unrelieved tensions build up on the fault line and inevitably seek release. And then suddenly you get a rupture. I do feel that they have come to the end of something. And I think many people are now feeling a sort of fin de siècle air about things.”
Schell praised China’s leaders for transforming “the face of China from “sick man of Asia” to superpower. There may still be a lot of problems, but many people now have a much better life. Even if the whole thing blows up tomorrow, they’ve laid down a century’s worth of infrastructure. It’s an incredible accomplishment.”
via China Expert Orville Schell Sees Political “Earthquake” in China withoutT Further Reform.