Yeah, and they still have the mom and pop stores we used to have before the shopping malls--though that's beginning to change in the big cities with the Carrefours and the like.

The local governments in the rural areas are quite autonomous and democratic. The representatives in Beijing from all over China, while all in the Communist party, look very diverse culturally on TV.

American corporations are heavily invested in China to the point of no return. It's the higher wages of foreign corporations that is growing the middle class there, and the government knows it.