Despite continuing negative press in recent human rights reports, including the Freedom House survey, China is on a path likely to lead to democracy - eventually.
Although it does not inevitably follow that reaching a certain level of economic development will precipitate democratisation - as Singapore's experience signifies - the legacy of China's economic liberalisation will be a cultural shift entailing a growing demand for political reform.
The 'democratic sequencing' argument asserts that not only does economic modernisation aid the development of democracy, but it is a vital prerequisite for such political liberalisation.
In modernising its economy while under authoritarian leadership, Beijing has followed the early stages of the so-called East Asian model - the route taken by Taiwan, South Korea and even Japan - and hence can be seen as on the road towards the democratic status these nations later attained.
Although authoritarian governments can take difficult economic decisions with alacrity, higher income levels have historically proved unreachable for communist states.
Yet while the determination of a single party to maintain power - and therefore oppression - has also been a hallmark of such states, China's size and economic performance place it in a unique position.