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Rise in wealth will force democracy on China 'in decades'

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Academic warns of huge crisis if changes are stalled

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Rising prosperity and education levels would push China to democracy within decades, a leading proponent of the political system predicted yesterday.

American expert on democracy in Asia, Larry Diamond, said the mainland's leaders had to accept the inevitability 'or there's going to be one massive, debilitating crisis in China'.

Dr Diamond was speaking a day after President Hu Jintao told a rally in Beijing marking the 50th anniversary of the National People's Congress that western-style democracy was a 'blind alley' for China.

Despite this, the senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, co-editor of the Journal of Democracy and author/editor of more than 20 books was willing to take a gamble with members of the Asia Society in Hong Kong.

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'I'm 53 years old and I will make you a bet that before I die, China will be a democracy,' he said.

Dr Diamond explained that the pluralism and social problems emerging as a result of economic development combined with corruption made the mainland's system of autocratic governance unsustainable.

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