PUBLIUS HAS THOUGHTS ON CHINA’S FUTURE, which can’t be encouraging to the current crowd of oligarchs:

Perhaps I’m one of the few, but I actually think that China’s democratization is an inevitability coinciding with its economic liberalization. With this kind of collapse around the corner, Taiwan could be a futile last grasp at maintaining authority.

I think that’s right, and I think that it will probably happen — as such things do — rapidly and unexpectedly.