China's "Fear of Freedom"

Social Harmony is the ultimate Chinese virtue that is impossible to achieve when people are unhappy with their government. The Chinese are fearful of demonstrating that the present government has failed in achieving what Mao (and other Communists) believed would happen with the equalization of income, property, and status after centuries of corruption and inequality under the emperor system. Communism rose and fell in other parts of the world because that form of government turned out to be just as corrupt and inequitable as the systems that were replaced. Unfortunately corruption and inequality is a product of human nature, but that doesn't mean that we should accept flagrant abuses under any system.

China is pretending that the totalitarian rule of Communism is still a more perfect form than others, and wants to sweep under the carpet the suppressed seething unrest that is found in all sections and all walks of life.

The Communist leaders understand human nature all too well: a free China would throw the bums out in a spectacular fashion.

Communist China has fixation with Taiwan, the province that rubs their noses in the fact that Chinese can be prosperous and self-governing.

From: China's Fear of Freedom

The fixation of Hu and his predecessors began when the people of Taiwan started to have a say in their government. The Taiwanese have eloquently refuted the myth that democracy is somehow incompatible with Chinese society. In fact, the Taiwanese have taken to self-government the way they’ve embraced capitalism.
Beijing doesn’t care if its subjects make money, accumulate property and acquire middle-class trappings. In fact, it understands the wealth being generated by the hard-work and entrepreneurial abilities of the Chinese people can be used to increase the regime’s power (witness that $203 billion trade surplus and those double-digit annual increases in military spending).

What absolutely terrifies it is the prospect of 1 billion Chinese getting ideas about basic human rights and self-government.

The thought of a billion people exercising their rights is a scary proposition. As China has hundreds of minority groups and factions, it is likely that the breakup and competition among them for power would not be bloodless.