China's has its way

I recently read Evan Osnos' book on China, "Age of Ambition". It was fascinating and had the virtue of following a number of diverse characters through time, a sort of longitudinal study. But I felt it had too much ideology about the inevitability of democracy - the ticking clock for China. I don't seem to detect that feeling among Chinese themselves, although I can't claim to have my finger firmly on the pulse. A few years ago I read all the biographies of Han Suyin in which she covers the worst of the Mao periods, inter alia. Some criticised her for being too forgiving of Mao. But when I look at China today I don't detect nearly such vitriolic hatred of Mao and his appalling destructions within the country as I do in Europe/USA. Perhaps it's just human nature: you move on, the new generation forgets the past, especially if you have to live there. This is all mixed up with big doses of patriotism and ancestral memory. I do follow the company Tencent closely and see the explosion of internet usage, e-commerce, classified ads and mobile phones across China. Services of all kinds are dramatically spreading through cities and provinces, rich and poor alike. That all has a very long way to run, most people have no idea. You see JD.Com delivery scooters everywhere and there are said to be over 1000 peer-to-peer money lenders, I could go on.... Osnos' book seemed to examine China via a pre-selected lense, whereas it's more likely developing along its own course, veering this way and that but never actually conforming to a handed-down ideology from the 'West'. We see the same thing in many economists' analyses of 'Africa' (all 50 plus countries!), where if only Africa adopted this way of doing things, or that, it could more quickly resemble/replicate the rich countries. Get real! As with China, 'Africa' is going to do things its way and there will be many different ways. Ditto India.