* A new book makes a similar suggestion:

Will Hutton, Power corruption and lies, guardian.co.uk, Jamuary 8, 2007:

Absolute power corrupts, and the Chinese Communist party has become one of the most corrupt organisations the world has ever witnessed. The combination of absolute power and an ideology that palpably no longer describes reality is a virus that is morally and psychologically undermining the regime. And if the regime wobbles, then its capacity to sustain the unsustainable economic structures will wobble and Leninist corporatism will unravel. Beijing's authority could fragment and China's provinces reassert their destructive independence as they did in the 1910s and 20s, or a new and fiercely repressive regime could try to hold the country together abandoning economic openness and market reforms - and even pick some international fights (such as invading Taiwan?) to rally the country to its side. It is because this prospect is so real that the task of peacefully moving to a sustainable capitalism, and building the necessary institutions to do it, is so vital for both China and the world...

Compare also Ta Ch'ing Dynasty corruption.

China after 2001 is just Japan after 1987 - an accident waiting to happen.

Some fireworks with Japan to aggravate the situation.

Especially with development:

* Chris Hogg, Japan upgrades its defence agency, bbc.co.uk, January 9, 2007:

In the past the deployment of troops abroad, such as the efforts to support the coalition in Iraq, required parliamentary approval for what were known "extraordinary missions".

Now the law has been updated to list activities such as peacekeeping or international relief as the primary missions of the self-defence forces.

That means that in future Japan's parliament would not have to agree before troops are sent overseas.

Japan's $41bn defence budget already gives it one of the most powerful military forces in the world.