Today is the fifteenth anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre, David Callaway from CBS MarketWatch wrote a op-ed piece entitled "Tiananmen hangs over China boom" Here are some quotes from his article:

"The idea that a booming economy will push the hard line government into suddenly deciding to release its grip on power in exchange for some pre-IPO shares of Google and a bunch of lifetime golf club memberships doesn't hold much sway given what's already happened to the economy in China in the last few years.

In fact, the economic excesses we've seen have probably further entrenched China's rulers. So chances are that when real political reform arrives -- which will happen -- it will come suddenly and violently rather than gradually or through some giant national party, like the collapse of the Berlin Wall. "

I hope David's prediction is not true, and the political transformation in China will go through peaceful and smooth process, instead of a violent one. Can the Net play a role in helping China create a peaceful transition to democracy? Will social software that we are discussing in this forum, and other technologies, help gradually release the political tension in Chinese society? Or will the mobile, pervasive, many-to-many communication technologies be powerful tools for the next explosive social uprising, especially if there is an economic downturn? I certainly do not have answers for all these questions. But I have no doubts that the Net is speeding up the death of the old regime in China. In the words of poet T.S. Eliot:
"This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper."