[user104658]

Originally Posted by bitontheslide

its not a dire situation for the president at all. He can snuff out the protests with a wave of his hand and anyone that thinks otherwise is kidding themselves

I don't think so, the "illusion" of the possibility of a pseudo-Western-style life is essential to modern urban China and has been increasingly so as their economy has developed. There's a very good reason they haven't thrown full support behind Russia for example - they CANNOT swallow economic sanctions the way Russia can.

Second to that, the population of China is now sitting at nearly 1.4 billion and 2/3 of that (900 million) is Urban. ANY sort of control the government has is purely based in illusion. Their entire military couldn't stop an actual uprising. The scale is quite unimaginable ... the population of China today is more than the population of the entire planet less than 150 years ago.