The dictators in Beijing may not know it yet, but open trade with the outside world may do to them what glasnost did to the Soviets. By creating an opening for freedom, it will undermine their strong arm rule, encourage democratic reform, and make China comparatively peaceful and free. From my economists' perspective, I put the argument this way. China's desire to win PNTR and join the World Trade Organization is part of a bid to join the vast, new world market. That market, like any market, is nothing but a system for transmitting information-about resources and scarcities, needs and desires, everything that makes voluntary transactions among people possible.
Information is the market's life blood.
That means that if the Chinese are going to open themselves to the world market, the leadership will have no choice but to allow wide information sharing among China's people. And while information may be the lifeblood of a market, it is deadly poison to a dictatorship. To be part of the world economy, the Chinese will need a domestic stock market. Instant stock market crash as investors realized they were flying blind. If no real disaster happened, stocks might soar again as fast as they fell.