China's Dilemma

On Sunday, Thomas Friedman had an interesting Op-Ed piece in the New York Times. He proposes that the only way China can avoid its impending ecological disaster is to empower its people well beyond the wishes of the current government. From the article:

"Going from dirty capitalism to clean capitalism is much harder. Because it involves restraining that geyser — and to do that effectively requires a system with some judicial independence, so that courts can discipline government-owned factories and power plants. It requires a freer press that can report on polluters without restraint, even if they are government-owned businesses. It requires transparent laws and regulations, so citizen-activists know their rights and can feel free to confront polluters, no matter how powerful. For all those reasons, it seems to me that it will be very hard to make China greener without making it more orange."