Today's China is definitely not a true blue communist country, nor is it a democratic country, but one day, with more Chinese being western-educated, and with the world being increasingly globalized, it would have to path its way to democracy, or part-democracy.
However, in this path, what determines the speed of its progress to socialist or democratic ideals, and what determines the weight of democracy it places in its current political system? There are many factors - the receptivity and tolerance of the people towards the government, the freedom of people - economically and socially etc.
And in the center of these factors and the people's concerns is the fact that there are still many sensitive issues yet to be solved - the Tibet and Xin Jiang political instability, the rapidly appreciating yuan, the widening gap between rich and poor, the challenge to urbanize rural and agricultural areas etc.
If the central government does not solve these problems before releasing democratic powers to the people, it would cause too much political instability in China due to unresolved unhappiness, which is detriment to the developing China, whose current government is responsible and efficient.
As such, if the citizens are too quickly exposed to Western values, especially online, where un-backed criticism of China's political system is rampant, then it would not be beneficial to the current gradually steady regime, where problems need to be solved and tackled by a firm and responsible government.
As such, I think China has made the right decision to part ways with Google, when the company threatened to quit after attempts by the Chinese government to hack and censor information. Political freedom is not what China needs at the crucial moment of its development. It needs one single firm government that can concentrate on tackling economic and social issues.
