"I think a lot of people (including me) want China to join the club of first world countries, not just economically, but also in terms of respect of human rights. "

-- Really? A lot? I don't think so. My experience is Chinese middle class rarely care about human rights issues. Most of them are extremely cold blood. As long as their own family is not hurt, they don't care about human rights issues at all. As long as they can get rich and stay rich, they will praise the authoritarian regime.

I didn’t read baby’s comment as meaning a lot of Chinese people want better human rights in China, I read it as a lot of people everywhere want that.

This is what I meant, thanks.

> My experience is Chinese middle class rarely care about human rights issues.

Isn't this true for middle classes in most countries? Would there be any tangible benefit if the Chinese middle class made a symbolic show of supporting human rights (as is often done in the west), while their leaders continued to use their tax yuan to prop up polluting industries, bad working conditions, Uighur mass detentions?

I'd say the 1960s Civil Rights movement in the US was primarily successful because it mobilized the middle class.

I agree that that period was an outlier in terms of large-scale activism post-WW2. However, there was also the small matter of 50,000 dead draftees in Vietnam that propelled public anger. The US government had a vested interest in making policy changes that kept the peace, especially with the threat of an expansionist USSR on the horizon.

You are getting the dates badly wrong. Voting rights act was 1965, opposition to the war was limited until Tet Offensive.

That's a rather native view, that unfortunately was shared by a lot of folks in the West. Ref: https://www.economist.com/leaders/2018/03/01/how-the-west-go...

> I think a lot of people (including me) want China to join the club of first world countries, not just economically, but also in terms of respect of human rights. How do you get there?

Nobody knows because it hasn't been done. China, like Russia, is powerful enough that it will only become a free country if its rulers want to.