Even the red boomers have been protesting. As one of their leaders, Hu Muying, has said:"The new explorations made possible by reform and the open door policies have, over the past three decades, resulted in remarkable economic results. At the same time, ideological confusion has reigned and the country has been awash in intellectual currents that negate Mao Zedong thought and socialism. Corruption and the disparity between the wealthy and the poor are of increasingly serious concern; latent social contradictions are becoming more extreme."
Some support a return to socialist values and the strong one-party state, others clamour for the kind of political and media reforms promised since the earliest days of the economic reforms 30 years ago.
This is the world that Hu's fellow red boomers will inherit in the year of the dragon.
It is the same dilemma facing the rising red heirs of the revolution as they take on the leadership of China in 2012. How does a party maintain stable rule and legitimate succession despite having reneged on promises to introduce democracy, oversight of its power and basic freedoms for over seventy years?
The satirist and historian Bo Yang famously commented: "I really don't know why the Chinese people have chosen the grim, hideous figure of the dragon to symbolise our nation! In fact, the dragon can symbolise only the hardships of our people!"
