Comment by jacquesm

It will certainly have a 'chilling effect' if there ever was. China is between a rock and a hard place. Either they're going to have to open up completely (which will result in a democracy and obliteration the group that has been running the country for decades) or they're going to have to try to contain the genie. They're obviously trying to do the latter but it will hurt them economically in the longer run. As long as there is visible progress my guess is the current batch of leaders will do just fine, as soon as progress stagnates there may be a more dramatic change.