With over a billion people, China...

...is expected to surpass the U. S. as the world's largest economy in the not-too-distant future. But an article in the Times today says:

A year ago this week, Chinese security agents made a midnight visit to the home of Gao Zhisheng, one of China’s most high-profile human rights lawyers, and led him away. They told his family he was wanted for a brief chat.

In the months that followed, his whereabouts have become a mystery and a growing source of concern for relatives, colleagues and human rights advocates, who fear that he has been badly tortured or worse.

His case is highly unusual, even by the standards of China’s opaque justice system. After a previous detention in 2006, Mr. Gao was allowed to return home after publicly confessing to a number of transgressions. Once out of custody, however, Mr. Gao recanted his confession and described abuse he said he had suffered. He also said his torturers told him he would be killed if he spoke publicly about the matter.

Diplomatic entreaties to the Chinese government have been brushed aside. Foreign reporters who ask about his plight have been treated to glib retorts. Ma Zhaoxu, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, compounded the mystery two weeks ago by saying that Mr. Gao “is where he should be.” When prodded again at a regular press briefing last Tuesday, he offered a smile and said: “Honestly speaking, I don’t know where he is. China has 1.3 billion people and I can’t know all of their whereabouts.”

Since the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976, millions of Chinese have been lifted out of poverty. That's a stunning development; good for them. But stories like this do not bode well for China's future. Either the Communist government will have to change their ways or the burgeoning middle class will become restless. This is just not the way a world leader behaves. If I were an investor in China, I'd be seriously concerned about its political stability in the next few decades.