New York Times: China - A Spirit of Enduring Optimism - by Michael Forsythe

For the complete report from the NYTimes.com click on this link

China - A Spirit of Enduring Optimism - by Michael Forsythe

Zhou Youguang was a child of 6 when a revolution toppled China’s last emperor in 1912. He was 43 when he says he left a Wall Street banker’s job to help Mao Zedong’s Communists create what he thought would be a democracy after decades of warlord rule, occupation and civil war. Now 103, he has seen China transformed from a country of 368 million being carved up by foreign powers to a nation of 1.3 billion and the world’s fastest-growing major economy. He says he still believes China will eventually become a democracy — in spite of communism, not because of it.