time to learn chinese?

Listened to an analyst on the radio expressing view that towards 2010 China will be leading world economic power. Anyway interesting was that the analyst expressed that in her view China was keen to avoid the mistakes of the socialist welfare state as market liberalization and prosperity grew. She considered the burden of a welfare state to be a large burden which would mean that China would outstrip growth in the west. Also she stated that she thought democracy was in decline. When interviewed asked about human rights, she opined that these would improve as the market became freer. She stated that China hopes to bypass democracy going straight to free market. China may be interesting in a few more decades... Adam