A few kinds words for a communist...

Zhao Ziyang, former Premier of the People's Republic of China, has passed away at age 85 while under house arrest. Zhao was instrumental in helping to introduce market reforms into communist China during the 1980s. His radical proposals included dismantling the commune system that dominated agriculture and introducing private ownership of small plots of land in order to encourage agricultural production. Zhao also argued for price reforms to free up prices from central control.

What set Zhao apart from others in the Communist Party hierarchy was his fervent belief that economic progress was critically linked to political democratization. Unfortunately for Zhao, his sympathies toward political openness lead to his eventual downfall (and house arrest) in the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square protests and massacres during the summer of 1989.

My question: Must economic and political liberalization always go hand-in-hand? Is the Chinese model of social reform (market economy with limited political freedoms) a viable long run choice? My sense is that once you give people a taste of freedom in one area (the economy), they will thirst for even more freedom in the other area (politics).