It began with a toddler’s death.

Is this where China’s revolution begins?

With the death of a child my daughter’s age?

Her name is "Yue Yue".

This what she looked like before.

Here’s her story.

So she wanders away from her father’s business into the busy and crowded alleyway behind it where she is hit by a vehicle not once, but twice, and ignored by a dozen-plus passer-bys.  Finally, one of the poorest-of-the-poor, a 58-year old scavenger woman, drags Yue Yue to safety.

But it wasn’t enough.

China has had a number of blows to the public confidence in recent months.  A number of fatal infrastructure incidents, including but not limited to: a major high-rise fire that left scores of dead, a high-speed rail disaster, and a couple of major highway disasters.  A continuing spate of  low level crises such as propane bus fires that kill and maim dozens at a time, coal mine tragedies, self-immolation protests, and so forth further erode public confidence in the current Chinese system.

America also suffers, and has for a long while, near continuing crises of confidence; but our society is more resilient because of democracy and liberty.  Regular, free elections; the freedoms of assembly, petition, and speech;  a free media [currently in the form of the internet]:  These act as a pressure relief valve for revolutionary pressures.

The Arab World didn’t have these things and this young man’s death sparked the Arab Spring which, though not resolved and still playing out, led at least to the fall of the mad dictator who was Enemy Number One of America for so long.

Perhaps we are to witness the Chinese Autumn?  I fear such a revolution will lead to terrible reprisal by the Communist Dynasty.  There is also the possibility that such a revolution, even if successful could result in something much, much worse such as Islamicists getting nukes or a general war with China.  I can only pray that any revolution in China is successful in transitioning to democracy and liberty.

I also pray for Yue Yue and her family and wonder, would I want my child to die to bring transformation to the world?