If you are interested in keeping tabs on whether or not you continue to be blocked, you might try this:
http://www.greatfirewallofchina.org/test/

As for China’s domestic demand exceeding its export focus, that requires the assumption of rising disposable income for a significant part of the Chinese populace (and that this will occur before social/economic/ or environmental crises disrupt the process), assumptions the article linked above puts in serious doubt as does the recent book by the same authors.

Regarding the dictatorial nature of Cuba and Venezuela, I can’t defend all the actions of the Cuba government or say I am totally comfortable with some of Chavez’s latest moves (although, if his term limits are eliminated it will be because the MAJORITY of citizens in the country voted for it by referendum). However, I see great potential in the radically democratic way in which Cuba has advanced their organic agricultural program so that is now the world leader( Healing the Rift: Metabolic Restoration in Cuban Agriculture ); and in the community councils being formed as the primary governing bodies (despite western media contentions)in Venezuela. Michael Lebowitz describes the process:
“the communal councils (based upon 200–400 families in existing urban neighborhoods and 20–50 in the rural areas). These were established to diagnose democratically community needs and priorities. With the shift of substantial resources from municipal levels to the community level, the support of new communal banks for local projects, and a size which permits the general assembly rather than elected representatives to be the supreme decision-making body, the councils have been envisioned as a basis not only for the transformation of people in the course of changing circumstances but also for productive activity which really is based upon communal needs and communal purposes.

With Chávez’s re-election in December 2006 on the explicit theme of building a new socialism, these new councils have been identified as the fundamental cell of Bolivarian socialism and the basis for a new state. “All power to the communal councils!” Chávez declared. …the consistent theme is the stress upon revolutionary practice in order to build socialism.* Citing Marx and Che Guevera, Chávez has insisted (Aló Presidente, no. 279, March 27, 2007) that it is only through practice that new socialist human beings produce themselves.”

Although still evolving, I believe these forms of social organization have much to teach those of us in US seeking to rapidly create the breathtaking amount of political and economic change that will be necessary to stop climate change while building a just and sustainable world.

As Richard and Ryan pointed out, there are important connections between China’s ecological stability and the continued viability of its political and economic system. Other articles I’ve read have reported on how resistance to environmental pollution is often organized democratically: citizens meet for discussion, decisions are made by the whole, leaders are elected, etc. Perhaps the government is right in recognizing that environmental protest is inherently protest against the established political system as well?

Finally, the situation in China brings up an interesting dilemma, I think, when it comes to coal. Here in the U.S., IGCC and carbon sequestration technology is being used as a foil to spurn more coal development. I think activist groups are right to resist this and call for “no new coal” across the board. But these technologies seem essential for China’s development. Let’s face it – even if they started building alternative energy and conserving right now, it would be impossible to take all the coal fired power plants off-line within the next 10 years, maybe even more.

Do we really have a chance at stopping global warming without actively retrofitting China’s coal plants or replacing them with a new generation of cleaner burning, if still polluting, incinerators? What role should the U.S. play in helping to finance to research and development into this technology? As the “leapfrog” metaphor for economy wide energy transitions falls apart, what sort of bridges are we building from the dirty energy economy to the clean energy future? Or can a direct and rapid transition to clean energy happen without massive societal unrest?

As for Cuba and Venezuela, I think that countries such as Sweden or Japan (both industrial countries that use energy more efficiently than the US) offer just as viable alternatives without the dictators. Hugo Chavez seems a little too eager to extend his Presidential term for altruistic motives.

Nor is there support for suggestions that China’s ecological sacrifices will lift its population out of poverty in the long term, just the opposite in fact China, Capitalist Accumulation, and Labor. With nearly 2/3 of China’s domestic investment dictated by export demands of transnational capital like Wal-Mart, the people of China are at a conflict of interest with the relatively few elites which are able to become managers and beneficiaries of this capital. These capitalist institutions are driven by competition to exploit the environment and labor force up until the point at which it impedes immediate profits, even consideration of long term profits must give way to short term market survival. This is why the “people’s republic” must employ constant suppression of grassroots democracy. It is also quite possible that ecological collapse will destroy any hope of a just and sustainable society. According to a deputy director of China’s State Environmental Administration “If we continue on this path of traditional industrial civilization, then there is no chance that we will have sustainable development…[b]ecause China’s populace, resources, environment has already reached the limits of its capacity to cope” (New York Times, May 24, 2004).

In order for China, or any nation, to be able to invest their workers efforts and resources in a sustainable future the citizenship must work to progressively wrest control from institutions and individuals whose primary imperative is simple monetary accumulation. Only by democratizing economic decisions can we hope to help less “developed” nations achieve real “human development” that is ecologically sustainable. It is for this reason that China is a valued US trade partner yet countries which still have to potential to develop viable alternatives such as Cuba and Venezuela are enemies.