Here is yet another reason why I pay no attention whatsoever to the utterings of Thomas Friedman:

One-party autocracy certainly has its drawbacks. But when it is led by a reasonably enlightened group of people, as China is today, it can also have great advantages. That one party can just impose the politically difficult but critically important policies needed to move a society forward in the 21st century.

So we are endorsing autocratic states as the best means of effecting societal change now, eh? And the Chinese rulers are "reasonably enlightened". Seriously? More on this at The Volokh Conspiracy.