With much riding on China's economic health for the wellbeing of the global economy, the topic is becoming the focus of increasingly wider scrutiny.
 
Important as this is, empires rarely collapse on the back of a few percentage points difference in inflation.

All economic risks fade in the face of the encompassing threat of social unrest in China.

As the Arab Spring engulfed most of northern Africa, the uprising found some followers in China with a series of pro-democracy protests taking place at the beginning of the year.

The New York Times reported in May that the Chinese government had even gone as far as to ban the jasmine flower from Beijing markets, a flower with such cultural significance that President Hu Jintao has been known to occasionally burst into a Qing Dynasty tributary song to its petals.

University of California professor Richard Baum said protest activity in China was not a recent phenomenon and had been on the rise since figures on unrest were first published in 1993.

"As a general indication of the rising levels of tension, the number of 'mass incidents' or social protests in China has risen steadily since 1993 when statistics of such events were first published," Baum said last week at the CFA Institute conference.

"Such incidents ranged from brief peaceful protests involving 15 to 20 people to violent riots involving more than 10,000 people.

"From a baseline of 8300 of such incidents in 1993, the total rose steadily to 8700 in 2005, 127,000 in 2008 and last year it peaked at 180,000, an average increase of 20 per cent per year."

And despite government efforts, the pattern of increasing social unrest seems to be continuing.

Only a few days ago, China was forced to close a chemical plant in the coastal city of Dalian, after more than 12,000 protesters spoke out against fears of pollution from the factory.

The risk of social unrest should not be underestimated.

History tells us that an increasing level of middle-class wealth tends to result in some form of democracy down the line, while a sudden economic collapse has not always worked miracles for sitting rulers either.

But Baum said he did not expect a social collapse in China anytime soon.

The Chinese population might have little faith in their local and regional leaders, often due to thriving corruption, but on a national scale the country's leaders enjoyed widespread support, he said.

What is more, the country is preparing for a major leadership transition in 2012, when the next generation of party leaders is set to take over.

The new leaders had some promising characteristics, Baum said.

"They are all highly educated males with diverse academic backgrounds, many of whom have studied in the West. They will be less rigid, more cosmopolitan than their predecessors," he said.

He concluded therefore that the prospects for future political reform and liberalisation were reasonably good, keeping escalating social unrest at bay.

"There are strong indications that this next generation of leaders will have a greater social imagination," he said.