On the eve of China's 2012 leadership turnover, one of the nation's most prominent legal scholars warned that China is becoming more and more like a "dictatorship." 

Speaking at a ceremony November 20 commemorating the life of legal scholar Cai Dingjian, China University of Political Science and Law Professor Jiang Ping said the expansion of both government and Communist Party authority is a dangerous sign of an inflexible, oppressive society.