Belden goes on to make a strong second point: while the local village revolution had the potential for democratic progress, Mao's national revolution had the potential for despotism. "The Communists", he reasoned, "took power by making love to the people of China," and "won the people to their cause" by meeting their needs better. But in order to do so, Mao and the Party built a "wholly new power apparatus." They may have sincerely intended to represent the interests of the common people but their new power apparatus would also "elude their intentions and tend to exist for its own sake." He warned that "there may arise a new elite, a set of managers standing above the Chinese masses", bringing a danger that "rulers not subject to democratic checks" may "confusing themselves with God", "expand their private viewpoints into an arbitrary vision of what society should be..., force their dreams on others, blunder into grave political mistakes and finally plunge into outright tyranny." Belden published "China Shakes the World" in 1949, when the American public had lost interest in reports from China. The book's reputation came only in the 1960s, when the Monthly Review Press reprinted it in paperback with a sympathetic introduction by Owen Lattimore. After writing "China Shakes the World", Belden married twice leaving two sons, David from his first marriage and Jack from his second. Having left journalism and his families, he moved to Summit, New Jersey to live with his mother where he worked at a series of jobs including school bus driver. He eventually returned to Paris, where he died in 1989.