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Opinion | China is proud of its own democracy, and wants no part of the flawed US model
- China’s whole-process democracy seeks to meet people’s wish for a better life, and the country’s achievements speak for themselves
- The US ‘democracy’ summits are a farce, given their lack of appreciation of national conditions elsewhere and respect for other people’s choices
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The story of modern China attests to the Communist Party’s commitment to democracy and shows China to be deserving of the name of a people’s democracy.
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From the days of “bean voting” in Yanan, where Chinese people voted with beans in place of paper ballots to ensure the illiterate had a vote, to the enactment of the first constitution of the People’s Republic of China in 1954, to the recent introduction of the important concept of “whole process democracy”, China’s socialist democracy with Chinese characteristics has gradually taken shape.
As was made clear at the sixth plenary session of the 19th Central Committee last month, China is committed to upholding whole-process democracy and putting people’s future in their own hands.
China’s whole-process democracy has pragmatic practices that effectively protect people’s extensive democratic rights, which are exercised through a combination of elections, consultations, decision-making, management and oversight.
To understand whole-process democracy, three aspects are worth highlighting.
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First, it is people-oriented and welcomes widespread participation. China’s democracy is not the kind that wakes up at the time of voting then goes back to being dormant afterwards. People have the full right to know, express their views, and supervise government performance.
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