US-led democracy summit ‘a huge irony’, Communist Party official says

Jiang Jinquan says Western systems face mounting problems and democracy is not about rhetoric and election pledges

He had been asked about ‘whole process democracy’, cited in a communique after the party plenum, attended by 300 officials

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Jiang Jinquan praised the party for rejecting concepts such as constitutional democracy, a multiparty system and separation of powers. Photo: Simon Song

Published: 10:00pm, 12 Nov 2021Updated: 4:24am, 13 Nov 2021

A senior ideology official with the Communist Party has taken a swipe at a forthcoming US-hosted democracy summit, saying it was ironic given that Western democracies faced “mounting problems”.

“The US will host a so-called democracy summit and seeks to revive Western democracy, and it’s a huge irony to host it against the mounting problems faced by Western democracy,” said Jiang Jinquan, director of the party’s Policy Research Office.

US President Joe Biden is expected to host the first of two Summits for Democracy in early December, bringing together leaders from governments and civil society. Media reports have suggested it is likely that Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen will be invited, which would enrage the Chinese government.

Jiang, whose department is responsible for grand strategies and ideology research, cited an unspecified recent poll in the US in which 81 per cent of Americans said there was a “serious threat” to its democracy. That number matched a poll released by NPR/PBS News hour and Marist Poll two weeks ago.

He went on to cite polls conducted by US agencies and said that over 90 per cent of Chinese had said they were satisfied with their government.

Jiang did not specify which polls he was referring to, but Chinese officials have regularly cited research published in 2020 by Harvard’s Ash Centre, which showed that 93 per cent of Chinese respondents said in 2016 they were satisfied with their central government.