China puts on its own ‘democracy forum’ in countdown to Biden’s summit
- Event to take place this week in push to present Chinese system as more effective
- Chinese people don’t like and don’t want US-style democracy, official says
China plans to host its own “democracy forum” this weekend as part of a broader effort to promote its system of governance as more representative and effective than the US model.
The Chinese event, called the “International Democracy Forum”, will be held on Saturday, the State Council said as it unveiled a white paper called “China: Democracy that Works”.
“The US touted itself as the leader among democracies, organised and manipulated the so-called democracy summit. This is a disguise of democracy, but in reality a containment and oppression to countries that have a different development model,” State Council Information Office spokesman Xu Lin said.
“These actions make use of the name of democracy, but are the very opposite of what democracy is. They will become a joke in the course of democratic development, and are destined to be unpopular.”
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The Chinese forum will be co-hosted by the Communist Party’s Publicity Department, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, state broadcaster CCTV, and the party-owned China International Publishing Group.
Tian Peiyan, deputy director of the Policy Research Office of the Communist Party’s Central Committee, said democracy should not be defined by US-style elections, which could be manipulated by interest groups, and involve politicians making “wild promises” on the campaign trail that were rarely delivered.
“This is not real democracy. Chinese people don’t like and don’t want such democracy,” Tian said.
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The white paper covers various topics from “Whole-Process People’s Democracy Under the CPC Leadership” to “A Sound Institutional Framework”, and takes aim at the idea of direct elections.
“One person, one vote is a democratic principle, but it is by no means the only principle, nor does it of itself create democracy. However, it has long been misinterpreted and its meaning distorted by a small number of countries,” the paper said.
It makes no mention of an independent judiciary or media freedom.
The geopolitical divide between Beijing and Washington has developed into a war of ideology, with China touting its “socialist democracy with Chinese characteristics” – which it says also involves public feedback and negotiations – as a “superior system” than that of the US.
“A good democracy is one that governs well, pushes for development, and is not ineffective and dysfunctional in its governance, nor one that sees the piling up of domestic problems. Yet this type of democracy has become the international template. This is a ridiculous scenario,” Xu said, in a veiled reference to the United States.
Xu also said the Chinese system had been more effective as it lifted the country out of poverty and is more effective in controlling the coronavirus pandemic.
