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Xi Jinping says China’s ‘democratic’ political system is a ‘great creation’ that holds key to international success
- Chinese President tells party meeting that systems can be judged on whether they allow an orderly transfer of power and let people express their interests
- Speech is seen as latest attempt to defend the Communist Party’s system amid growing pressure from the US over rights and values
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President Xi Jinping has hailed China’s political system as a “great creation” and the key to its global success on Thursday amid intensifying ideological confrontation with Washington.
He told a party meeting in Beijing that the competition between political systems was a “key aspect” in the competition between nations, and could be a “key advantage for the country in gaining the strategic initiative”, according to state media reports.
“History and reality have shown that a country is stable if its system is stable, and a country is strong if its [political] system is robust,” he said.
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Xi made the remarks on Thursday at a party meeting to discuss China’s constitutional system, where he hailed the Chinese system as a “whole-process democracy”, adding: “[It] is a great creation in the political history of the human race by our party, and a significant brand new system in the history of the political development of our country and even that of the world.”
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Why do so many people join China’s communist party?
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Xi also argued that real democracy was not about rhetoric and pledges made on the election trail, saying: “Democracy is not ornament or just for decoration. Democracy is for solving the people’s real problems.”
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