Does China have democracy?

[xizhimen]

Does China have democracy?​

Jun 08, 2021, 09:01 ET

BEIJING, June 8, 2021

I don't quite get why people often ask us these kinds of questions. As an ordinary Chinese person born in the 1980s, what I want to say is that there are other things that concern me more: Like, how can I earn more money? What will my parents' future look like? And what kind of school will my kids go to?

If your leaders are elected by a "one person, one vote" system, then cool! But when I looked into it, I found the numbers are staggering… Is it really each person's vote that decides who gets elected? Isn't it money that decides?

What exactly is democracy? The concept is based on majority rule, and rule by the people. For me, democracy is whether my concerns are heard by those making the decisions and whether my opinions are considered or adopted in the decision-making process.

My parents are almost 60 and often struggle with new technology. This is a pretty common problem nowadays among older people. So, some deputies of the National People's Congress (NPC) conducted interviews, researched the issues, and then submitted proposals to the NPC. At the same time, a lot of people also called for social media platforms to provide solutions. In the end, China issued guidelines this year on the matter, with many websites, apps and smart devices starting to roll out special elderly-friendly designs.

Of course, a transformation like this requires concerted efforts from enterprises, government departments and other sectors, and involves many processes. For that reason, various parties need to be consulted before policies are formulated. Everyone participates equally in the discussion process and has the chance to express their opinions. Only when a consensus is reached can a policy be finalized and implemented smoothly.

Just like this example shows, these systems allow people's wants and needs to be reflected in the country's policies and laws. Isn't that democracy?

Does China have democracy?

/PRNewswire/ -- An interview with Sun Wanlu, a commentator from China.org.cn on China's democracy: I don't quite get why people often ask us these kinds of...

www.prnewswire.com

 

[xizhimen]

Chinese government focuses on problem solving, western democracies focus on problem talking and blame shifting. There is a reason why China can grow this fast.

 

[ABee]

That's a very incorrect comparison. The author is comparing technology adaptation and public policy with democracy. For the said issues, one doesn't need communism or democracy any Kingdom or theocracy could do all that. Is China a perfect society that has zero problems? No.
Most of European democracies provide all this without communism, in countries like Norway even the prisons are vacant and these are a direct result of democratic form of government that take into account public opinion and perception. Whereas in communism there exist a division between the ruling class and general public. Giving services is not a charity by the state but the right and responsibility of the elected representatives. Every blame game is simply to woo the public so that people with similar opinions can be heard. Has popular opinion ever matter in Communist countries? The government makes a decision and sell it to the public by force, if the opinion is negative they will enforce it using force. Not everyone is ready to fight the rulers and thus they become the silent majority who are hopeless. Communists are a case study for Stockholm Syndrome.

 

[xizhimen]

Democracy doesn't have to be a good word, one person one vote could put an idiot in power. Cause people like to vote for like minded politicians, if the majority of the population are backward , uneducated and superstitious, they will choose the same person as they are.
If the majority of the population believe urine can cure covid, they will choose a leader sharing their own opinion and the country will make vicious circles and can never get out of backwardness.
China is not communism, not capitalism, China now is just an old Chinese traditional meritocracy in the name of communism. and we all can see how successful this system works in China cause this form of governance was born in China, developed in China and has always been in China.
Western democracy was born and formed in the west based on their particular western history, cultures and values, when non western countries adopt it without considering their own cultures and values, this system can very often become a disaster.

 

[Turko]

Democracy doesn't have to be a good word, one person one vote could put an idiot in power. Cause people like to vote for like minded politicians, if the majority of the population are backward , uneducated and superstitious, they will choose the same person as they are.
If the majority of the population believe urine can cure covid, they will choose a leader sharing their own opinion and the country will make vicious circles and can never get out of backwardness.
China is not communism, not capitalism, China now is just an old Chinese traditional meritocracy in the name of communism. and we all can see how successful this system works in China cause this form of governance was born in China, developed in China and has always been in China.
Western democracy was born and formed in the west based on their particular western history, cultures and values, when non western countries adopt it without considering their own cultures and values, this system can very often become a disaster.

İf majorities are always ignorant, why do you choose members of communist party?

 

[xizhimen]

İf majorities are always ignorant, why do you choose members of communist party?

Communist party is just a name, they are actually almost all technocrats. China doesn't have one person one vote election system, China's selection system was based on merits , past work performance and productivity.
As for how the communist power came into power in the first place, they won the civil war.

 

[Xenon54]

Chinese government focuses on problem solving, western democracies focus on problem talking and blame shifting. There is a reason why China can grow this fast.

Yet China has more problems than western democracies once you looks at it from the infiltered media.

 

[xizhimen]

Yet China has more problems than western democracies once you looks at it from the infiltered media.

Every country has problems, China is no exception. No system is perfect, Chinese system and western system both have their own faire share of problems.

 

[Nilgiri]

Yet China has more problems than western democracies once you looks at it from the infiltered media.

This "technocrat" blab is one of the more predictable over-used responses when the innards of CCP come up for discussion (be it some notion of "democracy" definition)

We all saw for ourselves.... the results of the "technocratic" response in the crucial months leading to the Covid spread worldwide, namely:

A) suppression of scientists, doctors and citizen journalists exposing uncomfortable things for "technocrats"

B) selective internal lockdown while allowing international travel to continue (i.e knowing full well what was going on in those cities, but deliberately pushing for the world to suffer it too to "equalise")

C) Saving face being paramount, continued obfuscation and opaqueness in both allowing independent inquiry and associated unwillingness to accept responsibility for A and B.

D) The official/unofficial gaslighting and OCD spam-botting associated with all of this

The parallels with "technocratic" approach that was similarly used by Mao's regime in the "great leap" famine are all there including:

- Continued export of grain (face save) while the results of the policy were clearly known at that point
- Outside world unable to know just how bad the crisis effects truly were till years later
- True level of the carnage inflicted by it still unknown to this day (there are only estimates in the 10s of millions)
- Similar unacceptance to shoulder the blame, rather Mao image is vaunted....quite unlike say Stalin (who's grievous policies were to their credit re-visited by CCCP after his death and condemned by Kruschev admin)

Communism remember was the technocratic science of how a govt should operate. The extreme form of it (practiced by both Stalin and Mao) sought to export this "revolution" by force if needed to other countries, leading to outright abandonment of coexistance (that only subsequent admins fixed).

So while the effects are kept largely internal (and may all the innocents RIP), the world (at least) doesn't suffer for it and thus there can be at least coexistence.

This frays and degrades when that bound is violated and you have something like an exported virus caused by this "technocratic" incompetence (or worse).....much along the veins of an outright war.

In the end it becomes another disturbing chapter on the changing evolution of the totalitarian state as the 20th century progressed and 21st century commenced.

A certain totalitarian in purest form was dealt with (eventually after much delay) by conventional war that costed untold millions of lives....as the nuclear world had not arrived.

When the nuclear genie was let out of bottle, the other totalitarian (the one that was large part of vanquishing the former) was quick to learn it, deploy it and use it for perpetuation of that system. But the economic realm was kept pure and secure and insular (and heavily flawed). This was what ultimately led to its demise.

Now we have a totalitarian legacy in the last remaining major power that continues to stand by such approach politically (i.e whenever you have a one-party state by basic law). But it has evolved into a more quasi-totalitarian realm having survived politically to the 21st century and integrated economically (both practically and somewhat ideologically in the this realm, while separating its effect from the political one as far as possible).

This economic integration was quite deliberately allowed (by democracies that saw through totalitarian threat 1 and then 2) by both pure greed and the promise such coffers of greed would somehow bring a non-totalitarian reform.

The delay, outright stupidity (of this assumption), inertia from all that... and thus lower intensity in dealing with such (compared to the previous two) is and will be protracted and far more complicated (given the realities that enable it). But arguably remains just as important to do so, and by every democracy.

Much is already in flux now though (and this decade will be first to bear a real testament to it IMO), the rest of world is waking up more intensely quite literally by the intense effect of this "technocratic" process w.r.t contagion release and culpability.

@Anmdt @ABee @UkroTurk 🚬 @Zapper @Jackdaws @crixus @AlphaMike @Madokafc et al.

 

[xizhimen]

This "technocrat" blab is one of the more predictable over-used responses when the innards of CCP come up for discussion (be it some notion of "democracy" definition)

We all saw for ourselves.... the results of the "technocratic" response in the crucial months leading to the Covid spread worldwide

When the virus first hit Wuhan, it's an unknown disease to this world and it took time for scientists to know what's exactly going on, once this virus was confirmed Chinese government took quick and decisive actions to lock down the whole city. I doubt any other country can do a better job than China in containing this virus, when H1N1 hit US in 2009, no complete lockdowns ever happened.
As for how democracy works during the pandemic, despite repeated warning by China and 3 months time to get prepared, US just dismissed it and US president even discourage people from wearing masks, soon they paid the price, US and India became the runaway world champions in covid infections and deaths while China, even without prior knowledge and any preparation time, basically wiped out the virus in less than 2 months time.