"We are the largest democracy" - China

China contests the American claim that it's not a democracy, by forcing a viewpoint through all its media!

"We are the largest democracy" - China

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• The story: As U.S. President Joe Biden hosted world leaders, including PM Modi, in the global democracy summit, China’s government carried on a campaign criticising liberal democratic systems by attacking America’s “democratic malaise”. 
• What China said: China’s Foreign Ministry said democracy was “a common value of humanity instead of a geostrategic tool” and the summit this week was aimed at “defending U.S. hegemony, which is out-and-out anti-democratic”. China attacked America as being the "self-styled beacon of democracy that had democratic malaise and huge democratic deficits." 

1. In December '21, China’s government and official media launched a two-pronged campaign: showcasing the strengths of China’s political system while pointing out the deficiencies of democratic systems. 
2. The Chinese government put out a white paper on democracy that made the rather stunning claim that one-party ruled China hosted the world’s largest electoral democratic process.

• China's "elections": In 2016 and 2017, more than 900 million voters participated in elections to people’s congresses at the township and county-levels — the world’s largest direct elections, as per the white paper. It did not, however, mention that the congresses, both at lower levels and at the national level, are largely rubber-stamp bodies that rarely question Communist Party policies, or that what are called “one-candidate elections”, including for the post of President and Premier, are not uncommon. The truth is: Communist Party cannot lose the elections!
• Foreign models: Defending the Communist Party’s governance as “democratic”, the white paper warned of the dangers of countries adopting foreign political models. It said that blindly copying other models of democracy was a problematic endeavour as it risked creating cultural conflict, political volatility or even social turmoil and causing great pain to its people.

1. To make that case, China’s official media routinely point to India’s political system being “chaotic” or “inefficient” to justify why large developing countries are better off following China’s authoritarian model. 
2. The official English-language broadcaster China Global Television Network published a commentary headlined “Women's status in China and India: Who has human rights and democracy?”, authored by a foreign scholar at Beijing’s Renmin University.

• Attacking India: That commentary said that Biden's summit may try to argue that India's system embodies democracy and human rights, and China's does not. But that purely verbal claim will not alter the fact that the life and real rights of a Chinese woman are far superior to those of an Indian woman. It is only necessary to look at the contrast in the lives of one-fifth of humanity, Chinese and Indian women, to see that China has delivered ‘the people rule’ on a gigantic scale and infinitely more than the entirely unreal criteria chosen by Biden.
• New terms: The white paper, titled “Democracy That Works” and published by China’s State Council or Cabinet, said “CPC leadership is the fundamental guarantee” for what it called “whole-process people’s democracy”, adding that “China did not duplicate Western models of democracy, but created its own.” 

1. The claim it made was that the best way to evaluate whether a country’s political system is democratic and efficient is to observe whether the succession of its leaders is orderly and in line with the law. But that is surprising, as Xi Jinping, in 2018, removed term limits, a key part of the system of succession that had enabled, in the past three decades, three smooth transfers of power.
2. China naturally finds itself cornered by the smart move of President Biden, and hence the aggression.

• Summary: China has turned the democracy versus authoritarian debate into a zero-sum game now. 
• EXAM QUESTIONS: (1) Explain the reasons China is going to extraordinary lengths to push its own democracy narrative. (2) What were the primary goals of the "Summit for democracy" held by President Biden of US.

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