CGTN: Democracy should not be decided by 'self-appointed judges,' China says in white paper
BEIJING, Dec. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — “There is no fixed model of democracy,” China said in an official document published on Saturday detailing its democratic endeavors, and whether a country is democratic “should be acknowledged by the international community, not arbitrarily decided by a few self-appointed judges.”
Democracy, the white paper titled “China: Democracy That Works” said, is “an ideal” that has always been cherished by the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Chinese people.
“Over the past hundred years, the Party has led the people in realizing people’s democracy in China. The Chinese people now truly hold in their hands their own future and that of society and the country,” the paper read.
China has termed its system “whole-process people’s democracy,” after President Xi Jinping proposed the concept two years ago in the city of Shanghai. That principle legitimates the people’s participation in day-to-day political activities at all levels, combining democratic elections, political consultation, decision-making and oversight.
The people’s status as masters of the country is the essence of people’s democracy, said the document released by China’s State Council Information Office.
‘China’s democracy has concrete, pragmatic practices’
“In China, the standard practice is to hear people’s voices, act on their needs, and pool their ideas and strength,” the document said.
According to official data, China has held 12 direct elections to people’s congresses at the township level and 11 direct elections to those at the county level, with a current participation rate of about 90 percent, since the initiation of reform and opening up.
Democratic consultation is a special feature of democracy in China. The Chinese people widely exercise their right to vote in elections and undertake extensive deliberations before major decisions are made.
The paper also stressed that the abuse of power for personal gain is eradicated by sound and effective democratic oversight.
Supervision of power extends across every area and into every corner, it said.
China’s own model of democracy
Instead of just simply copying others’ democratic models, China takes its “national conditions and realities” into consideration and manifests its own truth.
“China draws on each and every political achievement of other countries, but does not imitate any of their models of democracy,” the document said. “The model that suits best is always the most appropriate.”
Whole-process people’s democracy stands in line with the country’s distinctive features, reflecting at the same time “humanity’s universal desire for democracy.”
Humanity’s quest for and experiments with greater democracy will never end, the paper said.
The true barrier to democracy lies not in different models of democracy, but in arrogance, prejudice and hostility towards other countries’ attempts to explore their own paths to democracy, and in assumed superiority and the determination to impose one’s own model of democracy on others, it added.
