Opinion | President Xi Jinping leads debate on democracy

By Augustus K. Yeung

Introduction

President Xi's recent speech on democracy delineated the paramount importance of China's brand of democracy, which has so far been cloaked under "authoritarianism", a term bestowed upon China by Westerners. It is, of course, misleading.

In North America and the rest of the "free world", the concept of authoritarianism misdirects people's thinking to a political system which is not "of the people, by the people, for the people". 
And they habitually point their fingers at China and some small "pink" countries, in effect quietly chastising these countries which do not strictly subscribe to the American's hegemonic version of democracy—as the United States has been ruling the world since World War II.

This misconception has resulted in the United Nations as a world organization being highjacked by America in the name of democracy against countries which have all along been oppressed by wealthy and powerful warlords such as Chiang Kai-shek--China's generalissimo, who was able to solicit massive military and financial support from wealthy and mighty America in his war against the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)--which has had been formed and founded on the principle of humanitarianism.

A party that was formed and founded to fight Chiang, the great dictator, was perceived as authoritarian. And so, the American government has all along been treating China under Mao Zedong as an "authoritarian" country to be bashed, same as the native American Indians who had been hunted down by the dominant white Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASP)—an ethnic group (the Puritans) that originally migrated from Europe, more precisely Great Britain.

All along, it has always been a case of power in action: Countries that are powerful are able to name and define a weak or small country as "authoritarian" if it ever attempts to overthrow the existing "free country" led by warlords, dictators and the world's warmongers. In Chile, the Marxist President Allende was a case in point. He was toppled by the American CIA as he was defined as being "authoritarian".

"Xi says 'democratic' system key to China's success"

President Xi Jinping has hailed China's political system as a "great creation" and the key to its global success on Oct. 14 amid an intensifying ideological clash 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 that it could be a "key advantage for the country in gaining the strategic initiative", according to state media.

"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," the president said.

Xi made the remarks at a party meeting to discuss China's constitutional system, where he hailed the nation as a "whole process democracy, adding, "[It] is a great creation in the political history of the human history 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."

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."

The meeting comes as Beijing is stepping up efforts to defend its system in the face of mounting pressure from the West, which has slapped multiple sanctions on China amid growing concerns over human rights.

How the Chinese Expert Interprets Xi's Speech

Xi' speech was an apparent response to the pressure exerted by Washington on human rights and values, said Qin Qianhong, a law professor at Wuhan University.

"[US President Joe] Biden has used different ways to pressure China compared with [Donald] Trump and has played with issues like human rights and democratic values," he said.

Biden is expected to host the first two Summits for Democracy in December, and Beijing will be watching closely to see if delegates from Taiwan, which it considered a breakaway province, will be invited.

"I personally think that this is a response after Chinese leaders have been under great pressure…including the democracy summit [proposed by Biden] and the sanctions," Qin said.

In Grammar, Phrases are Prime Time Players

To Beijing's discomfort, the White House has also used phrases such as "shared democratic values" in the framework for new multinational trade and security agreements, such as US-EU Trade and Technology Council and Aukus, the security partnership between Australia, Britain and the United States.

In yesterday's speech, President Xi Jinping apparently sought to discredit any criticism of China's political system, without naming specific countries. "Whether a country is democratic or not should only be judged by the people of that country, and there is no place for a small number of outsiders to point fingers at this or that," he said.

Xi added it was "undemocratic" to judge all political systems by one single standard.

His remarks echo previous attempts by Chinese diplomats –including Qin Gang, the ambassador to the US—to challenge the emerging narrative that defines US-China ties as "democracy versus authoritarianism".

In one recent speech to the Carter Centre and the George H. W. Bush Foundation for US-China Relations, Qin argued that China is a "whole process democracy" in which "all power belongs to the people" whose interests are represented at all levels of the system. Xi previously used the phrase "whole-process democracy" in his July speech to mark the Communist Party's centenary.

The outstanding Chinese ambassador also quoted Abraham Lincoln's concept of government "of the people, by the people, for the people," and Plato's belief in the importance of a state educating its citizens to prove that China is a genuine democracy.

But President Xi went further, saying: "If there are only high-flying promises before elections and no say for the people after them, then such a democracy is not a real democracy." ("Xi says 'democratic' system key to China's success." South China Morning Post, October 15, 2021.)

Conclusion

This debate on democracy--led by President Xi Jinping of China--not only started a search for the true meaning of democracy as a political philosophy. It has also led to a reflection of the history of American democracy which started as a Republic, with the participants calling themselves as Republicans.

It was quite possible that their founding fathers were inspired by Plato whose book the Republic has been an inspiring source of western political thinking. And the popular name "republic" has attracted many powerful leaders of many nations to adopt the name republic. Notably, the People's Republic of China (PRC), and the KMT version of Republic of China (ROC), which has lost its luster over the years after the Chinese Civil War (1945 -49).

According to The Macmillan Encyclopedia, President Abraham Lincoln was the first Republican president: However, originating in Jefferson's Republican Democrats in 1792, it became the Democratic Party during the presidency (1829 – 37) of Andrew Jackson. In 1860, just before the American Civil War, the Democrats split over the issue of slavery and the party, dominated by southern Democrats, was eclipsed until 1880s. With F.D. Roosevelt's New Deal program in the 1930s, the Democrats again became identified as a progressive party. Notable Democratic presidents include Woodrow Wilson, F.D. Roosevelt, J.F. Kennedy, and Jimmy Carter, Clinton, Obama and now Joe Biden.

When a former president came to the political scene, US democracy has taken a good beating: Trump poses as a Republican—when in fact he is a rowdy duke, a failed businessman, who puts personal financial interests above the interest of the nation.

Now you have Joe Biden who tries desperately to put social order in America back on track. But can he—with Trump's troopers hovering around, waiting in the wings? Democracy in America is dying, if not "certified dead on arrival" on Jan. 6 at the Capitol!

 

The author is a freelance writer; formerly Adjunct Lecturer, taught MBA Philosophy of Management, and International Strategy, and online columnist of 3-D Corner (HKU SPACE), University of Hong Kong.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.

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