Despite Western skepticism, democracy thrives in China

Almost every year, just before the annual sessions of the National People’s Congress, the country’s top legislature, and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference National Committe, the country’s top political advisory body, some people have claimed the two great institutions play the role of rubber stamps, and China’s democracy cannot truly represent the people.

Criticism of the Chinese system comes mostly from abroad. But even some Chinese critics have been, from time to time, influenced by these foreign perceptions.

China is often analyzed and judged strictly according to Western norms and rules, which is chauvinistic and amazingly patronizing, to say the least. However, China, with thousands of years of history and culture, deserves to be defined and judged by its own people and according to its own measures.

The term democracy is derived from the Greek language. It loosely means “rule of the people”. But it doesn’t stipulate that a truly democratic country has to follow a Western multi-party/corporate model, or more concretely, a model in which big corporations and “powerful individuals” finance political campaigns (while backing particular candidates), and to all intents and purposes select the government.

There should be different models of democracy — different models of “rule of the people”. And good democracy means the government should serve the people.