Report details US' 'alienated' democracy
American style gravely ill with money politics, elite rule, dysfunctional system
The Foreign Ministry released a report on democracy in the United States on Sunday, exposing the deficiencies and abuse of democracy in the country as well as the harm of its exporting such democracy.
The report, titled "The State of Democracy in the United States", based on facts and expert opinions, said it is hoped the US will improve its system and practices of democracy and change its way of interacting with other countries.
Democracy in the US has been "alienated and degenerated" over the years and has increasingly deviated from the essence of democracy and its original design, the report said.
The self-styled American democracy is now gravely ill with money politics, elite rule, political polarization and a dysfunctional system, it said.
That US democracy has gone wrong is reflected in the country's practices and events, including the Capitol riot on Jan 6, its entrenched racism and tragic mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As a result, "American-style democracy can hardly uphold public order and ethics, nor advance public wellbeing to the fullest", the report said.
The US, despite the structural flaws and the problematic practice of its democratic system, has attempted to model other countries after its own image and export its brand of democracy.
Such entirely undemocratic attempts are at odds with the core values and tenets of democracy, the report said.
Beijing has urged Washington on many occasions to get to work in earnest to ensure its people's democratic rights and improve its system of democracy as well as undertake more international responsibilities and provide more public goods to the world.
"It would be totally undemocratic to measure the diverse political systems in the world with a single yardstick or examine different political civilizations from a single perspective," said the report.
Su Xiaohui, deputy director of the China Institute of International Studies' Department of American Studies, said the report reveals that the US is by no means an exemplary model of democracy.
"With its mounting internal problems, the US still points fingers at others and pushes for what it calls 'democratic transition', plunging many regions and countries into turmoil, conflict and disaster, which shows its hypocrisy," Su said.
Su cited the Capitol riot as saying that even Washington's allies and partners have spotted the malaise of US-style democracy.
Diao Daming, an associate professor of US studies at Renmin University of China, said the report exposes US democratic chaos in an objective and comprehensive manner and plays a positive role in helping the world understand its state of democracy.
"China's intention is not to contend with the US for the definition of democracy, nor does it fight for the so-called position of 'beacon of democracy'," he said.
Diao said the report, which is rich with facts and tight logic and represents various views, including those of US experts, also reflects the universal concerns of the international community about US-style democracy.
As for the "Summit for Democracy" to be held by the US, he said it had nothing to do with democracy and was a move by the US to engage in group politics and try to achieve a hegemonic agenda in the name of democracy.
US-style democracy 'only awakened during voting'
With wide participation and strong oversight, China's democracy is more extensive, more genuine and more effective than the United States' version, senior Chinese officials said while introducing a white paper over the weekend.
The State Council Information Office issued the white paper "China: Democracy That Works" on Saturday, noting that there is more than one path to democracy and there are many ways to achieve it.
When asked which style of democracy is better, Chinese or US, Tian Peiyan, deputy head of Policy Research Office with the Communist Party of China Central Committee, answered that its "practice is the most convincing" argument.
He said under the US democratic system, politicians are agents of interest groups, rather than representing the interests of the majority of voters and the country.
"Those politicians can randomly make promises for the sake of elections, but they seldom fulfill the promises after being elected," Tian said. "Superficially, they accept voters' supervision, but when they're elected, the voters have no option but to wait for the next election.
"It's a democracy that is only awakened during voting but becomes dormant after voting, and it's also a democracy where voters listen to dazzling slogans only during the election but have no say after the election," he said, adding that such democracy is not a real democracy.
China's democracy, however, is a whole-process people's democracy under the CPC's leadership, he said.
Party members and officials at all levels must accept the process and supervision by the CPC and the people while performing their duties to ensure the power granted by the people is always used for serving the people's interest.
"Any violation of Party disciplines and laws must be punished, no matter how senior the violator is or how high his or her social status is. No one is an exception," Tian said.
Tian emphasized that deputies to people's congresses, China's legislative bodies, are from the people and elected by the people. Therefore, they represent the people, serve the people and should be responsible for the people, he said.
"The deputies have always kept close contact with the public, listening to people's requests, striving to solve their problems and receiving their supervision in all areas," he added. "Deputies who don't perform their duties or violate disciplines or laws can be disqualified or removed from office."
Guo Zhenhua, deputy secretary-general of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, the country's top legislature, pointed out the behavior of US politicians before and after elections changed due to the lack of a supervisory mechanism after they take office.
"But in China, both the Constitution and the Electoral Law stipulate that deputies to the NPC and local people's congresses must be supervised by voters and the original electoral units," he said. "Voters or original electoral units have the right to recall elected representatives."
Since the 13th NPC was established in 2018, a total of 10 NPC deputies have been dismissed, he said.
Xu Lin, director of the State Council Information Office, said the US' so-called "Summit for Democracy", due to be held Thursday and Friday, is actually intended to contain and suppress countries that have social systems and development models different to the US'.
He said in a widely diverse world, democracy comes in many forms, adding that China has always been receptive to any type of democracy and given respect to efforts to explore and pursue different models.
According to the white paper, China did not duplicate Western models of democracy, but created its own, and its original aspiration was to ensure the people's status as masters of the country.
It says China built and developed whole-process people's democracy in line with its national conditions, noting it involves complete institutional procedures and covers various fields.
Whole-process people's democracy is a combination of electoral democracy and consultative democracy, and is applied through a combination of elections, consultations, decision-making, management and oversight, it says, adding it has been fully tested through wide participation
China's democracy guarantees all people's right to happy life, experts say
BEIJING -- China's State Council Information Office on Saturday released a white paper titled "China: Democracy That Works," which expounded on the values, history, institutional frameworks, practices, and achievements of China's democracy.
China's democracy, according to experts and observers from multiple countries, has guaranteed all people's right to a happy life and promoted the country's rapid development.
"The Chinese democratic system mainly focuses on whether the people have the right to govern their country, whether the people's needs are met, and whether the people have a sense of fulfillment and happiness," Kin Phea, director-general of the International Relations Institute at the Royal Academy of Cambodia, told Xinhua.
"That's why it gains the great support of the Chinese people from all walks of life," he pointed out.
Hamed Vafaei, director of the Center for Asian Studies at the University of Tehran, said that there is no standard democracy in the world, and that people in each country should find their own development and democratic model.
The Chinese people, Vafaei noted, have chosen their own path, and China's development in various fields, as well as achievements in poverty reduction, have all demonstrated the high quality of China's democracy.
Bambang Suryono, chairman of Asia Innovation Study Center, an Indonesian think tank, said that a good democracy is one that has been built according to actual conditions of the country and that also works for the benefit of the people.
China's democracy has made remarkable achievements in poverty reduction, health care, education, and other areas, Suryono continued, while calling it a democracy that serves its people.
Mehmet Enes Beser, director of the Bosphorus Center for Asian Studies in Turkey, stressed that China has always put people's lives first during the COVID-19 pandemic, reflecting that China's democracy has been put into practice well.
Some Western countries, by contrast, failed to take active and timely actions when the pandemic broke out, showing that "democracy" was only an empty campaign slogan for them, Beser added.
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