Abuses, Malaises of US democracy exposed in China’s report
One day after China released a white paper on its democratic model with details and examples showing how the whole-process democracy with people’s full participation in China works, the country issued another report detailing the abuses and malaises of democracy in the US on Sunday, which experts said was a “timely and to the point” move to crush the “halo” of the so-called “a beacon for democracy” ahead of the US-initiated summit for democracy that is being widely criticized for dividing the world by ideology.
Against the background of the US’ attempts to make the democracy issue an ideological tool, China’s recent actions also help the international community to clear the clouds and show what true democracy is. As the beacon of US democracy is dimming, the democratic practices in China are dazzling with brilliance, they say.
From Iraq to Afghanistan, from so-called “democratization” in Africa and Latin America to the “Arab Spring,” from the riots on Capitol Hill to the record high COVID-19 death toll, the world has witnessed turbulence and humanitarian disasters brought by the US in exporting the country’s democratic model. Coming at the time when democracy in the US is “seriously ill,” the 15,000-word report titled “The State of Democracy in the United States,” released by the Chinese Foreign Ministry gained high attention as soon as it was issued.
It explained “what is democracy” and revealed three malaises of democracy in the US: the system fraught with deep-seated problems, messy and chaotic practices of democracy and disastrous consequences of US export of its brand of democracy, sending the world a strong advocate from China that “if no country seeks to dictate standards for democracy, impose its own political system on others or use democracy as a tool to suppress others, and when all countries can live and thrive in diversity, our world will be a better place.”
The report first recognized that the development of democracy in the US was a step forward from a historical perspective, and then pointed out that democracy in the US has degenerated and become alienated over the past years, which has increasingly deviated from the essence of democracy and its original design. It quoted large number of reports, opinions, data and investigations conducted by US media and papers written by reputed US scholars, showing the world that the deep-seated problems in the US democracy have already been laid bare, battered and detested by its own American people themselves.
“Problems like money politics, identity politics, wrangling between political parties, political polarization, social division, racial tension and wealth gap have become more acute. All this has weakened the functioning of democracy in the US,” it said.
It is hoped that the US will improve its own system and practices of democracy and change its way of interacting with other countries. This is in the interest of not only the American people, but also the people of other countries, the report stressed.
On Saturday, the State Council, China’s cabinet, released a white paper, titled “China: Democracy That Works,” which introduced the country’s whole-process people’s democracy under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the sound institutional framework, the concrete and pragmatic practices of China’s democracy, and the new model of democracy that China has developed.
Senior Chinese officials said at a press conference to launch the white paper that China has the confidence and strength to expound on its democratic practice, as China has actively responded to people’s requests and expectations, developed whole-process people’s democracy and achieved the widest participation of its people. The country’s democracy is more extensive, more genuine and more effective than US democracy, as US politicians represent the vested interest groups but in China the whole-process democracy ensures implementation of policies that improve people’s lives.
Lü Xiang, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, described the recent moves as “timely” and “to the point,” as China has been relatively reserved in the world’s political debates.
Facing the US’ tactics and propaganda campaign, China should explain its stance properly, telling people who lack sufficient understanding of China about the country’s democratic system and its achievements. “We do not export our political system, but when we’re attacked, we should clarify how China’s political structure works,” Lü said.
According to the expert, the US tried to inculcate in the developing world the idea that countries were growing slowly because they did not emulate Western institutions. The report released by the Chinese Foreign Ministry makes it clearer to all countries that US democracy is not only failing to deliver a good life for their people, but even creating more problems and disastrous consequences for the world.
Diao Daming, an associate professor at the Renmin University of China in Beijing, noted that the two documents do not mean to deny Western democracy or engage in confrontation with the US, but to set the facts straight and tell the international community what is right and wrong.
“China is also on behalf of the international community to expose the US’ actions: facing the chaos of democracy at home, the US seeks hegemony in the international arena under the guise of democracy. The two reports issued by China largely negate the legitimacy of the US-initiated democracy summit,” Diao said.
As China has only published reports on the human rights records of the US previously, Diao referred to the report on US democracy as “objective, professional, balanced and innovative,” which will help the international community know exactly what democracy is.
Democracy is one of the common values pursued all over the world, which means it is not what anyone says it is. It is based on the “efficacy of treatment,” on the historical development status, path and construction needs of any country. It should meet the needs of the people and can effectively respond to the people, the expert said.
So-called summit a joke
“How to run a democracy summit when your own democracy is dying”, the US magazine The National Interest asked in an article published on Thursday, saying that “democratic standards should apply to everyone and are not just a vocabulary that the powerful use to lecture the weak.”
At Saturday’s press conference, Xu Lin, Vice Minister of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee and director of the State Council Information Office, said the US-manipulated so-called summit for democracy is a joke, as it is using democracy as a banner to crack down on countries with different systems and development models. He made the remarks in response to a question on whether China and the US are battling over the narrative of democracy.
The US has ineffective domestic governance while imposing hegemony in its foreign policy. Isn’t it ridiculous such a country claims itself to be a model of world democracy or a beacon of democracy? Xu asked.
Fan Peng, a research fellow at the Institute of Political Sciences, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the so-called democracy summit exactly reflects the US’ decline in power and influence.
“The US can’t show to the world more staunch democratic ethics and moral standards, neither can it provide public goods for global security and stability, thus it can only hope to stand on the so-called moral high ground to identify and unite which countries will follow it and use the ideology to stigmatize its opponents.”
Source :GT
