Why are some defenders of China saying that China is a democracy but not in the Western definition? What does it mean?
A:
China has been fighting for democracy for many years since 1840 the Opium War.
First is the Taiping Movement from 1850 to 1864. Hong the leader of the Taiping Movement want every peasant to have land. At that time, 95% of the Chinese in China were peasants. Hong’s vision is very democratic in that he wanted to turn peasants into bourgeoise. The Taiping Movement was therefore a capitalist democratic revolution. The Qing Dynasty crashed the Taiping Movement with the help of European powers.
The second is the Hundred Days of Reform in 1898. The reform wanted to copy the British democracy of Constitutional Monarchy. The reform failed, and in 1900, Eight powers invaded and occupied Beijing.
The third is the Xinhai Revolution in 1911. Sun Yet-sen the leader of the Xinhai Revolution established the Republic of China. But democracy in the Republic of China was difficult because the foreign imperialist powers dominated China’s politics and economy. China was an ally country in WWI, yet instead of returning territory occupied by Germany back to China, the Versaille Treaty grant China’s territory to Japan. Sun realized China cannot have democracy without getting rid of the foreign imperialist powers in China. So Sun asked the help from Soviet Russia.
The Xinhai Revolution is called the old democratic revolution in that it wanted to repeat the European capitalist revolution. Yet European capitalist countries have become imperialist power claiming their sphere of influence in China and destroying all the Chinese’s efforts for democracy. Then there is the New Democratic Revolution.
The fourth is the 1949 revolution, the new democratic revolution. The 1949 revolution by Mao is a democratic revolution. China tried to learn from the West to have a democracy three times, and all failed because western imperialists didn’t want China to have democracy. So China found its democracy and it worked.
Chinese democracy is different from a western democracy. Chinese democracy is a socialist democracy. Western democracy is a capitalist democracy. West get their democracy against dictators. China gets its democracy against imperialism.
Western democracy is politics competing among different interest groups. Chinese democracy is consultative among different trades and stratifications of society. Different trades and stratification in China have more common interests than interests of conflicts. China learned this from the history of the century of humiliation. Chinese learned that no group in China can safeguard its interests as long as imperialist power can dominate China. So Chinese people have a common interest against foreign interference in Chinese domestic affairs.
China has a democracy different from the Western one, and works.
Related readings:
What is wrong with liberal democracy?
