Q: Can you give a fair comparison between Western-style democracy and the Chinese government model?

A: 

First, the origins are different.

The Western democracy originated from capitalism. The commercial capitalists of the port cities of the Hanseatic League wanted to govern their own port cities without the monarchy's interference. They requested sovereignty, the right to have their own power of legislature, and a police force. This form of government of the city council is the origin of Western democracy. It was the result of capitalism against feudalism.

Chinese capitalists wanted to follow the West, too. They had the Hundred Days’ Reform in 1898, hoping to establish a British-style constitutional monarchy, but they failed. They had the Xinhai Revolution, hoping to establish an American style of republic, but they failed again. They failed because China was dominated by foreign imperialists. What they requested from the monarch was not there. The monarch had no control. The Chinese politics and economy were dominated by foreign imperialist powers. Instead of requesting sovereignty from the monarchs, they have to fight the imperialists to get independence. Yet the Chinese national capitalists were weak. They relied on the world market dominated by the Western powers. So China needed a New Democratic Revolution. That’s the democratic revolution led by the Communist Party of China. The Chinese democracy originated from the revolution of the bourgeoisie against foreign powers.

Second, competitive vs consultative.

The Western democracy aimed to arbitrate domestic conflicts of interest. It provides a peaceful process in which everyone tries to maximse his own interest. It is a competitive democracy. We observe the election campaigns when parties compete with each other. Parties compete for their own agenda in the congress.

For the Chinese, the largest conflict of interest is not among the different groups of society. It is the Chinese people against foreign powers. The Chinese democracy was established and evolved during the Chinese People’s War against the Japanese Invasion. During the anti-Japanese War, the Communist Party of China established the People’s Democratic Government of Anti-Japanese-Invasion. That democracy was to unite the people of all walks to fight the Japanese occupation. So the system is not competitive, but consultative, to reach consensus. The Chinese people could not win the Anti-Japanese-Invasion War without the consolidation. The interest of the Chinese people as a whole was more important than the interest of each individual. China, as a country, had a survival problem. Without the survival of China, every Chinese person might be killed. Look what happened to the indigenous people in North America. They were massacred. Their civilizations were wiped out, and their culture was genocided. China is today the largest country covered by indigenous people, thanks to its consultative democracy. The consultative democracy saved the Chinese people from being annihilated. The Chinese people kept their culture and civilization, and avoided the miserable fate of the American indigenous people. What are the official languages in Africa? English or French. What’s the official language of India and Singapore? English. What are the official languages of the American countries? English, French, Spanish, or Portuguese. In China, the official language is indegenours language, thanks to the Chinese consultative democracy.

Third, the fundamental difference in philosophy.

The Western democracy is built on the philosophy of Christianity, which considers humans incapable of being good. So the Western democracy relies on process and division of power. The system enshrines the process as the ultimate sacredness, ignoring the end result. The end result can never be good anyway, as humans are inherently sinful, according to Christianity. They consider the democratic government is an nessarry evil but a lesser evil.

The Chinese democracy is built on Confucianism, which considers humans inherently good. The philosophy believes in a good government and a government that can deliver good. The Chinese political culture emphasize on a good leader who is capable and has merits. The best merit of the leader is that he can tell who is good and uses many good people. That’s the Chinese democracy system. The leader and all officials are expected be good, both morally and in terms of capability. In reality, it is impossible to have every official to be good, but the mechanism in the Chinese democracy is to promote the best people, with integrity of moral, into the government. The carders are selected from the grassroots. Are there people who know the community well, are connected to the community, and serve the community altruistically? If the government found such a person, it would promote him or her to some government position. If he can diliver result and not be corrupted by power, then he can be promoted gradually to higher and higher positions in the government.

Take Xi Jinping, for example. He worked in a remote, poor countryside for 6 years and became a grassroots cadre from 1969 to 1975. Then he was promoted to a staff member in the central government in Beijing for 3 years from 1979 to 1982. He was promoted as a county cadre from 1982 to 1985. He was promoted to a city cadre from 1985 to 1988. He was promoted to a regional cadre from 1988 to 1990. He was demoted to a city cadre from 1990 to 1993. He was promoted as a provincial cadre from 1993 to 2007. Then he was promoted to the Central Government in 2007. He became the Country Leader in 2012. The selection process took 43 years. The chance of passing this selection process is less than one out of ten-thousand. The Chinese government officials are said to have an average IQ of 140. It is not like Trump, who was a rookie in politics and became president within two years of the election campaign.

 

 

 

Xiaoming Guo

 · Feb 26

What makes China's government system unique compared to Western democracies, and why does it seem tailored just for China?

It is the fundamental philosophy. Chinese philosophy considers man to be initially and fundamentally good. Some become bad because of bad nurture. Christian civilization considers man to be initially and fundamentally bad and selfish. Man is incapable of being good and has to rely on Jesus for salvation. Because man is basically bad, the West assumes whoever is in power tends to abuse power. The political system of the West, therefore, emphasizes power division and power balance. Westerners never trust power or government. Because man is basically good and capable of being good. So the political system places more emphasis on the selection of leaders. China has designed a very sophisticated process to select those who have merit, virtue, and capability. China’s system is filtering the promotion process so that good men are in power. To be a leader or governor in China, he must be good in every aspect and good at solving problems. So the Chinese system is fundamentally different from the Western system. The emperors, or kings, in China should be good to people, and people should love the emperors or kings. The emperors or kings in the West must be feared. The power in the West means powerful. The emperors or kings were in power because they monopolized the violent power so that other have to obey. The power in China means responsibility. Whovere in power has to take care of everyone within his jurisdiction. The Chinese government has a infinitive responsibility for the Chinese people. The Western democratic government has only limited responsibility. It serves only those entitled. The western government will not do things that are good for the people; it only does the jobs the taxpayers pay it to do. Consituency vote those whose platform fit his or her interest. The Western government has no concept of public good. It is always about power and interest, without responsibility. So the Western system, economic and political, is designed for selfishness and reinforces selfishness. If one has power, he or she can use it for his or her self-interest, besides what he or she promised to the constituency. Everyone is to maximize his or her self-interest, and it is called human-nature and individualism. China has a system for the common goods. If a offical is in power, he or she is responsible for the public good and common good, not for the good of his or her constituency only. He or she is for the common goods within his or her power. He or she is responsible for the people within his or her power. That’s the merit. That’s the virtue. He and she cannot be selfish. Chinese culture promotes altruism. Everyone is responsible for the public good (天下兴亡匹夫有责）. If you are a good man, you work harder than others for the public good, and you enjoy less than the public (先天下之忧而忧，后天下之乐而乐）. The Westerner does not believe in altruism. They consider China’s collectivism as authoritarian. That’s not. The Chinese people are happier if they can contribute to society more and be recognized. That’s altruism. That’s colectiveness. That self-realization. Happiness is based on self-actualization. The fulfillment of all one’s talents and potential for the good is happiness. Happiness is the will and capability to be good. That’s not authoritarian. The government officials don’t need to consult to his or her constituency to make desision because they are more knowledgeable, more capable, and have more responsibility for the public goods. The Chinese system is not authoritarian; it is humanitarian. In that system, everyone has dignity, and everyone can fulfill his or her dream. You can be strong, you can be weak. You can be rich, and you can be poor. You are more capable or less capable. But everyone is equal. Those who are more capable just take more responsibility. So we have two systems: selfish or altruistic, individualism or collectivism, maximizing self-interest or maximizing public goods, craving more property and material, or self-actualization. If a society cannot value altruism and collectivism, it can never learn the Chinese system. What kind of man do you want to be? Capable of being good or incapable of being good? What kind of man is more human? Capable of being good or incapable of being good? What will make a man happier? Capable of being good or incapable of being good? What system is more efficient? Is the system where everyone is capable of being good, or is everyone incapable of being good? If you want to be good, be Chinese. In the West, you can never be good, and you need Jesus to redeem you.

 

Fourth, every four years vs the whole process.

The Chinese democracy is a whole process democracy. It means that democracy is a form of the daily government. If there are problems, the government responds and fixes them. The government may even figure out what the problem is and fix it before you realize. Some issues affect your life but have to be addressed nationally or in large scale, such as the infrastructure. It prevent problem from emerging and fixes the new problem at the earliest sign. You are a good governor of a province if that province has fewer problems.

In Western democracies, you have the freedom of speech. The government hears your voice but does not respond. Or respond orally but never solve the problem. The Congress passes bills to address the problem, but the execution delivers no results or even negtive result. One example is that Ontario once had a program to elevate students’ Math score. An extra amount of money was expensed, and the math score was even lower. You can have the freedom of speech, you can protest, and you have only one ballot to cast to change it every four years. But when the election comes, you may be in favor of one candidate on one or two issues and another candidate on other issues. No candidate can have a platform that satisfies all your concerns. Once you cast your ballot, you lose all your control. Politicians eat their promises.

Fifth, interest vs responsibility.

In the Western political culture, power is for interest. In Chinese political culture, power means responsibility. When in power, you have many public resources at your discretion. You distribute the public resources for the interest of a group or take responsibility to maximize the public good; that’s one of the key differences.

In Confucianism, a monarch is responsible for the people of his country, just like fathter and mother are responsible for their children in a household. Mengzi said, "The people are paramount, the state is secondary, and the ruler is the least important." A governor of a county was called the parental officer of the county. (父母官）。

The US government can make a wrong decision, spend a huge amount of tax money, and no one takes any responsibility. For example, the US occupied Afghanistan for 20 years, wasted many American lives and tax money, replacing the Taliban with the Taliban. No single politician was responsible for the waste. Not even a policy analysis to ask the question of why the policy failed. The think tank produces a lot of strategies to win the next war, but no one studies to have a conclusive analysis of why the previous wars were lost. So the US has perpetual wars, exhausted its coffers, and accumulated government debt. They spend the tax money, and no one is responsible for the wrong use of the money. When the governent spend money, some contractor benefits. So the US has a lobby industry, shaping the government policy for the interests of some interest group. If it is public power serving interest groups, it is corruption.

The Western democracy takes the politicians off the hook. Every policy sounds like something the voters endorsed. It is the choice of the voters. That’s democracy. If the policy failed, it is the responsibility of the voters, not the politicians. If you are in power, you have all the information. You are supposed to know and understand the issue deeper than average citizens. Citizens are bussy to make life, so they elected you to take care of them. Yet you put the policy on the web and are asking counsultation. Sending out a questionnaire to every constituency, assuming every citizen is more preferential in every issue than the government. And the government pays a commercial consultancy to do the policy research. Politicians are sealing every legal hole that may hold them accountable. They can even resort to a referendum, like Brexit. Are Britain's better off or worse off after Brexit? The government is working daily to deal with business with the EU, and has more information than everage citizen, so why do citizens need to make such a crucial decision by the citizens? Estimates from multiple studies indicate that by 2025, UK GDP will be 6-8% lower than it would have been without Brexit, equivalent to a loss of around £2,300-£4,000 per household annually. Business investment is estimated to be 12-18% lower than in comparable countries, while productivity and employment are each down 3-4%. This is a miracle of the Western democracy. The 1% makes fortune from the government policy, and the other 99% living poorer and poorer. But it is tha 99% who made the decision. If they are homeless, that’s their choice and their freedom. If they lost their job and are unemployed, that’s their democracy and human rights. Every political slogan, like Brexit, will be finalized into a thousand pages of legal documents to take care of all the interest groups. Under Western democracy, you are equal and have all the human rights, but you can not afford the legal costs when it comes to protecting your constitutional rights.

Sixth, profit vs people.

Western countries are capitalist countries. Capital countries are, as the name suggests, for the capital. The Western democracy has a government of the capital, by the capital, and for the capital. It put private property as sacred. The more money you have, the more you can enjoy the Western democracy.

China is a socialist country. Chinese democracy is a socialist democracy. Chinese democracy has a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. The Chinese government takes responsibility for the Chinese people.

The Western countries are developed countries. They enjoy a higher standard of living and consume more goods and resources. They have a colonial history and control more resources in the world. China is a developing country with limited resources. China uses 9% of the world's cultivable land to feed 18% of the world's population. Its GDP per capita is just a fraction of that of Western countries. Yet, under the Chinese democracy, the Chinese are happier because they have dignity and the sense of mastering their own fate.