Envoy details China's democracy concepts

WASHINGTON • A top Chinese diplomat claimed China is a democracy, arguing its political system exemplifies the ideals of former US president Abraham Lincoln and the ancient Greeks who invented a representative form of government.

China's ambassador to the US Qin Gang on Wednesday cited the Chinese people's right to participate in certain elections and consultations over major policies as evidence of a democratic system not unlike that in the US.

"Isn't it obvious that both China's people-centre philosophy and President Lincoln's 'of the people, by the people, for the people' are for the sake of the people?" he said during a virtual conference organised by US think-tanks The Carter Centre and The George Bush Foundation for US-China Relations. "Shall we understand China's socialist whole-process democracy as this: from the people, to the people, with the people, for the people?"

Mr Qin's speech was the latest effort by China to redefine key Western concepts such as human rights and multilateralism, in pursuit of greater "discourse power", as President Xi Jinping has instructed. Chinese diplomats have often argued that the values of countries like the US and Japan "don't represent the international community".

The comments sought to focus on similarities between the world's two biggest economies as they spar over issues ranging from technology imports to forced labour claims in Xinjiang to democracy in Hong Kong.

Mr Qin said Washington must act first to improve ties and "lift up the iron curtain" thwarting exchanges between US and Chinese students, academics and artists. He urged the US to adopt a less hostile strategy with China while calling for "strategic courage and political resolve to chart a new course in China-US relations".

Mr Xi first publicly used the phrase "whole-process democracy" in 2019 to describe how the government listens to voices outside the party, and it has gained traction in official rhetoric. Traditionally, more obviously Marxist terms like "democratic dictatorship" and "socialist democracy with Chinese characteristics" have distinguished the Chinese political system from Western liberal democracy, in which election outcomes are not preordained.

Mr Qin also said the Communist Party had the popular support of "over 90 per cent" of the Chinese, and heaped praise on Mr Xi, who in 2018 oversaw a move to scrap presidential term limits in place for over three decades. Mr Xi "is loved, trusted and supported by the people", he said. "This is why you often find China's senior officials elected with an overwhelming majority of votes or even unanimously."

BLOOMBERG