In the 1940s, the American journalist Gunther Stein visited Yan’an, the revolutionary holy place of Communist Party of China (CPC) at that time, and was intrigued by the “Bean vote”, which was described in his book as “the ingenuity of the election methods on the Loess Plateau”. CPC created this method of using beans as voting ballots to make sure that all people, even those who couldn’t read and write, could still exercise their right to vote. Yan’an became the “lab of democracy” to explore a unique and effective model for all Chinese people.
Decades has passed since such valuable attempt. Now in 2021 which marks the 100th anniversary of CPC, the world witnessed fruitful results of Chinese nation through upholding democracy in a people-centered and whole-process manner. As stated in the Communiqué of the Sixth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of CPC, China has developed “whole-process people’s democracy”, made comprehensive efforts to improve the institutions, standards, and procedures of China’s socialist democracy, and given better play to the strengths of the Chinese socialist political system in an effort to consolidate, which leads to a real, broad and effective democracy with Chinese characteristics.
China’s efforts towards a true democracy is based on the people-centered philosophy. The Chinese government always solicits people's needs and relies on their wisdom. It promotes diverse consultation activities, which are conducted by the people at the community level, and community-level opinions are directly transmitted to the top legislature and executive organs. When drafting the 14th five-year plan, the Chinese government, taking into full consideration the role of the Internet today, collected comments and recommendations from online channels, allowing people to voice their will and appeals. People's affairs are handled by themselves through consultation. This is the true democracy that enables people to be their own masters.
Whole-process people’ democracy holds people’s pursuit for a safe, prosperous and happy life as its top priority. China works to ensure that development outcomes benefit all the people in a more equitable manner. After relentless efforts, the 1.4 billion Chinese people all shirked off poverty, with no one left behind. All have access to means of subsistence, housing, education and health care. In the face of the sudden onslaught of COVID-19, China’s democracy puts people's life and health first through rigorous measures and making people carry on with their life and work as normal. According to a media report, the Chinese people's trust in the government increased to 98 percent after going through the pandemic. This is the true democracy with people’s sincere recognition.
China’s pursuit towards a broad democracy is based on the whole-process approach. The whole-process democracy is geared toward safeguarding the rights and interests of all the Chinese people. Members of National People’s Congress and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee are selected from all over the country, covering various industries, ethnic groups, social groups and regions, thus making the democracy truly representational in nature. Meanwhile, whole-process democracy tries to integrate democracy into the whole process of public life, including the electoral, decision-making, management, supervision and consultation processes, all of which are different but combine to form an integral close loop.
The Whole-process people’s democracy suits China’s national conditions and contributes to the world’s endeavors. The core concept and specific design of a democratic system should be in line with the national conditions of a country and to facilitate the progress of the entire society. China chooses socialism with Chinese characteristics to guide its political development and democracy advance, gaining remarkable achievements that draw the world’s attention, adhering to the common value of humanity and driving the building of the community with a shared future for mankind. The world today is seeing active reflections and hot debates over democracy. However, which kind of democracy is good cannot be defined by a war of words or a certain country. Chinese democracy approach has then offered a "Chinese solution" for the global democratic political culture, bringing the light of freedom and aspiration to all the developing countries when it comes to the national choice of development path.
President Xi Jinping once said, "Democracy is not an ornament to be used for decoration. It is to be used to solve the problems that the people want to solve." The world should abandon ideological prejudice, communicate and learn from each other's advantages and merits, and jointly pursue high-quality democracy that can bring tangible benefits to the people. I believe by promoting the common values of humanity, we’ll achieve the goal of building a community with a shared future for mankind.
By H.E. Chao Xiaoliang, Chinese Ambassador to Samoa