Yesterday, for the first time in history, the Information Office of China's State Council issued a whitepaper on political democracy, titled Building of Political Democracy in China. A noteworthy recurring theme in this 12-part whitepaper is the claim that the type of socialist political democracy that China has, “enables people in China to become masters of their own country and society, and enjoy extensive democratic rights.” However, it is “only under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) did they really win the right to be masters of the state.” The whitepaper stresses the importance of cultural relativism when considering the appropriate type of political democracy for China.
The whitepaper further sets out the following principles that China will follow in building political democracy:
- Upholding the unity of the leadership of the CPC, the people being the masters of the country and ruling the country by law.
- Giving play to the characteristics and advantages of the socialist system.
- Being conducive to social stability, economic development and continuous improvement of the people's life.
- Facilitating the safeguarding of national sovereignty, territorial integrity and state dignity.
- Being in accord with the objective law of progress step by step and in an orderly way.
Regarding judicial democracy, it underlines the Party’s commitment to the rule of law. The paper acknowledges and identifies the strengths and weaknesses of its system such as the call for open trials as prescribed in the Chinese Constitution and relevant laws. Dovetail with the strong commitment to the rule of law are impressive statistics such as “in 2004, procuratorial organs turned down requests for arrest warrants in 68,676 cases, reversed prosecution decisions in 26,994 cases, corrected 2,699 cases that had been improperly placed on file by investigation organs, allowed appeals in 3,063 criminal cases and 13,218 civil administrative judgments, demanded retrials in 4,333 cases, placed 5,569 criminal appeal cases on file for re-investigation, and changed 786 original decisions.”
The paper points out areas that the CPC must improve to achieve political democracy. The major ones include: “the democratic system is not yet perfect; the people's right to manage state and social affairs, economic and cultural undertakings as masters of the country in a socialist market economy are not yet fully realized; laws that have already been enacted are sometimes not fully observed or enforced, and violations of the law sometimes go unpunished; bureaucracy and corruption still exist and spread in some departments and localities; the mechanism of restraint and supervision over the use of power needs further improvement; the concept of democracy and legal awareness of the whole society needs to be further enhanced; and the political participation of citizens in an orderly way should be expanded.”
Back in September, the Chinese version of American Idol sponsored by Mongolian Cow Sour Yogurt created much uproar. Li YuChun, the “Mongolian Cow Sour Yogurt Super Girl” was popularly elected by eight million voters sending in their text messages. Li, is far from the typical beauty that is featured in the Party’s propaganda, she even looks a bit boyish and lanky. There was rumor that she is a lesbian. After the election, China Daily commented on the result saying, “How come an imitation of a democratic system ends up selecting the singer who has the least ability to carry a tune?" It is questionable that contest of this genre will continue in the future.
All in all, this whitepaper on democracy building is an encouraging and exciting sign to show that the government is becoming more transparent and accountable. It remains yet to be seen if the commitment to the principles set forth in the paper will endure the subculture of “guanxi” and self-interests among other things. Perhaps a good indicator is whether there will be a popularly elected Mongolian Cow Sour Yogurt Super Girl in 2006.
CyberStrategy for the PRC, follow image, do not fight it, embrace it, these are your people.
Posted by: charles nesson | October 20, 2005 at 06:30 PM