China claims to have a ‘functioning democracy’ before the Biden conference | Political Issues
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China has launched a PR campaign to cover the global democratic process in an attempt to overthrow politics in the United States, as US President Joe Biden prepares to open his US Democracy Summit later this week.
China and Russia were left out of the guest list at the event, which will take place on December 9 and 10.
But after protesting their joint removal from the missing OpEd, Beijing now seems to be starting to get frustrated.
On Saturday, China participated in an international democratic conference where the powerful State Council released a white paper called China: Democracy That Works, which describes China’s democratic process.
Although China is known as a one-party state led by the China Communist Party, the country has its own parliament. The National People’s Congress has about 3,000 members elected from the provinces and territories of China as well as the military, most of them party members. Dismissed as a “rubber parliamentary” by the opposition, all NPC members meet once a year, with many decisions being made by a very small committee.
The country has no free media or independent courts – all of which are regarded as essential to the success of democracy.
The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index ranks China, which has described it as “sovereign state”, 151 of the 167 states and territories of 2020. Hong Kong’s autonomous city is called “mixed power”. These roles evaluate national democracy based on five categories: electoral process and demographics, human rights, governance, political participation and cultural identity. The authors called the US a “wrong democracy”.
China’s democratic conference also included a long list of attendees including José L. Centella Gómez, President of the Communist Party of Spain, and former Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who spoke of the sharing of similarities between different cultural practices, according to a reporter. of China CGTN.
“The motivation, in terms of their perceptions and perspectives, is to present what they see as another definition of democracy. citing major construction projects such as the Belt and Road Initiative.
The conference and its TV appearances on Twitter by Chinese journalists and officials are the only way China is trying to push back Biden’s democratically charged story as China tries to portray itself as a true multilateral player, says Wen-ti Sung, a. Lecturer in Australia National University’s Taiwan Studies Program.
Oh, we had such an interest and satisfaction in Soviet times! But he probably did not mention democracy at that time … https://t.co/0zdRf9QDtS
Diana Mickeviciene (@DMickeviciene) December 5, 2021
#GTGraphic: Because Chinese #demokalase is more, more real and effective than American democracy?
See pictures for more information: pic.twitter.com/Zmh3RznsgL– Global Times (@globaltimesnews) December 4, 2021
During the Trump administration, such as the White House departed from major international events, such as the Paris agreement on climate change, is a threat leaving the World Health Organization, China has established itself as a world leader, diverse, unlike the US.
‘The Tent of the Tent’
In contrast, Biden, who took office in January, frequently spoke out against the struggle for democracy and tyranny – a major theme of the democratic conference this week.
Delegates from 111 countries were invited, including Norway, New Zealand and Canada, all of which were among the top five in the EIU’s Democracy Index.
The visitor list also includes “several governments with administrative systems”, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said. The three participating countries – Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Iraq – are considered “Unrestrained” in the 2021 World House House report, while 31 others are considered “slightly free”.
“Instead of limiting our participation in a large group of dedicated democracies, the Biden group opted for a larger tent system,” Carnegie said.
In doing so, China is trying to “reduce, re-translate and undermine Biden’s efforts” to use US ideas as a platform for international dialogue, Sung said. “It is not in direct contact with the West or its subjects, but it is trying to find its own meaning and clear criticism” so that China can interpret the ideas as it pleases.
Not everything China has shown about western democracy has been very secretive, however.
Shortly after the US-led summit was announced in late November, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin called the US democracy a “dangerous world” that “established” the principles of democracy.
On Sunday, China’s Foreign Ministry released a controversial report on democracy in the US, which also said that a single “cord” should not be used to “test the various forms of politics in the world”.
– Hua Chunying 华春莹 (@SpokespersonCHN) December 6, 2021
With the release of the report and the new US national opposition, China is likely to signal other countries heading to the US summit on Thursday to return to criticizing US views – and could be at risk, such as China. statements.
The US summit should be accompanied by new sanctions from the US Treasury on organizations and individuals who “violate democracy” and violate human rights, according to Reuters. Officials accused of involvement in terrorism in the remote western part of Xinjiang and Hong Kong have already been given sanctions which China has responded to anger.
“We know that the majority of participants in the upcoming conference are stellar democracy, so to speak, so China is trying to remind foreign democrats that there may be more similarities with China than in the US,” ANU’s Sung said.
He also quoted China’s message to the world as follows: “When a democratic conference tries to come up with any opposition language that tries to make China look bad, you probably should not sign too much because it could hurt. you too, or try to simplify the language because it depends not only on China, but on your interests. ”
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