Why China's 'people's democracy' is a high-quality democracy

Democracy, ultimately, is whether the people can truly be the masters of their own country. The whole process of people's democracy created by the Communist Party of China (CPC) has secured extraordinary historical achievements on behalf of its people.

This year marks the 100th birthday of the CPC. Over the past century, the Party has led the people in realising people's democracy in China.

The Chinese people now are truly the masters of their country, their society and their own destiny.

Long before China's victory in the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, Mao Zedong said that China had found a new path when he was confronted with the question of whether China could break out of "the law of historical cycle". This new road is democracy.

Especially since the 18th National Congress of the CPC in 2012, the Party Central Committee has put forward the major concept of whole-process people's democracy and vigorously promoted it, further transforming the relevant democratic values into effective institutional arrangements as well as concrete and realistic democratic practices.

Whole-process people's democracy includes democratic elections, consultations, decision-making, management, and oversight. It integrates process-oriented democracy with results-oriented democracy, procedural democracy with substantive democracy, direct democracy with indirect democracy, and people's democracy with the will of the state. It is a model of socialist democracy that covers all aspects of the democratic process and all sectors of society.

But what happens in some western countries is quite contrary.

If the people are awakened only to cast a vote but become dormant afterwards, that is no true democracy. If the people are offered great hopes during electoral campaigning but have no say afterwards, that is no true democracy. If the people are offered fulsome promises during electoral canvassing but are left empty-handed afterwards, that is no true democracy.

Take an example of the community-level election in China. According to the Constitution, all citizens over the age of 18 have the right to vote and to be elected, except for those who are deprived of their political rights in accordance with law. Currently, China is conducting general elections for the people's congresses at the township and county levels, with more than 1 billion voters participating in the elections.

These elections at the grassroots level are the most extensive and vivid practices of whole-process people's democracy, and also the largest elections in the world. Since the reform and opening up, China has conducted 12 direct elections to people's congresses at the township level and 11 direct elections at the county level. The voter participation rate has remained as high as around 90 per cent. All these elections are funded by the state treasury, which effectively ensures that money cannot get its hands on the elections.

During the drafting stage of the 14th Five-Year Plan, General Secretary Xi Jinping chaired a number of seminars with representatives and experts in various fields, to hear their opinions and suggestions. More than 1000 suggestions were collated from a pool of some one million online messages. The drafting group analysed them item by item, took them all into consideration, and accepted all pertinent suggestions.

Democracy is not a one-size-fits-all product that has only one model or configuration for the whole world. Whether a country is democratic or not should only be judged by its own people.

There is no best democracy, only better.

China never exports a democratic model. We believe that every country has the right to choose a democratic system that suits its own national conditions.

History has repeatedly proven that it is not feasible for China to copy the political systems of other countries, since those systems are not suited to our national conditions.

Any attempt like this would at best lead to poor imitation, and might even ruin the country's future.

We should adopt an attitude of inclusiveness, learn from the strengths of others, digest and absorb them in the light of China's national conditions, so that we can turn them into our own strength, better ensuring that the Chinese people are the true masters of the country.