Bird's-Eye View

I wanted to excerpt a few lines from the article posted in the previous update to illustrate some broad points about the current debate on democracy and political development in China. I'm no expert, but one thing I have found is that the debate is somewhat richer than I would have guessed before coming here and far richer than most people imagine when they think of the authoritarian Chinese government. This isn't to say or pretend that these conversations take place in a free society, but the discussion even within CCP bounds is fairly interesting.

Anyway, a few quotes from Prof. Yu with my brief comments.

1. "But elections, separation of powers, oversight, participation, consultation and the rule of law can have many forms." (但选举、分权、监督、参与、协商、法治可以有许多形式。)

As Westerners, the above statement leads us to ask whether the author simply needs an out - i.e. some other definition of "democracy" where true liberal democracy is still impossible - or whether our own thinking might indeed be too narrow. I would tend toward the former. Also a benign acknowledgment that democracy varies in the particulars from country to country.

What does an alternative form of rule of law look like? Separation of powers? Elections?

2. "Democratic government is the joint achievement and universal value of mankind's political civilization, and has common essentials." (民主政治是人类政治文明的共同成果和普遍价值，有着共同的要素。)

We (Americans) often are quite willing to talk about the "universal value" part without acknowledging any "joint achievement," or the need for each society to legitimize its government in its own way. But of course according to the CCP China has enjoyed democratic government for decades under a system completely opposed to liberal democracy, and speaking of democracy as in part a Chinese achievement is more natural.

3. "Indirect rule is inseparable from elections. To date, humankind has found no other, better method to replace the electoral style in selecting those officials who can best represent the people's interest and genuinely be responsible for the people." (间接统治就离不开选举。人类到现在还没有找到另外一个更好的办法，来代替选举的形式，把最能代表人民利益并真正对人民负责的官员选出来。)

An interesting admission that I imagine few would guess had been spoken by a CCP official, rural village elections notwithstanding. Still, it gives a primacy to elections that I didn't expect.

4. "At the same time one must soberly see that the proposition of "using party democracy to spur social democracy" itself signifies that party democracy is not the fundamental goal of Chinese democracy, that only democracy of the people is the ultimate objective." (同时必须清醒地看到，“以党内民主带动社会民主”，这一命题本身就意味着，党内民主不是中国民主政治的根本目标，人民民主才是最终目标。)

To my mind this is the most substantive quote in the piece. There has been much talk of expanding "inner-party democracy" to better regulate and police Chinese officialdom. Here Yu goes on to state flat-out that a more popular "social democracy" cannot be put off simply by the achievement of reforms within the government. The means of government must themselves be reformed, eventually, and the final goal is something fundamentally different from what currently exists.

Democracy vs. Development - Introduction

A classic issue in the study of Chinese politics is the "governing bargain" made between the Communist Party and the Chinese people. In short, the idea is that the government will offer prolonged economic growth and improvement of living standards in exchange for an effective monopoly on political power. As the Carnegie Endowment for Int'l Peace puts it on their China summary page:

"China continues to defy the oft-repeated belief that economic openness leads to political liberalization, and combines an open, robust economy with one-party rule that appears durable for the near future. Having staked its legitimacy on its ability to deliver continued growth and stability, however, China must balance the paramount importance of economic expansion with its growing role in international affairs..."

As the quote points out, this bargain implicitly risks the perceived legitimacy of the government by putting such heavy focus on economic factors beyond its immediate control. On the other hand, the CCP has a sixty year history of rule, and builds its legitimacy from many sources including resistance to Japan and the West, China's increasing international prestige and effective if not liberal-democratic rule.

As the severity of the current crisis has become clear, many have predicted that the CCP will face greater and greater challenges, perhaps directly to its authority or at least to overall societal stability. One scholar and official, however, has taken the crisis as an opportunity to make his case for political reforms in China and a closer relationship between democracy and governmental legitimacy. Yu Keping is a professor at Peking University and current deputy chief of the Central Compilation and Translation Bureau. He offered the following article last week, published on the official state media outlet, Xinhua. I've translated it in full, but if you can read Chinese please check out the original here.

Download the translation.

Please post any thoughts below. I'll comment further on what I found specifically interesting in my next post.

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Welcome to my new blog. The intent of Observations is to record and discuss democracy as it is theorized, envisioned and practiced throughout Greater China. This blog is in no way intended to advocate for specific policy changes or political actions within China, but rather will be from a solely academic point of view in line with my work as a political science student.

I chose the title to reflect that intent. One issue which I often encounter is an underestimation of China's governmental and civic complexity. Trying to understand it is a large enough job, much less presuming that I have all the answers. In that spirit I'd ask readers and commenters to focus on the what, how and why of popular rule as it exists in China, rather than as we might wish it to be.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you find it useful.