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China has launched a PR campaign to overthrow the US political system with the aim of overturning the global narrative of what democracy is all about, as US President Joe Biden prepares to open the US Summit on Democracy this week.
China and Russia were left out of the guest list for the virtual event on December 9 and 10.
But after being accused of being sidelined together in a strange OpEd, Beijing now seems to be on the attack.
On Saturday, the powerful Council of State convened an International Forum on China on a similar issue on democracy.
Although China is known as a one-party state led by the Chinese Communist Party, the country has its own legislature. The National People’s Congress It has nearly 3,000 members elected from China’s regions and provinces, as well as from the armed forces, most of whom are party members. Rejected by critics as a “rubber stamp parliament,” all members of the NPC meet once a year, and most decisions are taken by smaller standing committees.
The country has no free media or independent judiciary; both are generally seen as essential to the proper functioning of democracy.
The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index described China as an “authoritarian regime” and ranked 151 of 167 countries and territories by 2020. The semi-autonomous city of Hong Kong was declared a “hybrid regime”. The ranking assesses a country’s democracy based on five categories: the electoral process and pluralism, civil liberties, the functioning of government, political participation, and political culture. The rankings called the U.S. a “democracy flaw.”
José L. Centella Gómez, President of the Spanish Communist Party, and Yukio Hatoyama, former Prime Minister of Japan, spoke about the common values of different social systems, including the Chinese state channel CGTN. according to.
“Motivation, from their perception and point of view, is to present what they see as an alternative interpretation of democracy. It is a story about the development of connectivity and capacity for economic development, ”said Tai Wei-lim, an assistant researcher at the National University of East Asia in Singapore, citing major infrastructure projects such as the Belt and Road Initiative.
The summit and a blitz on Chinese social media and officials on Twitter are just one way China Biden is trying to backtrack on its narrative of democracy as China tries to present itself as a true multilateral agent, says Wen-ti Sung. one. Professor of Taiwan Study Program at the National University of Australia.
Oh, we had such participation and satisfaction rates during the Soviet era! But at least then they didn’t call it democracy … https://t.co/0zdRf9QDtS
– Diana Mickeviciene (@DMickeviciene) December 5, 2021
#GTGraphic: Why Chinese #democracy Is democracy broader, more authentic, and more effective than American democracy?
See the chart for more: pic.twitter.com/Zmh3RznsgL– Global Times (@globaltimesnews) December 4, 2021
In the Trump administration, like the White House taken from major global initiativessuch as the Paris agreement on climate change, and threatened it Leave the World Health Organization, China portrayed itself as a global and multilateral leader, unlike the US.
“Big Tent Approach”
In contrast, Biden, who took office in January, has often spoken out about the struggle between democracy and authoritarianism – a major topic at this week’s democracy summit.
Representatives from 111 countries, including Norway, New Zealand and Canada, were invited to be among the top five in the EIU’s Democracy Index.
The guest list also includes “several states with authoritarian characteristics,” according to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The three participating countries — Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and Iraq — are considered “not free” by Freedom House in its 2021 Freedom in the World report, and another 31 are considered “partially free”.
“Instead of limiting participation to a major group of committed democracies, Biden’s team chose the big tent approach,” Carnegi said.
In his remarks, China Biden is trying to “dilute, redefine and weaken” its efforts to use U.S. ideology as a hub for global dialogue, Sung said. “He is not directly confronting the West or his narrative, but he is trying to make room for his definition and credible denial.” China can interpret the concepts as it sees fit.
However, not all of China’s signs of Western democracy have been so subtle.
Shortly after announcing the U.S. Summit for Democracy in late November, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said that democracy is a “disastrous state” that has “privatized” democratic values in the United States.
On Sunday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry released a critical report on the state of democracy in the United States, stating that not a single “measure” should be used to “measure the various political systems in the world.”
– Hua Chunying 华春莹 (@SpokespersonCHN) December 6, 2021
With the release of the report and a renewed critique of the US model, China likely told other countries attending the US summit on Thursday that it needed to back down on US ideology, and that it could be in danger, as could China. claims.
The US summit will go hand in hand with a new round of sanctions against organizations and individuals who “weaken” democracy and violate human rights, according to Reuters. Officials accuse him of participating in repression in a remote western region Xinjiang and Hong Kong They have already been punished by China anger.
“We know that many of the participants in the upcoming summit are democracy with an asterisk, so to speak, so China is trying to remind these marginalized democracies that you may have much more in common with China than with the United States.” Sung from ANU said.
He said China’s message to the whole world was: you too, or try to soften the language, because it is not only in China’s interest, but in your interest. ‘
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