China’s Foreign Ministry Speaks Out on Democracy Summit

Dec. 11, 2021 (EIRNS)—The Chinese Foreign Ministry issued a lengthy response to the “Summit for Democracy” held by the United States on Dec. 9-10. The response said that the U.S. was “turning democracy into a tool and a weapon” in efforts to “thwart democracy under the pretext of democracy, incite division and confrontation, and divert attention from its internal problems.”

The United States is trying “to preserve its hegemony over the world, and undermine the international system,” and this both “goes against the trend of the times” and “has been widely opposed by the international community.”

The main points emphasized in the comments are the following

I. The U.S. is not a “beacon of democracy.”

Numerous problems, such as “money politics, identity politics, partisanship, political polarization, social division, racial tension, and the wealth gap” are worsening, while money gains increasing power. The great majority of Congressional elections are won by the candidate with the most financial support. Although the U.S. may operate on “one person one vote” in theory, the reality is that it is “rule of a small elite.” Voters are wooed before elections and forgotten afterward. Partisan interests create a “vetocracy” that prevents national development. Gerrymandering undermines electoral fairness.

What do the American people think? Some surveys show 72% of Americans believing that democracy in the United States has not been a good example, and 81% believe that there are grave domestic threats to the future of American democracy.

Looking across the world, some 44% of those in a global survey regard the U.S. as the biggest threat to global democracy. Even 52% of respondents in the EU believe the democratic system in the United States does not function.

II. A country’s path to democracy should be chosen independently by its own people, rather than imposed from outside.

The statement insists that “whether a country is democratic or not should be decided by its own people, not by a handful of finger-pointing outsiders. A country’s democratic system and its path to democracy should be chosen independently by its own people in light of their national reality.”

This is what China does, says the Foreign Ministry. “China’s democracy is people’s democracy,” exercised under the rubric of “whole-process people’s democracy,” combining electoral democracy with consultative democracy, and covering all fields: economic, political, cultural, social, ecological and others. “It is the most broad-based, real and effective socialist democracy,” proclaims the statement.

Well-being and a happy life are of utmost importance: “With the eradication of absolute poverty, the 1.4 billion Chinese people are now marching toward common prosperity. China has made the biggest advance in individual freedom in thousands of years, and the creativity of the hundreds of millions of Chinese people has been fully unleashed.”

III. Stoking division and confrontation in the name of democracy is to backpedal in history, and will bring nothing but turmoil and disaster to the world.

The U.S. has been imposing its system and values on others, pushing for what it calls “democratic reforms” while abusing sanctions and creating “color revolutions.” In this sense, democracy has “become a ‘weapon of mass destruction’ used by the United States to interfere in other countries’ affairs.”

The statement continues:

“Since 2001 the wars and military operations waged by the United States in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria have claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, caused millions of injuries, and displaced tens of millions of people. The fiasco in Afghanistan has shown that imposing American democracy on others simply does not work.”

Attempting to use its own criteria to split the world into “democratic” and “non-democratic” camps brings division and confrontation, turmoil and disaster.

The statement concludes:

“Facing the impact of COVID-19 and major changes unseen in a century, countries have become more interconnected and interdependent. The international community needs more than ever to strengthen solidarity and cooperation based on the norms governing international relations represented by the UN Charter. China stands ready to work with all countries to promote peace, development, equity, justice, democracy and freedom, which are common values of humanity, and advance democracy in international relations. We should choose solidarity over division, dialogue over confrontation, and democracy over hegemony. We should firmly reject and oppose all forms of pseudo-democratic and anti-democratic practices and political manipulations under the cover of democracy, and make tireless efforts toward the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.”