BEIJING, Nov. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — The 20th CPC National Congress report emphasized the utmost importance of advancing whole-process people’s democracy and ensuring that people run the country. People’s democracy is the lifeblood of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and it is integral to China’s efforts to build a modern socialist country in all respects.
How to understand democracy in China? According to Victor Gao, Chairman of Yale Law School Association of China, philosophically speaking, no country in the world has a monopoly on democracy. Democracy needs to work, and the only litmus test of democracy is whether it can generate tangible benefits for the people. China could not have achieved the complete and profound economic transformation over the past four decades without the Chinese people actively participating in the decision-making process.
While the CPC in China is the ruling party, everyone is encouraged to do more for the country and to offer ideas, suggestions and recommendations for improvement. If China is imagined as a car, then all the wheels of the vehicle are aligned in the same direction, moving forward in synchronization and coordination with each other.
Though being called, by some western media, a spokesperson of the Communist Party of China, Victor Gao is, in fact, not a CPC member, but a member of a democratic party of China. Gao has been consulted on numerous occasions regarding the draft reports of the government, and many government initiatives, mainly in the drafting stage. With a background as a lawyer, a banker, a private equity professional, and a professor, Gao has submitted numerous policy recommendations, some of which have been reviewed and accepted at the very highest level in China’s political system.
With an academic background in comparative politics, Gao points out that every country has the right to choose its path of development. The diversities and the unique characteristics of different countries should make humanity stronger. As for China, he believes that it is different from many other countries, especially from western countries. The only thing that matters is whether democracy with Chinese characteristics works for the fundamental interest of the Chinese people.
Gao observes that the 20th Party Congress is a re-dedication to this fundamental belief and a re-commitment to achieving comprehensive modernization of the Chinese people and achieving the dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation in the coming decades.