Thread: When I tell people that a lot of ppl in China feel their opinions and desires are heard by the government, they look at me like I’ve had a brain aneurism. But there are very good reasons why they feel that way. Here I will attempt to provide some context on that.
1/ The Chinese government is well known for its extensive use of polls and data. Gov agencies & state news networks constantly monitor public opinion via platforms like Weibo. WashPo wrote abt it in 2013, and the focus on it only increased since.
washingtonpost.com
washingtonpost.com
2/ Even when posts are censored, it doesn’t mean the public discontent isn’t picked up by the gov. In fact there’ve been successes of changing policy directions like this below. It’s also worked when people protested projects that cause too much pollution.
theguardian.com
theguardian.com
3/ On top of that many gov agencies have open public opinion boards online. People can leave comments directly for the State Council, and get responses. Similar things exist at local levels too. The central gov wants to know what ppl are thinking of the policies.
4/ When China’s legislative sessions are held meet in March every year, it is widely discussed online. Search for topics on 两会 (“the two sessions”) on Weibo, the twitter equivalent, the ones moderated by CCTV & China Daily got 12B/11.6B views & 4.8M/9.5M comments respectively.
5/ Very few people outside of China knows that China’s legislative branch has two separate bodies: the National People’s Congress (NPC) and The Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). Difference is simple, CPPCC consults and NPC legislates.
6/ Even fewer knows that PRC gov is technically a multi-party coalition: NPC members are 2/3 CPC 1/3 Democratic United Front & independents; CPPCC national committee is <5% CPC, 20% United Front & Indies, 15% gov affiliated orgs & unions, and 60% reps fm different industries.
7/ As a result many members of academia, press, arts & sports, regular folks, ethnic minorities participate, representing a broad spectrum of political leanings and social/economic point-of-view. It is much more representative of people across the nation than ppl outside think.
8/ 1 celebrity among them is Feng Gong, a beloved comedian and actor, great grandson of RoC Vice President Feng Guozhang. He’s a member of the Revolutionary Committee Of the Chinese KMT party (RCCK), a left wing faction of KMT that broke off. He’s very non-CPC to say the least.
9/ Members of the United Front have held/do hold relatively high positions in PRC gov as well, such as deputy governor/mayor of important provinces/cities like Beijing/Shanghai/Jiangsu, or even Vice President (Song Qinglin in 60’s) or current NPC Vice Chair in RCCK’s case.
10/ Of course CPC is the majority party & dominant element, but other voices are represented. I personally know several ppl from academia and industry who want to be politically active but don’t fully align ideologically with CPC, and opted to join 1 of the United Front parties.
11/ All in all, CN’s gov values public opinion much more and represents different sections of the society much better than it is given credit for. The central gov is competent & deals w/ ineffective local officials quickly. So it’s no wonder ppl approve.
news.harvard.edu
news.harvard.edu
12/ Google Translated Wikipedia pages showing relational and national leadership positions held by 4 of the 8 democratic parties. (Shown in earlier tweets in Chinese)
13/ Additional info: all 4 directly administered cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Chongqing) have democratic party members as deputy mayors. 8 of China’s 10 provinces w/ GDP also have democratic party members as deputy governors.
1 piece of anecdotal information about political representation in PRC. The 5 stars on the PRC flag, center big one = CPC, the surrounding 4 = workers class, peasantry, urban petite bourgeois, the national capitalist class. The representation always has been a feature not a bug.
1 more piece of context: NPC reps are elected, by popular votes at county level and by proxy at provincial/national level. CPPCC reps are recommended by the participating orgs and industries. For NPC, the biggest challenge is ppl running unopposed, same as US local elections.
@Phileas63849676 Beyond that, you totally missed the point of the thread. No one is saying that China is the “shining city upon the hill” in terms of democratic values. The point is, democracy isn’t a binary, and contrary to popular misconception, China’s system is at least somewhat democratic.
@Phileas63849676 I think my thread also lays out pretty clearly that CN’s system is not a 1 person dictatorship. Yes CPC is the perpetual majority party and there’s problems with that but all I’m trying to say is that wide groups of ppl in CN do have representation & participation in politics.
@Phileas63849676 Whether that representation is self-serving to the CPC for long term stability or if they truly believe in it, we are both speculating here. But the fact is that it’s there. If ppl want to change the CPC, this system provides a better pathway than a violent color revolution IMO
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