Democracy in China? Be careful what you wish for
Democratization would upgrade China’s political power and credibility in the international community. The United States and the European Union would forego the leverage of confronting China about its policies, as China’s laws would be the result of a popularly elected government.
New problems, which could destabilize democracy, might appear. For example, would Tibet and Xinjiang attempt to breakaway? How would privatization of state firms and redistribution of land proceed? What would North Korea do in the midst of losing its only ally? If Chinese democracy could not meet growth rates of authoritarian China, how would the Chinese public react?
Like Western-style democracies, a democratic China may repudiate its non-interventionist doctrine and be more assertive in pursuit of its interests. How would the United States react to a Chinese “coalition of the willing”? Democratic or not, China would still depend on a growing amount of natural resources and territorial disputes in the South China Sea would continue to disrupt regional security.
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Heh. Tell Taiwan about the ChiCom’s non-interventionist policy.
davidk on November 23, 2012 at 9:09 PM
I hate to pop anyone’s bubble but China is a democracy right now. Majority rules. The only dispute is how to advance the Party.
Interestingly enough, private property rights have already been restored to the people. There is no such thing as eminent domain, unlike our country. You can vote for anybody you want but they are all members of the Party.
If Mao were still alive, he’d likely be in a Chinese prison. That’s how far China has moved from the Cultural Revolution. Is there freedom of speech? Sure, as long as you don’t try to hurt the Party with your speech.
China is about to move into first place in the capitalist arena. And we will have let them do it, if not actually helping them by being so arrogant. In less than five years, China will back the yuan with gold which will end the dollar being the world’s reserve currency. We will just be a big fat Greece and we can thank Bernanke and Boehner for it. Not Jugears who wishes he was as important as he dreams his daddy was.
platypus on November 23, 2012 at 9:10 PM
Can’t find anything about Jan Hornat through Google. Other than being “a researcher in the Department of American Studies at Charles University in Prague” what has she done? Is she a recent graduate?
And if she is an expert in America stuff what are her creds concerning China.
I think she betrays her opinion towards America. “America is x; therefore, a democratic China would be x.”
davidk on November 23, 2012 at 9:17 PM
- just like in the ME, a “democracy” will usher in an era of peace, China would take the US’ position on human rights and they would definitely adhere to the rule of law.
Yep.
Yep, ELIMINATE the threat of military confrontation. uh huh.
Yep, the first example of an international actor FAILING to act exemplary is – THE UNITED STATES. Who WOULDN’T ratify the ICC or LOST ? I mean, c’mon.
williampeck1958 on November 23, 2012 at 9:22 PM
China would be stupid to go with a western style democracy… western style democracy is way too easy to hijack against the interest of their own people.
ninjapirate on November 23, 2012 at 9:38 PM
Democracy, Rule of the MOB. Nothing could go wrong with that…
astonerii on November 23, 2012 at 9:42 PM
Stupid article written by a european with nothing of substance to add.
The only real benefit to a democratic china is that it will be less likely to openly start wars of aggression because the people don’t put “national pride” as their #1 goal like the communists do. people actually care about their economic welfare 1st.
This stupid author doesn’t address this. All he says is it isn’t a panacea (no duh). Of course China will still be an annoying, nationalistic bully.
kaltes on November 23, 2012 at 9:44 PM
Pure Democracy would be better than our decadent theatreocracy that masquerades as a democratic republic.
The best political system would be a technocratic democracy with limited suffrage… and quite honestly China is coming close to that.
ninjapirate on November 23, 2012 at 9:49 PM
If China was smart they would go to a system like ours, a Federal presidential constitutional republic using the two-party system, BUT with some important changes to their constitution compared to ours.
(1) Term limits on all elected officials
(2) Term limits on all federal judges
(3) Line-item veto for the president
(4) Ban all public service unions
(5) All budgets must be balanced except during war
Those are just some of things which I think would improve our government. I know people have major problems with our form of government right now, including me, but it is still the best compared to the European parliamentary systems that infected the world, and to all the totalitarian systems used, including the Chinese government.
William Eaton on November 23, 2012 at 10:04 PM
Axl Rose thinks Chinese Democracy is a great idea.
john1schn on November 23, 2012 at 10:32 PM
ZING!
BallisticBob on November 23, 2012 at 11:39 PM
So much like the US, but on a more local scale.
DarkCurrent on November 24, 2012 at 10:57 AM