The rationale behind democracy with Chinese characteristics

Looking back over these seven decades, it is quite clear our democracy did not fall from the sky ready-made, nor is it the result of wishful thinking. 

The First Session of the First National Committee of the CPPCC was held in Beijing from September 21 to 30, 1949. 

Instead, it has grown and matured from within, nourished by our history, culture, and socio-economic development. 

In the early modern period (mid 19th to mid 20th century), the combination of an incompetent corrupt feudal dynasty and many foreign incursions gradually reduced China to the state of a semi-feudal, semi-colonial country. Over the years, differing proposals and actions were put forward by different political groups seeking to find a way out of the impasse. There were attempts at different times to set up a constitutional monarchy, a parliamentary structure, a presidential system, or a multi-party rule, but subsequently all failed. It took over a century of struggle and searching to realize that it was necessary to change the roots of the old society, that the Westernization movement, gradual reforms, old-style peasant uprisings, bourgeois democratic revolutions and imitations of Western-style political systems were all powerless before the historical task of eradicating imperialism and feudalism, and of saving the Chinese nation. None proposed a system that could bring about a strong nation with wellbeing for the people.

The first session of the First National People’s Congress (NPC) was held in Beijing from September 15 to 28, 1954. Pictured here are delegates casting their votes. 

Since its founding, the CPC has put the people’s interests at the center of its agenda. By rallying the nation around a platform of New Democratic Reforms, the CPC led the fight for independence and liberation. Since the founding of New China, the CPC has spearheaded efforts to build a socialist economy. The practical experience of the revolutionary years, and the many tasks facing it gradually led the Party to put in place a state structure of people’s democracy, represented by the National People’s Congress (NPC), together with a system of political consultation and cooperation with other political parties, and a system of autonomous regions for ethnic minority peoples. This is the basic political framework of the country which has enabled it to move into a new era of greater public participation and decision-making. After the launch of the reform and opening-up program in the late 1970s, China has found a path for political development under socialism with Chinese characteristics, where the CPC takes the leadership, with public participation in decision-making, the rule of law, and better functioning political institutions in which the democratic process takes many different forms. Chinese socialism is becoming more vibrant and richer in content with stronger public institutions.

On October 1, 1954, National Day parade passing before the Tian’anmen Rostrum with a replica of the Constitution. 

Facts clearly show that the evolution of Chinese socialism is the result of decades of struggle. Its appearance is the logical product of recent history, theory and practice, which thus gives it great vigor. It conforms to China’s national circumstances, and it is thus the only way to ensure the widest range of participation and representation by the people. 

The views don't necessarily reflect those of Qiushi Journal.