Making New Contributions to Political Advancement of Humanity

To advance the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts through Chinese modernization, we must not only build China into a great modern socialist country, but also revitalize Chinese civilization as part of the drive for national rejuvenation. At a ceremony marking the centenary of the CPC in 2021, President Xi Jinping declared to both domestic and international audiences, "As we have upheld and developed socialism with Chinese characteristics and driven coordinated progress in material, political, cultural-ethical, social, and ecological terms, we have pioneered a new and uniquely Chinese path to modernization, and created a new model for human advancement."

Under the CPC’s strong leadership and sound guidance, China has not chosen to follow the old path of Western countries in pursuing modernization. Instead, we have forged a uniquely Chinese modernization path. Similarly, in developing socialist democracy, China has not opted to simply copy Western democratic models. Rather, we have cultivated a new type of political advancement in the form of Chinese-style democracy. As President Xi has noted, it has been proved in practice that Chinese modernization is both viable and sustainable; it is, in fact, the only correct path open to us for building a strong country and realizing national rejuvenation. It has likewise been proven in practice that through a century of exploration, the CPC has successfully forged and steadfastly followed a path of socialist political advancement with Chinese characteristics. In China, Chinese-style democracy has proven to be both feasible and highly effective. 

In November 2022, during a meeting with US President Joe Biden in Bali, Indonesia, President Xi stated, “Freedom, democracy, and human rights are the shared aspirations of humanity. They are also an unwavering pursuit of the Communist Party of China. The United States has American-style democracy, and China has Chinese-style democracy, both of which align with the respective national conditions of each country. The whole-process people’s democracy we practice in China is rooted in our country’s national conditions, its history, and its culture. It reflects the will of our people, and we, like you, take great pride in our system. No democratic system is perfect or without flaws; all require continuous development and refinement. Any specific differences between our two sides can be worked out through discussion on the basis of equality. The so-called ‘democracy vs. Authoritarianism’ narrative is not the defining feature of our world today, still less does it represent the trend of our times.” 

With a unique culture, a unique history, and unique underlying conditions, it was inevitable that China would choose to follow a development path suited to its characteristics. President Xi’s eight criteria for evaluating whether a country’s political system is democratic and effective and his four-point framework to determine if a country is genuinely democratic and whether the people truly run the country offer a sound and systematic elaboration of the uniqueness, advantages, and viability of China’s socialist democracy and the path of socialist political advancement with Chinese characteristics.

Among a country’s various systems, the political system plays a particularly pivotal role. President Xi has emphasized that to boost confidence in the system of Chinese socialism, we must first maintain our confidence in the Chinese socialist political system and enhance our confidence and determination in following the Chinese socialist path of political advancement. In recent times, Western democratic theories and practices have faced repeated setbacks, resulting in growing skepticism and challenges from all quarters. Against this backdrop, continually advancing the development of socialist democratic theory and creating new forms of democratic governance holds positive significance not only for our own country’s political development, but even more so for the political advancement of humanity as a whole.

Editor:Yi Xiaowei