China fully elaborates political democracy for first time

The Chinese government on Wednesday gave a detailed account of its political democracy, saying it conformed with the country's actual conditions and would be continued in the future.

"The white paper elucidates both China's perspective on democracy and its practice in a detailed and systematic manner," said Fang Ning, vice president of the Institute of Politics under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, during an exclusive interview with Xinhua.

The Information Office of China's State Council issued here Wednesday a white paper titled "Building of Political Democracy in China", offering a detailed account of the inception, development, content and principles of the country's political democracy.

It also mentioned the problems China has to overcome in its practice and the major steps to be taken in future reforms.

Fang, one of the main drafters of the white paper, said that compared with other white papers, the paper had the "longest time for preparation and largest expert team" and was "richest in content".

The drafting process of the 32,000-plus word white paper lasted more than one year, for which a number of government departments and more than 100 experts and scholars gave their wisdom and help.

"It's accurate and authoritative," he said.

Fang said the leading position of the Communist Party of China (CPC) is a choice by both history and the Chinese people, which has answered the objective requirement of the incessant development and progress of modern China and worked as the fundamental guarantee to that effect.

The CPC's leading and ruling roles in China have echoed the national need of promoting socialist modernization in China and realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, he said.

"It is also in line with the need of uniting all the Chinese people to march toward a beautiful future," he said. "China's democracy has proved to be rather effective in arousing and motivating people's enthusiasm and creativity and focusing the country's resources on modernization."

According to the scholar, China's current democratic system has safeguarded the execution of the long-term strategies and continuous policies which are badly needed for the country's development.

In the white paper, the Chinese government frankly admitted that despite the achievements scored, there are flaws in the democratic system, an incomplete realization of people's rights and discounted implementation of laws.

At the same time, "bureaucracy and corruption still exist and are spreading in some departments and localities," it said.

Fang said China's political system has undergone unswerving in-depth reforms at the same rate of its economy, which has helped promote and safeguard China's economic and social development.

"It's totally unbelievable for an economy to develop at an annual growth rate of over 9 percent for more than 20 consecutive years without support from political democracy," he said.

In the past three years, China had adopted or revamped more than 30 documents, decisions and law codes or regulations in order to improve its democracy.

The reason that some Western media have long held bias against China is that they only judge the country's democracy by their own criteria and turn blind eyes to its peculiar history, said Fang.

In the history of human political civilization there has never existed a unmatched, universal or absolute democracy pattern, acknowledged Fang.

According to the white paper, a democracy could be a good one if only it reflected the will, rights and legitimate interests of of the masses of people.

"Such a view is both a description of China's perspective of democracy and a conclusion reached by the CPC, the Chinese government and the Chinese people after a long-time of practice," said Fang.

The white paper said China will adhere to principles such as upholding the unity of the leadership of the CPC, being conducive to social stability, economic growth and continuous improvement of the people's life and being in accord with the objective law of progress step by step and in an orderly way.

"These principles are completely comply with China's realities and will certainly reap fruitful results in a process of democratic construction," Fang said.

Source: Xinhua