CHINA published the report China: Democracy that Works on Saturday, outlining its “whole-process democracy” and arguing its political system is more democratic than that of the United States.

The report is seen as pre-emptive retaliation for the US “democracy summit” planned this week, which Beijing sees as a bid by Washington to ramp up the new cold war by portraying China as an authoritarian state.

“Democracy is a concrete phenomenon that is constantly evolving. Rooted in history, culture and tradition, it takes diverse forms and develops along the paths by different peoples based on their experiments and innovation… in China, the people’s status as masters of the country is the bedrock of all systems of the country,” the Chinese report states.

It outlines the various levels of popular representation in China — with people’s congresses elected at township and county level by all adult citizens, and higher congresses at provincial and national level elected by the lower congresses. 

With more than 900 million people participating in the most recent township and county elections, electing nearly 2.5 million representatives, they are the largest direct elections anywhere in the world, it says, adding that voter turnout at around 90 per cent is higher than in the US where 66 per cent voted in the last presidential election. It also outlines China’s consultative procedures for formulating policies and laws, and points to the role of “people’s supervisors” who inspect and monitor the operation of the courts.

China’s people are more satisfied than those of the US with their political system, the report argues, pointing to a 13-year Harvard University study that found 93 per cent of Chinese people expressed “overall satisfaction” with their government.