China yesterday issued its first ever white paper on democracy, indicating that it was not prepared to compromise at all on the Communist Party's dominance over the political system.
The paper, "Building of Political Democracy in China," dedicated many of its 74 pages to explaining why rule by the Communist Party of China (CPC) was good for the nation's 1.3 billion people.
"China's democracy is a people's democracy under the leadership of the CPC," it said. "The leadership of the CPC is a fundamental guarantee for the Chinese people to be masters in managing the affairs of their own country."
While mostly backward-looking, listing what it argued were past achievements, the white paper also suggested that the CPC would be in charge for a long time to come.
"The CPC's leadership and rule is needed for uniting hundreds of millions of people to work in concerted efforts in building a beautiful future," it said.
Foreign and local critics routinely lambast China for doing too little to bring about political reform to match the economic changes that have taken place in the past quarter-century.
China's response is usually that social stability is of paramount importance, and it made the same argument in yesterday's document.
"Without social stability, smooth economic development cannot be expected," it said.
It described China's political system as "the people's democ-ratic dictatorship."
"Criminal activities, such as sabotage of the socialist system, endangering state security and public security ... are penalized according to law," it said.
The paper was issued a day after US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, currently on a visit to China, became the latest foreign politician to express his views on the nation's political development.
"Obviously, those of us in the United States and in other countries around the world hope that they make choices towards a more open society," he said.
"But obviously it is up to the People's Republic of China to make its decisions as to how it wants to arrange itself from a political, economic and security standpoint. But as they make those decisions, the rest of the world sees those decisions and makes judgements about it," the Pentagon chief said.
The white paper reiterated the Chinese argument that each country should pick its own road toward democracy.
"Because situations differ from one country to another, the paths the people of different countries take to win and develop democracy are different," it said.
China's path is one of "socialist democracy with its own characteristics," which has "realized the Chinese people's demand to be masters of their own country," the white paper said.
Direct elections -- a key feature of Western democracies -- are accorded little importance in China and the white paper seemed to reflect this. It allocated little more than six pages to describe the Chinese system of elections, which only take place at grassroots levels.
"China's democratic system has been continuously improved and the forms of democracy are becoming more varied," it said. "The people are exercising fully their rights to be masters of the state."
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