For-Prosperity Democratic Autocracy - An Oxymoron?

To those who have no affinity for China, or who feel that China is nothing but a obnoxious totalitarian regime, democratic autocracy must be an oxymoron term to them. How can democracy and autocracy co-exist? Are they not diametrically opposite?

Sure, that is what we have been led to believe all this while.

If China is such a monstrous state, how could tens of millions play deep-pocket tourists to all corners of the world every year? How could 90% of the population be happy with their government, based on surveys done not by their own political apparatuses but by Western think tanks? How could it progress so fast within the last twenty years? In the face of these facts and if you are still not convinced that China is doing something very right, then you must not go beyond this line to read the following, especially if you are Chinese ethnically.  

Indeed, China’s concept of for-posterity democratic autocracy or autocratic democracy can hardly be adaptable by any country or nation, hence its alienness and distantness to many. It is the final product of millennia’s brewing, infusion and filtration – feudalism, Ru teachings, fear of Dao retributions, civil wars, “barbarian” invasions, more than a century of Western and Japanese bullying and humiliation, and in the last one hundred years, Sun Yat-sen’s three principles of people-centric governance philosophy, Mao’s classless utopianism, and now the realities of the day – the West’s blatant intent to kick China to where it was a hundred years ago.

This distilled product is often described in China’s announcements and may appear rhetorical to many – if they do not want to see the truth.

Graham Allison thinks the world is now facing a Thucydides trap where two big powers – one existing and the other emerging - are fighting for supremacy. Many disagree, which I do too. It is an inevitability that is perceived by the US, certainly not by China. China has no interest to replace the US anywhere. It simply wants to give its people a better tomorrow.

In the case of Taiwan where the West are using it as a clear example of China’s aggression, the truth is simply this. It just wants the Taiwan – where the demography is no different from that the Mainland’s – to return to its fold under a one-country-two-systems framework. This one-China fact is even recognised by the US itself over its communiques.

To deter the new Xiong Nu, China must have a level of military and technology that is no inferior to the US’s.

Externally, China does not believe in intervening in any country’s internal affairs. People in countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Venezuela, or even in some of the banana regimes in Africa, must sort put things themselves – through education and exposure to the outside world. Period.

China knows its concept of governance is not exportable. There is a prerequisite for this form of governance to happen. The society’s culture must be enabling. The first word that is likely to come to many readers’ mind is perhaps “subserviency”. Subserviency maybe is the very nature of the people in this type of society – pretty low intellect, and passive and blind to leaders who lead by force, fear or with “divine” or religious calling cards.

Is that true? It is certainly not a new political philosophy. Lee Kuan Yew had led Singapore for many years with exactly this form of statecraft. And Singaporeans are amongst the smartest people even by the First World standards. East Asians – Koreans, Japanese and Vietnamese – besides Chinese – are culturally enabling for this political system to take roots; however, many have succumbed to the Western concept of democracy and there is hardly any possibility that countries like South Korea or Japan can reverse gear now.

The philosophy behind a “mission” of this nature must be genuine. Leaders and citizens make decisions based on the long-term interests of future generations, not just the next four or five years of a leader’s political mandate. The execution takes into the need for sustainable policies that can benefit not only the present but also the future generations and they centre around the economy, the environment and the society, ensuring that the welfare of generations is not compromised by the actions of the present generation. Transparency, accountability and participation are all parts and parcels of the governance process.

This may sound all very utopian. But China is indeed practising it. When Xi took his oath to begin his third term in office, he swore to uphold the Constitution and rule of law and sustain China as a strong, democratic, harmonious, modern, socialist and beautiful nation.

What Xi has said may sound rhetorical to many. But he is indeed leading the country to achieve these goals.

Militarily, China is a country that is being encircled by the US and its allies now. And on the technologically front, the latter are strangulating China with chipmaking machines. China must fend for itself. Without the resolve – with its very own form of system – China will surely yield under another era of Western suppression.   

The US, hitherto a beacon of hope, has bastardized democracy and free trade. And it still thinks its very liberal but chaotic democracy is a supermodel that the world must follow. God bless America.