Why Chinese Democracy is Better than Western Democracy According to Tsinghua Prof. Yan Yilong

"Let the light of Chinese democracy shine even brighter, so that China can ... contribute to the building of a better, higher quality [form of] democracy for humanity in the 21st century."

Dear Everyone,

Democracy is yet another field in which Beijing is competing with Washington and, more generally, with the West. China’s aim may not be to convince others to adopt its political system per se, but it certainly appears intent on demonstrating that Chinese “democracy” is superior to what the West has to offer.

This was once again evident at an event organised by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) in March, just days before U.S. President Joe Biden co-hosted his second virtual “Summit for Democracy” alongside the governments of Costa Rica, the Netherlands, the Republic of Korea and Zambia. The Beijing-based event, entitled “The Second International Forum on Democracy: Shared Human Values”, was attended by Li Shulei (李书磊), a politburo member and the current head of China’s Central Propaganda Department, and featured keynote speeches by a number of Chinese and foreign politicians and academics. Tsinghua University’s Yan Yilong (鄢一龙 ) was one of those taking part i…