China’s Political System Explained: Why Vast Majority Support ‘People’s Democracy’

Explains China's political system of 'whole process people's democracy' and why over 90% of Chinese support their government despite Western criticism.

Ask about this video. Answers come from its transcript only — with the timestamp, so you can check them.

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Key Takeaways

China's political system includes consultative elements that engage citizens in governance beyond elections.
Despite Western criticism, a large majority of Chinese citizens express satisfaction with their government.
China's 'whole process people's democracy' differs fundamentally from Western liberal democracy models.
The 'One China' principle remains a critical and sensitive issue influencing China's foreign relations.
Public consultation and legislative feedback are institutionalized parts of China's political process.

What the video covers

The video challenges Western perceptions of China as purely authoritarian and repressive.
It explains China's political system called 'whole process people's democracy' in a country of 1.4 billion people.
Discusses the high satisfaction rate (over 90%) among Chinese citizens with their central government compared to Western countries.
Explores the concept of consultative democracy as practiced in China, including public input on legislation and policies.
Contrasts China's model with Western liberal democracy, highlighting differences in political participation and governance.
Addresses the 'One China' principle and its implications for Taiwan and international relations, especially with Japan.
Mentions China's draft regulations on data protection and public consultation as part of democratic processes.
Analyzes the impact of diplomatic tensions on tourism between China and Japan.
Includes expert interviews and references to studies comparing political satisfaction across countries.
Highlights the complexity and uniqueness of China's political system beyond Western stereotypes.

Chapters

What is 'whole process people's democracy' in China?

'Whole process people's democracy' refers to China's political system that combines consultative democracy with electoral elements, allowing public input and participation throughout the legislative and governance processes.

Why do over 90% of Chinese citizens report satisfaction with their government?

According to studies cited in the video, many Chinese citizens feel their government serves the people effectively, which contrasts with lower satisfaction rates in Western countries, reflecting different political models and cultural contexts.

How does China's political system differ from Western liberal democracy?

China's system emphasizes consultative democracy and collective governance under the Communist Party, rather than competitive multi-party elections, focusing on stability, public consultation, and social harmony rather than adversarial politics.

Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

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Is China as authoritarian and repressive as Western critics would have you believe? How does its political system of what it calls whole process people's democracy really work in a country of 1.4 billion people? We'll discuss this and more on this week's China Report.

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[music] [music] Welcome to the China Report. Every week, we'll be helping you sort through all the propaganda with an independent view of the country that we're taught to hate but know so little about. I'm your host, Amanda Yei. But before we begin, just a

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[music] [music] Welcome to the China Report. Every week, we'll be helping you sort through all the propaganda with an independent view of the country that we're taught to hate but know so little about. I'm your host, Amanda Yei. But before we begin, just a

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Donate at breakthroughnews.org/donate. Now on to this week's headlines. A Chinese humanoid robot has set a new Guinness World Record for distance traveled. From November 10th to November 13th, the Android A2 developed by Shanghai based Agivot Tked 106 km or 66

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reminder that Giving Tuesday is this December 2nd. We have no corporate sponsors. We just have you. If you value our unflinching reporting, please contribute and see if your employer will match your donation. Help us keep going.

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labor market. Powered by Agabot's rapid hot swap battery system, the robot remained active for the entire journey.

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Donate at breakthroughnews.org/donate. Now on to this week's headlines. A Chinese humanoid robot has set a new Guinness World Record for distance traveled. From November 10th to November 13th, the Android A2 developed by Shanghai-based Agivot Tked 106 km or 66

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trek was also conducted overnight. Aubot Ajabot executives noted that the robot remained in good condition after the journey with visible wear only seen on the rubber layer of its foot soles.

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mi from Suja all the way to the Bund in Shanghai. The achievement verified by Guinness World Records as the longest journey walked by a humanoid robot serves as a significant stress test for the durability and energy management systems required for the commercial

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Japan dares to intervene militarily in the Taiwan Strait situation, it will constitute an act of aggression. China will resolutely exercise its right of self-defense under the UN charter and international law, safeguarding its national sovereignty and territorial integrity." unquote.

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labor market. Powered by Agabot's rapid hot swap battery system, the robot remained active for the entire journey.

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Under the one China principle, Taiwan is considered part of China and any move toward external interference is a red line for Beijing in dipl diplomatic relations.

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According to China Daily, the route required the bipedal robot to navigate a variety of surface topographies that typically plague robotic balance algorithms, including asphalt roadways, slippery tiled pavements, and tactile paving designed for the visually impaired. A significant portion of the

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Japan after Beijing advised to avoid traveling to the country following Takahuchi's remarks. According to China trading desk, around 30% of the 1.44 44 million trips to Japan from China planned through the end of December have been cancelled while

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trek was also conducted overnight. Aubot Ajabot executives noted that the robot remained in good condition after the journey with visible wear only seen on the rubber layer of its foot soles.

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the last few days. Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia are also seeing an increase. So far, cancellations have been contained to the final weeks of this year with January bookings remaining stable. But if the diplomatic row continues into the new

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Commercial deployments of the robot are already underway. According to the company, the diplomatic road between China and Japan has now reached the United Nations. China's permanent representative to the UN, Fukong, sent a letter to Secretary General Antonio Gutirez on Friday vowing, quote, "If

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China is opening up draft regulations on data protection to public consultation. On Saturday, the Cyerspace Administration of China and the Ministry of Public Security released its draft regulations on personal information protection for large platforms to solicit public opinions.

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Japan dares to intervene militarily in the Taiwan Strait situation, it will constitute an act of aggression. China will resolutely exercise its right of self-defense under the UN charter and international law, safeguarding its national sovereignty and territorial integrity." unquote.

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centers that are located in China and meet national security standards and that online platform service providers must offer convenient methods and channels for individuals to access, correct, supplement and delete their personal information as well as to delete their accounts. In cases where

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Japanese Prime Minister Sai Takayichi earlier this month became the first sitting Japanese leader to publicly link a Taiwan Strait crisis with the possible deployment of Japanese troops.

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The public is invited to submit feedback through various channels and complaints about violations can be reported to authorities who are required to respond within 15 working days. This type of popular consultation is a key part of China's whole process, people's

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Under the one China principle, Taiwan is considered part of China and any move toward external interference is a red line for Beijing in diplomatic relations.

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that's the case, how is it that according to a Harvard study, over 90% of Chinese citizens reported that they were satisfied with the central government? What is China's political system really like? And could it be possible that it's more democratic than

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Takayichi refused to retract her remarks in spite of Beijing's demands. The Japanese prime minister's comments over Taiwan could spell disaster for the country's tourism industry. According to Chinese media, as many as 500,000 Chinese citizens canceled their trips to

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Great to be here with you. Thanks for inviting me. Well, thanks for coming on. Um, I wanted to invite you on the show today because you and Jason Hickle recently co-wrote a really interesting article about China's whole process, people's democracy.

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Japan after Beijing advised to avoid traveling to the country following Takahuchi's remarks. According to China Trading Desk, around 30% of the 1.44 44 million trips to Japan from China planned through the end of December have been cancelled while

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methodology behind this report? because if I'm not mistaken, you were actually in China, right?

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new bookings have not materialized. Experts predict that the country could lose out as much as $1.2 billion in visitor spending. Some travelers have opted to reroute their travel plans with Singapore and South Korea now seeing new bookings increase by as much as 15% over

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know how Chinese people view their own political system and how they view their political system in comparison with countries in the west. And so you had these uh these questions and again these are a series of liberal institutions.

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the last few days. Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia are also seeing an increase. So far, cancellations have been contained to the final weeks of this year with January bookings remaining stable. But if the diplomatic row continues into the new

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Um and um and one of the reports asked a series of questions. For example, you know, democracy is important or is democracy important? Is my country democratic? Does my government serve the people? And does everyone have rights or

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year and Chinese visitors decide to stay away through 2026, the cumulative hit could reach as high as $9 billion.

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uh for the the the the claim or the statement that my government serves the people, over 90% of people in China agreed versus about 40% of people in the US, France, and Britain. So the the divergence is really significant. Um and

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China is opening up draft regulations on data protection to public consultation. On Saturday, the Cyberspace Administration of China and the Ministry of Public Security released its draft regulations on personal information protection for large platforms to solicit public opinions.

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me the most remarkable uh statement which is political leaders in my country are elected in free and fair elections.

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The regulations propose that personal information collected and generated in China should be stored domestically. If information is transferred abroad, platforms should comply with national data export security regulations. The draft also stipulates that personal information must be stored in data

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process that we so readily dismiss as authoritarian and you know fundamentally um uh structured by systems of of oppression rather than than consent. Uh how does it work? Um and how is its democratic character expressed? So that was one uh one source of of interest and

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centers that are located in China and meet national security standards and that online platform service providers must offer convenient methods and channels for individuals to access, correct, supplement, and delete their personal information as well as to delete their accounts. In cases where

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people. And as part of that visit, we went to a neighborhood called Mu Village, which was built uh kind of like a you know those Soviet purpose-built towns built around significant industrial plants. There was this factory called the machine tool factory

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platforms show serious deficiencies in personal information protection, such as repeated violations or significant data breaches affecting large numbers of users, authorities may mandate compliance audits and risk assessments by third-party professional organizations.

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the city at one point. Um there was a spike in poverty. The buildings were, you know, hadn't been renovated for many decades. There was uh a stream of open sewage flowing through the the the the center of the neighborhood. So there

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The public is invited to submit feedback through various channels and complaints about violations can be reported to authorities who are required to respond within 15 working days. This type of popular consultation is a key part of China's whole process, people's

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years earlier, it was completely unrecognizable. Uh it looked to me like uh you might expect a hip neighborhood in Berlin or or New York or or London to look. They had this, you know, craft beer bar with in stacked shipping

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democracy. Well, so much of the Western framing around China is just fear-mongering over its political system. China is a one-party state. It's ruled by the authoritarian and repressive Communist Party that keeps a tight grip over its citizens. But if

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the outside like a process of gentrification except it didn't displace anyone. M uh and on our visit we got to learn about how that process took place. Uh and what the party did is it dispatched officials to the neighborhood. They organized

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that's the case, how is it that according to a Harvard study, over 90% of Chinese citizens reported that they were satisfied with the central government? What is China's political system really like? And could it be possible that it's more democratic than

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neighborhood needs to to party officials. And through this extensive process of of almost daily consultation which involved these community gatherings but also there were uh technological tools you know you could submit comments online you could submit comments through an app. Um this this

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the US? To discuss this, we are happy to have on Pavo Vargan. Pavo is an activist, researcher, and organizer. He serves as a political coordinator at the Progressive International. Pavo, welcome to the China Report.

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day. Uh, and also subsidized food for other members of the community. A lot of the traditional family-owned businesses were simply given nicer facilities. Uh, there's a really slick Communist Party office in the center of the neighborhood where you can come in and raise

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Great to be here with you. Thanks for inviting me. Well, thanks for coming on. Um, I wanted to invite you on the show today because you and Jason Hickle recently co-wrote a really interesting article about China's whole process, people's democracy.

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symbolically the stream through which sewage used to flow had been cleaned up. And now you have a beautiful clean stream where children play in the middle of the neighborhood. So it's you know a really remarkable process of of

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Um, it's really one like the first report in English that really captures what the political system in China is really like. But before we delve into this report, um could you talk a little bit just about the

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Yeah. So, you were able to you were lucky enough to go and be able to get a glimpse of what this uh political system looks like on a very localized level.

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methodology behind this report? Because if I'm not mistaken, you were actually in China, right?

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major differences that you see between China's model its model of democracy and uh the the democracy that we are used to the western liberal at all.

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Yeah, that's right. So, uh, there are basically two motivators for this report. The first was the study that you mentioned and in fact that was one of a number of studies which had quite remarkable results showing, you

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family code for the country. Uh, really impressive process. And whenever you try to talk about these issues in the west, you're often met with this kind of template response which is well you can only vote for the communist party or you don't have

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know, how Chinese people view their own political system and how they view their political system in comparison with countries in the West. And so you had these, these questions and again these are a series of liberal institutions.

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be describe themselves as socialist. Um but second of all there's um I think fundamental misunderstanding of what it means to have a revolutionary state because this idea that one person has one vote and there are many different parties and each party

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One of them in fact was founded by a former NATO secretary general and it receives Western state funding.

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US or you might have dozens of parties like you have in some European countries, but to a greater or lesser extent, all of those parties are fundamentally committed to the project of capitalism to it to to sustaining it

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Um, and one of the reports asked a series of questions. For example, you know, democracy is important or is democracy important? Is my country democratic? Does my government serve the people? And does everyone have rights or

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of militar remilitarization. So you know you don't even really have a choice of social democracy anymore. You have a choice between a number of parties that are committed to a project of neoliberal uh reform of of putting social services

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equal rights before the law? And in each of those cases, the responses from China, from people living in China, were significantly higher than they were for people in the so-called classic liberal democracies like France, Britain, and the United States. In fact,

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the case of Jeremy Corbin um where even someone who uh you know is a social democrat but presents a threat to capital is systematically attacked um by the mainstream media um and refused a fair hearing, refused, you know,

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for the claim or the statement that my government serves the people, over 90% of people in China agreed versus about 40% of people in the US, France, and Britain. So the divergence is really significant. Um and

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um communist parties revolutionary groups. These groups have been very severely repressed and in many cases uh saw their leadership assassinated, imprisoned and so on.

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then you have these other statements. Fo

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that carries the subjectivity of that social majority of the working class. And so if if you you know if you move now to China and we think about this claim that you'll often hear from people that okay well maybe China has elections

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but you can only vote for the Communist Party. Again that's not true and we can talk about that later. But ch the Chinese Communist Party, the Communist Party of China has uh 100 million over 100 million members. There are about 70

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million members of the of the Young uh Communist League of the Youth League. Uh which means that almost every family has a member or someone that is a member of the Communist Party, which means that when you're voting for people, you're

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voting for your neighbor. You're voting for a member of your family. You're voting for someone that you grew up with. You're voting from some for for someone uh with whom you worked on the same factory floor, right? Uh I I I've

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never met any of the candidates that I've ever voted for. Um uh but in China, you you you effectively vote for representatives of your community and often the most respected representatives of your community. So I think we have to

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abandon this uh liberal idea that choice on its own um is a useful marker of what democracy actually means and what it can deliver. And I think the Chinese system and the way that the Chinese system perceived by the Chinese people shows in

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fact that a much better indicator of the success of a democratic model is uh is is the material improvements that it makes in people's lives.

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Well, you say so China considers itself um uh what it calls a whole process people's democracy which I believe was coined by Xihinping a few years ago. And you say in this report that um whole process people's democracy integrates

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two major democratic models uh consultative democracy and electoral democracy. So I want to get into the electoral part a little bit later but I want you to first explain this notion of consultative democracy. you know, what does that look like in practice and what

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are some of the key mechanisms um that are put into place? So, so one of the really remarkable things that you you start to understand when you visit China, you know, repeatedly is that uh there are uh countless channels for consultation at

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all political levels from the very grassroots level in in villages. And I I was very fortunate to uh to take part in a field study just about a month ago or so where we visited five different villages in uh in one of the Chinese

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provinces and looked at the process of of poverty alleviation and what they call the construction of common prosperity in each of these villages and everywhere those processes are deeply consultative. Um and in each uh village they kind of work in different

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ways. And so you know just to give you a sense of the rich tapestry of of of channels and instruments that you have for consultation.

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You have uh at a kind of national level these so-called 1 2 3 4 five service hotlines which is a a phone number that you can just pick up and you're guaranteed an immediate response uh upon upon receipt of complaint. Um, and these

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hotlines aim at addressing public concerns uh on all kinds of issues. And I'm sure everyone's seen on, you know, Tik Tok that these uh countless examples of people in China raising complaints about potholes and, you know, safety issues in their cities and seeing those

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issues remedied within sometimes hours if not days. Um, so you have that. Um that also extends to uh channels like mayoral mayoral mail mailboxes. So literally mailboxes you can drop complaints into. Um you have mobile apps, you have call centers, you have

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groups on WeChat. So WeChat is kind of like uh the Chinese WhatsApp except it's much more than that. It's a it's a it's a kind of all-encompassing platform that you can use for all kinds of digital uh to access all kinds of digital services

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in the country from payments to banking to you know food orders to taxi orders um and also you can raise issues with you know your local government or officials or whatever on uh on things of public concern. And so you know those

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are some of the mechanisms that enable governments at at different levels of the state uh to respond to everyday demands and everyday concerns.

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But those processes of consultation also extend to uh actual processes of legislation. uh so you might have uh you know a a particular set of policies that's being implemented for example uh about one aspect of uh the redevelopment of the

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countryside. What the state will then do is it will uh engage the different kind of the different uh party uh bodies at again the different levels of the of state government of national government uh to then reach out to academic

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institutions to think tanks to various kinds of research teams who will then be tasked with outsourcing other bits of the research to other organizations who will then uh conduct field studies uh speak to people and communities that might be affected by these policies. So

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a process of policy development might take two, three, four, five years, involve consultations with thousands of people, involve the production of hundreds of thousands of of words of uh of text um and you know potentially dozens of academic conferences where

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these things are rigorously discussed, reassessed, reconsidered and communicated uh ultimately up to the party and then in the process of implementation communicated back to the people for the idea ideas were ultimately or initially sourced. So there's this process of of taking ideas

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from the people um systematizing them and then applying them back uh effectively in processes of policy experimentation and successful ideas are then expanded ac across the country and less successful ideas are reconsidered and revised.

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Yeah. I mean just to add on to what you were saying um I came across this model of consultative democracy uh a couple examples pretty recently. One is um the other day I read in like one of the

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Chinese news sources, China Daily I think and we actually were actually featuring it as a headline, but um the government is trying to revise data privacy laws um and they wanted to get, you know, people's opinions about this

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like uh draft regulation. And so they opened it up for public consultation um so that people can go online and kind of give their input on um you know this like draft res uh resolution. And then another thing that I came across

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recently was you know uh as you probably know um the CPC just recently approved um suggestions for its new 5-year plan, the 15th 5-year plan. And in order to get, you know, suggestions for this, they um I think they opened up uh they

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did a similar thing. They opened up um consultations online so that regular citizens could give their input on what could be prioritized in the next 5-year plan. Um, and I think that's really I mean that's really astounding to me as

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someone who comes from the US because we have never as US citizens been asked to give our input on draft legislation. You know there's some really unpopular laws and budget cuts that are being pushed through Congress um where a lot of working

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people are losing access to healthcare. They're losing access to SNAP. Um, and like none of us were ever consulted on these new budget cuts and these new laws. So, I mean to me that was just really really uh astounding.

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Well, in the US you don't even have a 5-year plan. You you guys barely have a one-year plan.

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Now, often times it looks like you have a twoe plan. Um uh yeah, it's it's quite I I'm trying to find the numbers now, but I was I was reading about this in the very first weeks after the

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consultations for the 15th 5-year plan were opened. Uh so this you know this is a a very broad set of policies that will determine the direction of Chinese development between 20 uh 26 and uh 2030. Very I think critical uh period in

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the country's history. um you know as as you kind of you've many of the problems uh of of poverty have in a way been solved and now there's a level of ambition that's being pursued about development and people to this standard

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of moderate prosperity about uh building the first stages of an actual socialist society uh which again has a deadline um and a timeline uh in China it's these are this is a very important period and as you say it's remarkable that people

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are asking asked for their views and their opinion and in that in the first I think few days and I might be getting this wrong because I don't have the numbers in front of me but the the government had received about 3 million

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suggestions from the public that's the figure that I read too yeah 3 million and that was three times more than it received in the same period uh for the 14th 5-year plan in 2020 and so you have not only uh you know this this pretty

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spectacular process of consultation but you also see that it's improving and expanding with time and I think that that tendency of increasing participation of you know in fact preparing greater and greater numbers of people for the task of governing which I

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think is the fundamental role of a communist party over the long arc of history. You see you see that tendency in motion as more and more people vote every every election cycle as more and more people uh engage in these

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consultative processes and as more and more people express confidence in the integrity of the of the of the democratic system in the country.

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Yeah. Um I really appreciate this quote from Xiinping which um I believe is also in the report. [gasps] Um, it says, "If the people are awakened only at voting time and dormant afterward, if the people hear big slogans during elections

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but no but have no say after, if the people are favored during canvasing but are left out after elections, this is not true democracy." Which is all to say that China's whole consultative democracy, it integrates um feedback from the people and it's judged by the

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material improvement in people's lives. It's a resultsbased governing system. Um, in contrast to the west where we keep having elections but we don't really have anything to show for it. Um, when in fact our our conditions are actually getting worse.

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Um, we aren't able to afford anything. Rents getting astronomically high. Um but yeah like a a common argument that I I have seen from China critics is that you know Xihinping was not elected by the people therefore it's not a

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democracy but can you talk a little bit about the um like the electoral part of a whole process people's democracy um and how elections work in China?

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Yeah. So it's a slightly complicated system I think part partly because of how decentralized the country is and how big it is and it's really important to emphasize that uh and many people don't understand this but China is among the

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most decentralized probably among the most decentralized countries in the world and certainly more decentralized in its governing model than I think any western country. Um, in China, local governments, and that includes provincial, um, county, township, and village levels, and I'll talk a little bit more

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about the different levels of governance in a moment, they make up 50% of government revenue, and they account for about 85% of expenditure. Now the global average um uh uh the global average for central governments is 66% in terms of

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uh the the percentage of expenditures where where they sit in the kind of hierarchy of the state. In China it's 15%. So the central government in China is responsible for 15% of total government expenditure which means that a tremendous amount of uh power is

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devolved to these local levels which is where elections happen right so you have um in China a system where you have uh what are known as the county and township levels uh and at the county and township levels you have deputies who

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are elected directly by voters. Um so again as I said if you're in a village of 3,000 people you are voting for uh an exemplary neighbor neighbor someone who went above and beyond uh someone who went through the same hardships that you

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went through. We were able to meet these people on our on our last visit. Uh which is also quite quite beautiful to see how powerful and effective these bonds are between uh local community leaders um and uh and the communities

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they they are tasked with serving. Um and again important to emphasize that it is their responsibility to serve the people. There's a very clear very specific mandate with very clear performance indicators and if you don't meet those uh performance indicators you

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can get voted out. So you have uh deputies who are elected by voters at the county and township levels. Then those deputies uh elect deputies at the city level. Then the city level deputies elect deputies uh at the provincial

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level. And then the provincial uh level deputies elect uh deputies to the to the national level to the highest level of government. Um those are the the four levels. Um and again the the elections they happen at the at the lowest level

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and by the number of voters they represent the largest democratic exercise anywhere in the world. Uh in the last election over a billion people took part. Very high levels of participation. I think turnout rates of about 90%.

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uh again [clears throat] far higher than the turnout in any western democracy right now where in fact the tendency has been for uh dropping turnouts uh in during during national elections.

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Um and uh and yeah and the the election the election the recent election in China was larger than any electoral exercise anywhere else including India which claims to be the world's uh largest democracy.

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Well, another popular myth about China is that it's a one party state ruled by the CPC and that there are no other political parties. Um, but as you mentioned a few minutes ago, there are actually other political parties. So,

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could you talk a little bit about, you know, the role that they serve um in governing and, you know, like why do they, you know, how do they relate to the CPC?

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So maybe I'll take a step back a little bit um because I think in China what's often emphasized is uh in a sense the historical necessity of the CPC and the historical necessity of this particular governance model given uh you know the

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weight of China's historical inheritance given the crises that that plagued the country and um well before the revolution um and one of those one of those big challenges were uh was just the the uh the lack of a stable political system

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that could guarantee not even any kind of progressive outcomes for the Chinese people but that could you know survive.

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Um you had this really tumultuous period where there was an attempt to introduce liberal democracy at the start of the 20th century. you had very quickly um in you know this is the first decade of the 20th century you had about 300 political

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parties that were formed and in the in the I think two decades that followed you had 10 different heads of state you had 45 cabinets you had 59 prime ministers basically you know almost two decades of complete chaos now when I

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read these figures I'm reminded of other countries now the the United Kingdom among them where you also have a very high number of governments and prime ministers in the past few years. But this was a deeply chaotic process that

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eventually yielded to one party dictatorship under Jang Kaishek. Um which was a period that delivered you know war uh ultimately a war that they lost and a cataclysmic economic crisis that was really devastating for the country. And so

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when uh the CPC uh came to power, uh the system that uh was created, the system that emerged uh was one that that sought to develop not a competitive relationship between political parties, but a cooperative one. And so uh in the

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period you know in the revolutionary period in the kind of decades around the before and and during the the revolution you had uh a number of parties that emerged which continue to exist. They're known as the eight democratic parties.

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They're much smaller than uh the communist uh party of China. um but their function isn't to compete against the communist party but to operate as a vehicle uh for different segments of society to also um uh you know have have

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a have a hearing in the political pro process. So they're basically channels for different groups within society to participate in governance for example in processes of in the processes of consultation that I described in carrying out research for certain policy

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areas and providing these alternative voices uh in the political process and all of those parties have representation at the different levels of uh of governance that we talked about. M I guess one question before I let you go.

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How would you respond to people who may take a look like people in the west who may take a look at China's system and say that no China is not socialist. It's made too many concessions to capital. um you know

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having written this report and being uh you having been to China and actually talked to some people in these villages how would you respond to that like very common critique?

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Yeah, one of the big challenges I think for for people in the in the west and I often say to Chinese friends and colleagues that it's impossible to overstate the extent to which people in the west really know nothing about

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China. uh the you know very very basic understanding of the political process but it's also quite difficult given the lack of uh published data on published information published writing on these things in the west in English until really a couple of years ago things have

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gotten a lot better um but it it it remains difficult to get details on some of the kind of finer points of Chinese policym um one of the things that really struck me beyond the case study that I already

Speaker A

mentioned uh was on this last trip that I went on. We visited uh five villages in Hanan province um that had also until very recently been uh relatively poor, some more than others. Um, in fact, one of the villages

Speaker A

um had no basically no functioning electricity until the 2000s um and had no paved roads and of course no internet, no telephone connectivity.

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Now, uh that particular village was as developed as any I had seen in the wealthiest parts of Western Europe.

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Really remarkable transformation. But what struck me was that the way those transformations happened uh and uh the the way those transformation h happened guaranteed that uh those changes and those improvements in people's lives are not the result of you know state handouts

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but they're sustainable and they're kind of sell for reproducing. And so in this one particular village uh what the party helped the local community to do is to set up a village cooperative where every resident of the village has one share in

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the cooperative. The cooperative then set up three businesses to deal with different things that are done in the village. One dealt with a particular kind of production that uh you know for export. Um, another dealt with uh developing the local tourism industry by

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building hotels and another one dealt with managing the village infrastructure. And then you had the communist party um at a uh at the township level which uh effectively recruited a capitalist branding company to help uh the local community, you know, make nice packaging

Speaker A

and nice advertisements for their local goods. for example, I don't know, they had these fermented duck eggs and nice teas and uh they had um I don't know, they had peach uh compots, that kind of stuff that they produced in the village.

Speaker A

Um uh and they recruited this company under the condition that the company would work directly in the village and would train the village community um in the kinds of roles that you know that were um uh that were available that were

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needed there. And so you effectively have a situation where a community of of people who were subsistence farmers and still to some extent are um are now shareholders in three corporations that they democratically manage. Um have access to a more or less

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corporate job without having to leave their village which is reasonably well paid. [gasps] um uh and uh you know have uh the support of private capital which is directed by the party um to serve their interests and not the other way around.

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And so I think uh one of the central uh one of the things that is is most important is that it's very clear to me that however many millionaires and billionaires there might be in China as a result of the reform and opening up

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process capital does not hold the reigns of political processes. capital is subordinated to political processes and those political processes um are um are structured to improve the living conditions of the vast majority of the Chinese people and that is the

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fundamental difference again in the in the nature of uh or the structure of class within the state. Right? None of this would be possible in a capitalist society whose very function or in a capitalist state whose very function is

Speaker A

to siphon [clears throat] uh wealth from those who produce it from from the workers upwards to the owners of capital and ultimately the bankers and financeers.

Speaker A

Well, Pavle Vargan, thank you so much for joining us on the China Report. I really encourage all our viewers to go read Yor and Jason's report. Um, I think you can find it on the Progressive International uh website and we'll also

Speaker A

link it in the show description. Um, before you go, uh, is, you know, where can people find your work if they're interested um, in your writing?

Speaker A

My work is all over the place, but if you'd like to follow me on Twitter, you may. X, formerly known as Twitter, although uh, I I Do you still call it Twitter?

Speaker A

I still call it Twitter. I never call it X. Great. Great. I mean, we have to, you know, any any and every form of resistance against the tech oligarchy is is uh uh is I think uh noble and good.

Speaker A

So, let's call it Twitter. You can find me on Twitter. I also reluctantly set up a Substack, but I almost never write there. So, I think Twitter is the safest uh bet.

Speaker A

All right. Well, thank you so much, Pavle. Um you should come back again sometime soon. We'd love to have you.

Speaker A

Would love to. Great pleasure to be on. Thanks so much for inviting me. Thank you. Dingan is the Chinese acrobatic art of balancing and flipping a stack of bowls on your head. And as you'll see in this clip, this teenager

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from Wuhan carries forward this centuries old art form. And even though his first try isn't quite successful, he nails it on the second, demonstrating that practice makes perfect.

Speaker A

Before we go though, I just want to remind you again that Giving Tuesday is coming up on December 2nd. We here at the China Report are dedicated to cutting through all the propaganda of corporate media. And corporate media is

Speaker A

funded by billionaires, but we're funded by you. This Giving Tuesday, we're asking you to invest in a weapon for people's journalism. And your support isn't charity, it's solidarity. It keeps our lights on and our mics live. And your employer might even match your

Speaker A

donation. So help us shatter their narrative. Visit breakthroughnews.org/donate. Every dollar fuels our fight for the truth. We'll see you next week.

Speaker A

Goodbye. [music] [music]

Topics:Chinapolitical systempeople's democracyconsultative democracyOne China principleTaiwanChinese governmentWestern criticismpolitical satisfactiondata protection regulations

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