I want to ask people on RF whether you think China should become a western style democracy and whether you think it is appropriate for other countries to accept western values or can they justify rejecting our concept of democracy based on asserting their own distinct national or cultural values. i.e. Do you think democracy and human rights are universal?
I voted "not sure" as I am no longer certian that western values are necessarily universal or human values and I just want to see how this thread turns out.
Obviously telling somewhere like North Korea or Iran to become democratic poses less risk internationally given the importance of China in terms of the size of its population and economy. So the issue doesn't get perhaps as much attention as it deserves given China's importance as a trading partner for western countries. e.g. Until 2010, Google worked to censor banned materials, including references to the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989 as discussion it is forbidden by the Chinese government.(internet searches are now re-directed through google's branch in Hong Kong so it no longer has to self-censor due to less legal restrictions).
At the moment, The People's Republic of China is a "Socialist Republic" run by a single party (the communist party) which is also the only party that is constitutionally allowed to be the government. There is a "united front" that has representation in the National Congress but it doesn't have any power or constitutional right to become the government. There are elections. this system is considered a "people's democratic dictatorship" as a legacy of Maoist thought.
Demands for reform mean making China a western style democracy is one that has multi-party elections rather than a single party ones. The difference is over whether people can be represented by one party or whether they need multiple parties to choose from.
I added an extra option to cover re-unification with Tiawan (The "Republic of China") which remains an on-going dispute between the two countries since their seperation in 1949 to make the debate a little more intresting.
I voted "not sure" as I am no longer certian that western values are necessarily universal or human values and I just want to see how this thread turns out.
Obviously telling somewhere like North Korea or Iran to become democratic poses less risk internationally given the importance of China in terms of the size of its population and economy. So the issue doesn't get perhaps as much attention as it deserves given China's importance as a trading partner for western countries. e.g. Until 2010, Google worked to censor banned materials, including references to the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989 as discussion it is forbidden by the Chinese government.(internet searches are now re-directed through google's branch in Hong Kong so it no longer has to self-censor due to less legal restrictions).
At the moment, The People's Republic of China is a "Socialist Republic" run by a single party (the communist party) which is also the only party that is constitutionally allowed to be the government. There is a "united front" that has representation in the National Congress but it doesn't have any power or constitutional right to become the government. There are elections. this system is considered a "people's democratic dictatorship" as a legacy of Maoist thought.
Demands for reform mean making China a western style democracy is one that has multi-party elections rather than a single party ones. The difference is over whether people can be represented by one party or whether they need multiple parties to choose from.
I added an extra option to cover re-unification with Tiawan (The "Republic of China") which remains an on-going dispute between the two countries since their seperation in 1949 to make the debate a little more intresting.
