China adopted economic reforms and also became a member of the World Trade Organisation. But China continues to have a one party system. Is China a democratic nation?

Democracy is a form of government in which citizens of a certain nation select their own representatives for making decisions that affect society as a whole. It is characterized by legal equality, political freedom and rule of law. Political parties which form one of the key institutions of a democratic system represent the common people at the central and state level. The represent diverse ideological principles and allows people a choice while voting. They can support or contradict a ruling party’s motions thereby providing a real competition making democracy successful. Democratic countries can a variety of party systems within its political arena. They can be two-party systems, multi-party system, one-party systems and one dominant party systems.

One-party system refers to the political condition where only one party exists and it concentrates the government authority within it. The Peoples’ Republic of China has a one-party system. The power is centralized in the Chinese Communist Party which acts on the interests of the people. By this definition, China is a democratic nation. But China also has eight other legally recognised political parties which are not allowed to challenge the Communist Party. The lack of an election procedure and the absence of the right of people to vote for others is what makes one question China’s democratic status. The inherent problem with Chinese democracy is that it is different from the general definition of democracy followed by the rest of the world. Its government has the necessary judiciary, parliament, legislatures etc but it is subordinate to the Communist Party. Even if the Chinese Government is not directly elected, elections are allowed at lower levels of the party. This augmented also by the fact that China is an economic powerhouse proves that it is well governed. The curious case of Chinese democracy has proven that liberal democracy can triumph over its ideological alternatives.