Most in China Call Their Nation A Democracy, Most in U.S. Say America Isn't
BY
TOM O'CONNOR ON 5/30/22 AT 7:06 AM EDT
The overwhelming majority of people living in China say they are living in a democracy.
Most people in the United States say they do not.
These findings are part of a new
study published by the Denmark-based Alliance of Democracies Foundation and Germany-based Latana data tracking firm. Part of the latest installment of the annual Democracy Perception Index published Monday, the study explores public opinions of democracy among 52,785 respondents across 53 nations, including China and the U.S., surveyed between March 30 and May 10 of this year.
When asked whether they believe their country is democratic, those in China topped the list, with some 83% saying the communist-led People's Republic was a democracy. A resounding 91% said that democracy is important to them.
But in the U.S., which touts itself as a global beacon of democracy, only 49% of those asked said their country was a democracy. And just over three-quarters of respondents, 76%, said democracy was important.
A note accompanying the poll results offers a disclaimer, stating that "in authoritarian countries, positive perceptions might result from different conceptions of democracy, high levels of government satisfaction, or fear of speaking out against the government."
Those leading the list alongside China included countries with a mix of political systems, including Switzerland, Vietnam, India and Norway. And, after the Philippines, China's rival, Taiwan, ranked high as well in terms of those who said they lived in a democracy.
Latana political research consultant Frederick Deveaux told
Newsweek that the eagerness displayed by those in single-party-led nations such as China and Vietnam to describe their country as democratic "may perhaps be a function of not wanting to speak out against the government." But he argued "it could also be a real perception that their country is somehow acting in the interests of many people, and this is what democracy means."
"While some of these results are kind of surprising, it's also important to take this into account," Deveaux said, "because this will kind of determine who is winning the battle of democracy in the eyes of the public."
And, in the end," he added, "that's what matters more than if someone says, 'Actually, that's democracy, that's not democracy.'"
Other metrics in the report appeared to reinforce the sentiment that those in China expressed a more favorable opinion of their government than those in the U.S.
For instance, some 63% in the U.S. said their government mainly serves the interests of a minority, while only 7% said the same in China. Asked about whether their country held free and fair elections and offered all citizens the right to free speech, nearly a third of respondents in the U.S., 32% and 31%, respectively, said they did not, while just 17% and 5%, respectively, in China answered the same questions negatively.
And in China, a mere 5% also said not everyone enjoys equal rights in their country, as opposed to 42% who identified this same issue in the U.S.
The results come in sharp contrast to the picture the Biden administration has painted of an increasingly dictatorial China, where the ruling Chinese Communist Party was consolidating power over the world's largest population.
U.S. officials have regularly accused China of political repression, state-sponsored human rights abuses and other behaviors Washington associates with authoritarian governments. China's rapid economic development in recent decades, paired with its permanent seat on the
United Nations Security Council and powerful political clout, has established the nation as one of the most influential in the world.
And with that proximity to superpower status has come a growing perception in China that the U.S. was in decline. In an apparent answer to the U.S. annual human rights abuses report and other documents that heavily criticize China, Beijing has released its own reports highlighting gun violence, racism and other issues in the U.S. that Chinese officials argue erode Washington's legitimacy to comment on the affairs of other nations.
On Friday, U.S. President
Joe Biden said that Chinese President
Xi Jinping had warned him during a phone call after the U.S. leader's 2020 election victory. "Democracies cannot be sustained in the 21st century, autocracies will run the world."
"Why? Things are changing so rapidly," Biden quoted Xi as saying in remarks that did not reflect the readouts issued at the time. "Democracies require consensus, and it takes time, and you don't have the time."
Former President
Donald Trump's challenge of the 2020 election results and the subsequent storming of the Capitol building put the U.S. on the brink of a first-ever leadership crisis, and opened the country up to criticism by allies and rivals alike.
But Chinese officials have defended their country's application of democracy, while acknowledging that it differs from that of the U.S.
Latana political research consultant Frederick Deveaux told Newsweek such studies "determine who is winning the battle of democracy in the eyes of the public."
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