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Answers to Is China considered to be democratic range from "theoretically yes, but..." to "No!".

Question: From a perspective of the life experience of everyday people, how much does political participation more resemble living in a communist state?

To help clarify my question, imagine that one was required to answer two questions based on real life experience; "I know that I am living in a communist state because...", and the other "...that I am not living...".

uhoh
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  • I think this question is too broad to answer in this format. There are several aspects to consider: democracy, economics etc. There have been more detailed questions here on all of these. The democracy one is already linked. Here's one for economics: https://politics.stackexchange.com/questions/41251/is-chinese-communism-with-market-economy-based-on-any-marxist-theory – the gods from engineering Mar 08 '20 at 08:46
  • @Fizz the "democracy one" has only theoretical answers whereas I've asked about how everyday people interact with their government. A simple answer about options they are presented during votes or how strongly considerations for "the people" are weighed vs individual rights could answer this quite well. No need to write a book chapter on this one. – uhoh Mar 08 '20 at 09:01
  • I know people prefer answering the "Why does Bernie Sanders...?" questions but I think this one can be effectively answered without too much trouble. Why not give it a day or two and give others a chance? – uhoh Mar 08 '20 at 09:04
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    You see this as a simple matter because you consider those issues definitory of "communism" as you define it. You'd be better off asking your underlying questions directly and explicitly. Conversely, you could ask about the definition(s) of communism. What we have here is not very far off from "Is Trump fascist?" except you ask is "Is China communist?" These questions are hard to answer without getting into what those terms mean, and they can mean a few different things. – the gods from engineering Mar 08 '20 at 09:49
  • @Fizz I don't see where I've defined anything, and I've asked exactly the question to which I'd like an answer. I don't think you're giving the community enough credit here. If a definition is needed for a given answer, then that can be incorporated in the first sentence of a reasonably short answer. Answers like that are routinely written here and well received. – uhoh Mar 08 '20 at 10:05
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    When you find an "index of communism" for countries, as opposed to ones for democracy, economic freedom etc., I'll answer your question, as you asked it. – the gods from engineering Mar 08 '20 at 10:07
  • @Fizz Thanks for your feedback and engagement, the community has spoken. I'll do some more homework but perhaps even then this just isn't ask-able here. – uhoh Mar 09 '20 at 01:39
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    @uhoh Since China is the largest and most powerful "communist" state in the world today, I feel that answers to the question as written could too easily fall into a circular-argument, shaped-like-itself trap: everything people in China do is "typical communism", because China is the yardstick by which we most people measure "communism". In contrast, here is a question that provides a detailed definition of communism to measure against: https://politics.stackexchange.com/q/25743/12081 – MJ713 Mar 10 '20 at 00:12
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    @uhoh Perhaps you could ask the question "In what ways does the average Chinese citizen participate in politics?". Just spitballing here. – MJ713 Mar 10 '20 at 00:12

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China is evidently neither democratic nor communist. (There are many other sorts of governments.) While censorship, torture, and other human rights violations are scarcely unknown in democracies, China is a one-party state, with government officials chosen by the Party Congress and ordinary people having no say.

Nor is China in any way communist, despite keeping the name and some trappings for face-saving reasons. As evidence, consider that there are over 300 billionaires (in US dollars) in the country, most if not all of whom made their wealth in various market-related activities: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chinese_by_net_worth This is incompatible with either Communist theory, or with actual practice of past Communist states, where "wealth" only accrues to the Party leadership as a consequence of their position.

jamesqf
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    Having one non-Communist attribute hardly justify the claim that China is not "in any way communist". – Acccumulation Mar 09 '20 at 00:55
  • I think the answer is correct. But you could add more evidence like the lack of labour rights. – FluidCode Mar 09 '20 at 11:45
  • @Acccumulation: While that's true in general, the existence of (private enterprise) billionares violates the fundamental tenet of Communism: the one that's usually stated as "from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs", so it's hard to see how China could be considered to be communist. But I'm willing to consider suggestions. – jamesqf Mar 09 '20 at 19:58
  • @FluidCode: I don't really see how labour rights are a factor. Communist societies don't have them, at least in the real world. Democracies have existed without much of what would be considered labour rights today, e.g. US & Britain before around the 1920s or so. – jamesqf Mar 09 '20 at 20:01