Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Photo: Chinese Foreign Ministry

The US and some Western countries have, for a long time, described China as an "undemocratic country." But this labelling is a result of their arrogance and prejudice against other civilizations, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi wrote in an article published in state media People's Daily on Sunday. 

As the pandemic ravages the world amid profound changes in the international landscape, Wang talked on how to properly perceive, practice, improve and develop democracy so as to tackle challenges more effectively and promote world peace, stability and prosperity. Dealing with these challenges is indeed a "question of the century," a question that bears on the future of humankind, he said.

"There are different approaches and attitudes toward this question. Some regard Western democracy as the only correct answer. They seek to forcibly transplant and impose it onto the whole world. Some attempt to take one country's model as the criterion, provoking tension between different political systems and ideologies and creating division and confrontation in the world," Wang said.

"Undoubtedly, none of these is true democracy, but fake democracy using the concept as a cover," he added.

US President Joe Biden hosted a so-called democracy summit on Thursday and Friday, which it claimed to solicit ideas of "defending against authoritarianism" and "promoting respect for human rights."

However, the propaganda has not been met with much enthusiasm both domestically and globally. Debasish Chowdhury, an award-winning journalist, wrote in Time magazine that the summit is a platform pretending to defend democracy but it's also "where some of its worst offenders could pose as responsible upholders of freedom and dispense homilies on how to save the world from those like themselves."

On Saturday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson slammed the summit for using ideology to draw lines and democracy as a weapon to incite separation and confrontations with the purpose to divert attention from its internal problems and maintain its hegemony.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov also fired at the summit on Friday, noting that "Although the event is dubbed the Summit for Democracy, it's not directly related to democracy. The title is no more than a hashtag and a slogan," TASS reported.

The Chinese top diplomat noted that democracy is not a special right reserved for a certain country, but a right for the people of all countries. The key criterion deciding whether a country is democratic or not is whether its people are truly the masters of their own fate.

The Communist Party of China has led the Chinese people in finding a new form of democracy that suits their national conditions, which is described as the whole-process people's democracy.

Countries have different ways to achieve democracy, Wang said, and there is no single correct form for others to worship, and no democracy is superior to others. 

He added that China will not export its definition of democracy but is willing to exchange with others on an equal footing. 

"The result of advocating human rights over sovereignty and imposing democratic transformation on others has always brought not stability and prosperity, but devastation, displacing citizens and creating refugee crisis," Wang noted, "and we should draw the lesson and firmly uphold the pillar role of the United Nations (UN) and the UN Charter, and oppose any attempt to undermine a country's sovereignty under the disguise of democracy and human rights."

Certain countries are still viewing today's world with an outdated Cold War mentality, keen to form cliques in the name of democracy. Such behaviors are an assault on the true spirit of democracy and goes against the trend of the times, the Minister said.

In the article, Wang also put forward the promotion of democracy with Asian characteristics, which is featured by coordination and negotiation on an equal footing. 

Global Times