China has been increasingly vocal about its determination to promote "whole-process people's democracy." Beijing recently held a two-day international forum on democracy ahead of the coming U.S summit of democracy that ignores China. Some Chinese scholars have advocated the move, claiming it shows that Chinese people have gained both experience and confidence in promoting this new philosophy.

When it comes to China's endeavors in achieving democracy, a White Paper recently released by China's State Council Information Office expands upon this concept of whole-process democracy — mentioning how China's adaptation of democratic process pays more attention to concrete, pragmatic democratic practices, and doesn't just involve elections but also consultations, decision-making, management and oversight. Experts see this as a reflection of the country advancing its democratic theories, systems and practices in line with the country's needs, whilst addressing the concerns of the people.

"Who is the subject of our socialist democracy? The people. It means that they should be 'the great majority' that make public decisions," said Mo Jihong, director of the Institute of Law of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). Mo said China has made many institutional innovations to make up for procedures where oversight is absent. He added that capitalist democracy theorists have also begun to touch upon this, but they fail to maintain the values of democracy and the rights of their people once elections are over.

Experts also highlighted the adoption of democratic centralism, as another major feature in China's democracy, saying a lot of big issues require democratic centralism, specifically when an issue urgently needs to be addressed. "We also emphasize that in state and social governance, it is important to integrate democracy, the rule of law and human rights in our decisions. It's only through this way can we form a sound governance mechanism," said Mo Jihong.

Some experts believe the generally stable COVID situation in China embodied the advantages of its democratic system in governance. And Chinese authorities have shown a positive attitude in mutual learning and exchanges on different types of democracy. The white paper, however, said that the barrier to achieving democracy lies not in divergence, but in arrogance and prejudice against other countries' attempts.

Fu Zheng,  assistant researcher at the Institute of Philosophy, CASS, took Singapore as an example, saying that the country defined by "some" as an authoritarian regime was called by "others" as a success of democracy in containing the pandemic. "You can see their definition of democracy is arbitrary," said Fu, "And it's not a matter of how they define democracy. The key point is, when some countries boast themselves as liberal democracies, the subtext is that there are some so-called authoritarian states, 'rogue states' or even "an axis of evil" in the world, doing anti-democratic things. So when they talk about liberty and democracy, they're actually referring to a binary opposition — or rather, friend or foe."

Describing democracy as a common value of mankind that constantly evolves, and takes diverse forms, China has openly refuted those it labelled as 'self-appointed judges' that take democracy as its prerogative. "Whether a country is democratic or not should be decided by the will of the people within that country," said Xu Lin, minister of the State Council Information Office.

Although critics consider China's reactions as a threat to traditional democracy, Chinese officials have repeatedly explained that it will not engage in any sort of hegemony over democracy. Mo Jihong pointed out that telling the story of Chinese democracy to the international community is a way to increase understanding and avoid conflicts on governance values.