Editor's Notes: Is China's democracy only a verbal fig leaf? From dispute resolution to village elections, Chinese people participate extensively in social governance and express their requirements without hindrance. In China Talk, Einar Tangen, a current affairs commentator, shares his insights on how democracy works in China.The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily those of CGTN.

Hello and welcome to China Talk. I am Einar Tangen, a political and economic affairs commentator on numerous international television and radio stations. Due to this, I experience the daily anti-China narrative on everything from politics, economics, and trade, to Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Tibet, Taiwan and the South China Sea. Given much of the developed world's press has made up their minds, it made sense to me to see what people in China themselves, thought about their government, and their lives, in terms of the aspirations, rights, responsibilities and the laws.

Reading about China is one thing, but I was interested in actually seeing the reality, which is why, when I was offered an opportunity to see what "freedom," "human rights" and "whole-process people's democracy" mean in China today, I gladly accepted.

Traveling through areas, some of which were new and others that I had visited six to 12 years prior, there was a sense of profound environmental and social change.

Environmentally, the lush green landscapes and prosperous villages I saw, were a far cry from the industrial dust bowls and old, cheaply constructed homes that surrounded them, in the past.

Socially, there were two major changes I noted. First, the attitudes and aspirations of the people we interviewed, were the same as the middle-class attitudes and aspirations of those in the developed world: making money to pay for the children's university educations, vacations, cars, houses, savings, access to good medical care, how to take care of their elders. Second, the level and scope of local and national governments in promoting civil society. 

For example, at a municipal community resolution center in Anji, the local government had gathered 16 government departments into one building, where they were tasked with solving people's problems, rather than sending them in the usual bureaucratic circle.

We witnessed a group of high school students who had not been paid for the work they had done while on holiday. There were no fees, just some paperwork and then a phone call to the company boss, asking what had happened. In the end the boys were paid what they were owed. In other countries, they would have had to try to find their way through the maze of small claims procedures, pay fees, wait for a hearing, which could have turned into a trial. More than likely, they wouldn't have even bothered. A stark contrast in terms of systems and results.

At each stop we made, there were interviews of ordinary people, business owners and local government leaders. In terms of the people we talked to, about 50 percent were random people we stopped and asked questions of. How are things going for you? Is the local government doing a good job? Do you know who the local government leaders are?

What became clear was that people's minds were not on politics, but the realities of their lives: economic opportunity, access to medical care, their families. It was noticeable that in every interview of the Chinese citizens, there was a quiet pride in their country and government. An observation born out by a 13-year Harvard University study, that puts the government approval rate at 93 percent. The survey was done before COVID-19, which has only strengthened people's approval of the government and the Party.

Yes, there were differences of opinion, especially during labor negotiations with the owners of some factories. In the end though, the matters were settled by compromise and consensus, not bombast and threats. A stark difference from many such meetings I have witnessed and presided over in other places.

We watched local election preparations and then watched as people cast their secret ballots for the people they wanted to represent them.

We talked to five candidates who were competing for four positions on a local village board, a job they would receive little money for and would be in addition to their regular jobs. No one made any election promises or attacked the other candidates. Each just talked about what they had done and their desire to serve.

We then walked around the village, and asked random people if they knew the candidates, to which they all responded "yes." We asked why these people had been elected before, to which they replied, "people know who they are, and we believe they have the desire and ability to help the village." I noted there weren't any election posters or yard signs. When I asked, the answer I got was, people don't do that, and it wouldn't do any good, because if people don't know them and their characters, they wouldn't vote for them.

We asked the village chairman how and why he had become involved in the village. His response was: he was born in the village, had moved away, done very well, but an old friend, the village leader had asked him to come back to the village and help, so he sold his business, came back and had been helping the farmers select better crops to grow on their limited land.

Two of the candidates were women who had come to the village through marriage and wanted to help. In many ways, it was the same as the elections in the Town of Grafton, Wisconsin, in the late 1980's, where I lived and served on the Town Plan Commission. A town which typified the roots of American democracy, but unfortunately not the reality of the city, state, and national politics today.  

In Conclusion, one question I pondered as we traveled is, what is the basic function of government and its relationship to the people? Modern China has done well using different ideas and governance, much to the surprise and consternation of the U.S. and other liberal democratic capitalist nations.

Today, many feel China's success is an existential threat to their assumed supremacy of their systems, but China is not ideological, it hasn't started any wars, it hasn't tried to push its values and systems on other countries, instead it has focused on answering the needs of its citizens, and protecting itself from the forces which seem intent on "containing" it, which seems to be just a code for changing it.

In the numerous discussions I have had in this subject, the bottom line generally boils down to someone insisting that a one-party system is anathema to freedom and human rights, because it prevents the will of the people from changing the government. My retort is if the ability to change governments is a solution, then there wouldn't be a problem in any modern-day democracy. I would offer that the issue is not about changing bad governments, it's about creating better more responsive governance, and that appears to be what the Party is doing: earning its right to govern by demonstrating proficiency and solving the issues as they arise. The world has witnessed the economic rise of China from virtually nothing. It has seen its handling of the global financial crisis, COVID-19, and most importantly, in earning the trust of its people through operational legitimacy.

In terms of freedom and human rights, there can be no freedom if you can't be safe and secure in your home, work, schools, walking the streets without fear for your life, or the need to carry protection. The first duty of a government is to provide safety to its citizens. Ironically many developed Democracies scoff at countries that can't pass this initial test while they themselves have failed it. There can be no individual human rights, if you don't have a place to shelter, food to eat, water to drink. There can be no collective human rights, if there are no systems for water, sewer, power, enactment of laws, protection of persons and property, dispute resolution, communications, transportation, schools, health care, work, economic and social mobility which allows those with the skills and diligence to rise. There can be no civil society, unless the vast majority of people believe in, and are committed to, the means and methods, of how freedoms, individual and collective human rights are protected and promulgated as the dynamics of the world changes.

My journey covered only a fraction of China. China is not perfect, but what I saw indicates that as China enters its New Era, its success will continue. As long as the Party is willing to question its assumptions, reflect, and change as change is needed, plan and implement, it will retain the confidence of its people and their need for freedom, individual and collective human rights, and a civil society.

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