President Joe Biden’s two-day “Summit for Democracy” on 9-10 December 2021 has riled China to no end, maybe because an invitation never went to it in spite of it having the world’s best form of democracy, which it calls the “whole process democracy”. An angry Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said last week, during a conversation with Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, “The US seeks to meddle in the internal affairs of other countries under the banner of democracy and abuse democratic values to create divides.” As reported by the Chinese media, Wang Yi asserted that socialist democracy with Chinese characteristics was whole-process people’s democracy, which had proved to be very popular among the Chinese people. He dismissed American democracy as beset with problems and said that it would be hypocrisy if the US claimed that it was a defender of democracy. Wang asked the international community to perform two tests, the first one being how many countries considered Washington the model of democracy. He said the results would be awkward for the US. And the second test would be to measure people’s satisfaction toward their governments, and a “certain country would be put on the spot” in this case too. China has flooded social media with posts singing paeans to Chinese-style “democracy”. Given the angst on display, it is obvious that China is extremely sensitive on this issue, making clear that “procedure”—obviously elections—does not make a country a democracy. This is in the realm of alternate, in fact spurious reality and in keeping with the Chinese habit of trying to rewrite history and now language. The shrillness of the tone is understandable, especially at a time when reports suggest that the Chinese economy is under pressure, the gap between the haves and have nots is increasing, Xi Jinping is asking his country to return to a past of austerity for the sake of “common prosperity” and is single-handedly wrecking the private sector. When there is a downslide, no wonder it’s time to repackage authoritarianism as Chinese-style democracy to a people who were given prosperity as a functioning alternative to people’s power. It also shows how badly China takes to a loss of face.
China’s reaction to Taiwan’s inclusion in the summit has been near apoplectic. The inclusion came on the heels of Xi Jinping issuing a threat to Joe Biden during their virtual meet that whoever tries “to use Taiwan to contain China” “will get burnt”. That interaction would have hardened President Biden’s resolve to invite Taiwan to the Summit and he should be commended for his action. However, in this context, it is difficult to understand the rationale behind inviting Pakistan to the Summit—a country that is ruled by the military. Also, terrorist state Pakistan is beholden to “iron brother” China, has one of the worst human rights records in the world, has led the US up the garden path in Afghanistan and has installed by force a Taliban government in Kabul. A crime should not have been rewarded by an invitation to the Summit. And then to have Pakistan reject the invitation!
Mention also must be made about India, the world’s most populous democracy, which will be present at the Biden summit and rightly so, notwithstanding the fake narrative being created by the Pak-Chinese axis about India becoming an “electoral autocracy”. However, when it comes to China, India’s silence on the way Beijing muzzled democracy in Hong Kong was baffling—for that matter even on Chinese threats to a dynamic democracy such as Taiwan. Whenever it comes to China, India’s caution can be unsettling—be it on human rights violations by China is Tibet and Xinjiang, or about China’s role in spreading the pandemic across the world. For that matter, it is surprising that India put its stamp on the statement issued by the RIC (Russia-India-China) meeting, promising participation in the Winter Olympics in Beijing. Even though India’s participation in Winter Olympics is negligible, a statement could have been made by at least announcing a diplomatic boycott of the Games, as both the US and Australia have done. Quietly turning a blind eye to China’s atrocities, or at the most make an oblique statement, does not behoove the world’s largest democracy. It’s time to stand up for India’s democratic values.