China, posterboy of illiberal 'democracy'

Different people react to uncomfortable questions and opinions differently. The liberal reaction is usually to come up with an adequate comeback. Less liberal ripostes are dodging the issue altogether and then gathering reasons to explain why such a ‘rude’ question was asked or opinion aired. Then there is the ‘Chinese reaction’ – as again displayed this week when financial journalist Wu Xiaobo was banned from social media along with two others for ‘spreading smears against the development of the securities market’ and ‘hyping up the unemployment rate’.

Beijing’s mandarins don’t take anything short of praise lightly. Many of China’s citizens, too, ra-ra along, condemning such ‘acts of anti-nationalism’ as a galling affront to their stakeholdership in their country’s continuing Great Leap Forward. This is ‘democracy’ with Chinese characteristics, one that is ill-willed, ill-prepared to confront, never mind tackle, genuine questions that don’t go with the rest of the BHP – Big Happy Picture. China’s constitutional description of itself is as a ‘People’s democratic dictatorship’. The democratic (liberal and illiberal) world focuses on the last word, while China sees only the first two. Which is why there’s always China to make less liberal democracies – like, say, Russia – feel good about their own democracies.