At a meeting of the NPC Standing Committee on October 23, the South China Morning Post (October 24)
quoted PBSC member and NPC Chairman Li Zhanshu as saying “We need to learn from the beneficial
achievements of foreign political civilisations, but we must not abandon the fundamentals of China’s
political system. We should resolutely oppose, resist and prevent the erosive influence of so-called
‘constitutionalism’, multi-party elections, the tripartite system, the bicameral system and the independence
of the judiciary in the West" and “We should strengthen theoretical research and the propaganda
interpretation of socialist democracy with Chinese characteristics and the People’s Congress system, and
tell good stories about China’s democracy.” Xie Maosong, a political scientist at the University of the
Chinese Academy of Sciences, said top leaders had made similar remarks in the past, such as referring to
“the story of Chinese-style democracy” and that this “looks much the same, but in fact, there are subtle
differences, now they will just say ‘telling the story of China’s democracy’, which is more precise and
straightforward, and more confident. What all this means is that China’s leaders believe that democracy in
China is real democracy, whole-process democracy, that fulfils commitments. It is not a fake democracy
where Western politicians make high-profile promises during election campaigns and then don’t deliver
afterward. China is now confident that its democracy is real compared to the fake democracy of the West.”
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