Reacting to Washington's decision to host a "Summit for Democracy" in December, China Daily (November 27) reported Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi saying that democracy should not be privatized, labeled or politicized, and expressing strong opposition to Washington engaging in undemocratic activities under the banner of "democracy". Wang Yi said democracy is the right of all peoples, rather than an exclusive privilege of the few, adding that whether a country is democratic or not should be left to its own people to decide, rather than arbitrarily judged by a certain foreign country. He said the standard of democracy should be based on whether it meets people's needs, and whether it enables people to have enough sense of participation, satisfaction and gain. He added that "If a country can only measure the quality of its own democracy based on the sole yardstick of the US, it is actually a betrayal of the democratic spirit, let alone being true democracy." He also said "The US claims that it does not support 'Taiwan independence', yet it flagrantly offers an international platform for 'Taiwan independence' separatist forces, which only proves that it fails to honor its commitments."
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