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There is no other country on Earth, which is changing lives of its ordinary people for better, so rapidly and with such determination. And it is happening because of the system, because of the Communist Party's leadership, and because of the NPC. Some people ask me: "Do you think China's democracy, or the political system of Party's leadership, and NPC can improve people's livelihood?" I always answer: "Not only they can, but they do; day by day, year by year!"
Those who deny it either don't know China, or are simply sore losers.
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Unlike in the West, Chinese leaders are listening attentively to their people. China is 'direct democracy', and it functions without huge army of political parties. I don't want to exaggerate and say that the 'leadership in China is afraid of the people', but is definitely respecting and listening to them.
It is nothing new: it has been this way for centuries and millennia, since the "Heavenly Mandate" was born. To rule, to be 'at the top', could never be taken for granted. To rule, in China, also means 'to serve'. Arrogance and self-indulgence was rarely accepted, and when it was, it was a warning signal that the country was in decline.
Recently, in Claremont, Ca., I discussed China with a great U.S. Whiteheadean philosopher, John Cobb Jr., who has been, for years and decades deeply involved in China, particularly in the "Ecological civilization" project. He replied:
I think that in China, many leaders actually do genuinely care about the well-being of their nation.
Something that could be hardly said about the leadership in the West.
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When Chinese people sent clear signals to the top that they want more economic freedoms, more consumer goods, and that they want to be able to freely travel abroad, Deng Xiaoping launched sweeping reforms.
Some people agreed with those reforms; some didn't. But that is what the majority at that time, truly wanted. Party and the government were only responding to people's demands.
Decades later, people got tired of so many elements of the market system; of growing inequality, environmental issues and negative by-products of the super-rapid economic growth. And they were listened to again. President Xi Jinping put great emphasis on the environment ("Ecological Civilization"), on the great Chinese culture, and above all on improving lives of all Chinese people no matter where they live. Powerful and progressive model of "Socialism with Chinese Characteristics" was reinvented, improved and put to work with new determination and zeal.
Result: soon, perhaps as early as by 2020, there will be no pockets of extreme poverty, anywhere on the territory of the People's Republic of China. If this is not socialism, that what really is?
All this is clearly proof of the Chinese democracy at work. Even when there are protests, when people are demanding changes, look closely what many of them are holding in their hands: they are waving the little red flags of the Communist Party of China; definitely not some symbols of the Western regime.
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What will be remembered about all this in hundreds of years from now?
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