Recently, a large banner appeared in Dong Daqiao, Chaoyang district of Beijing which reads: “The people’s representatives are selected by the people, and the representatives serve the people.” Ôºà‰∫∫Ê∞뉪£Ë°®Á∫∫Ê∞ëÈÄâԺ剪£Ë°®‰∏∫‰∫∫Ê∞ëÊúçÂä° ). An expert of China’s politics explained that many such banners appear ahead of the elections later in the year. Usually they appear by the buildings of the local people’s congresses. In order to provide a better understanding of such slogans in the Chinese context, China analyst David Cowhig provided the following text to CDT:

The People’s representatives are chosen by the people, are supervised by the people and are responsible to the people.(‰∫∫Ê∞뉪£Ë°®Á∫∫Ê∞ëÈÄâÔºåÁ∫∫Ê∞ëÁõëÁù£ÔºåÂØπ‰∫∫Ê∞ëË¥üË¥£) I heard recently there is a banner over a Beijing street with words very much like these.

What do words and slogans like this mean? Do words like democracy have the same meaning in China? How can we get some context?

Looking on Google.com I didn’t find anything like the slogan, but I did on Google.cn Just goes to show that Google.cn is worth using, since it does list some Chinese articles that Google.com, large as its PRC index and database are, does not have.

What I found was a high school political lesson plan that fits the slogan and gives a little context.

The political lesson turned up in a 2005 online file of lesson outlines for a course entitled “Elementary Political General Knowledge for High School Third Year Students.” The file is a lesson for a class given by the politics department of a high school, Dehua Middle School No. 1[Dehua Yi Zhong Zhengzhizu] in Dehua, Fujian Province and was on the school website.

The discussion of democracy and dictatorship in the excerpt from the lesson plan translated below is interesting. The argument is that there is dictatorship in all democracies since the ruling classes get to run the state. China’s people’s democracy is more democratic than the so called democracies since the great majority of the people get to participate in democracy and only a few class enemies don’t. The enemies are subject to the dictatorship of the majority.

So if democracy is just shorthand for the people’s democratic dictatorship, but many Chinese want the non-people’s democratic dictatorship variety of democracy, it almost seems like the Chinese need a rebirth of Confucius to rectify names. Maybe that is what the standard image of Confucius we are hearing about is about. But having a standard image of Confucius sounds like Confucius is subject to democratic centralism, too.

For example, an excerpt on China’s political system [from the school lesson plan, translated]:

China’s Political Structure

The People exercise power through the People’s Congresses. (including the National People’s Congress and each level of local people’s congresses) The National People’s Congress is the highest power organ of the state. (the people’s congresses are power organs, of which the NPC is the highest)

Functions of the National People’s Congress (note: all the congresses are the highest in their sphere, yet only the NPC is called the highest)

The continuing organ of the NPC is the standing committee of the NPC, it exercises some of the functions of the NPC when the NPC is not in session (some but not all). What are the functions of the State Council? (Note: it is not the highest organ.)

The organizing principle and operating principle of the National People’s Congress is democratic centralism.

NPC representatives are members of the state power organ. They directly exercise state power. (In China, although all power resides in the people, but they do not directly exercise state power.) The People’s representatives are chosen by the people, are supervised by the people and are responsible to the people. They have special rights and responsibilities (understand them).

The NPC system is the fundamental political system of the PRC. Reason: The NPC is the foundation upon which all other systems for managing the state are built.

Basic Knowledge of Politics for Third Year Middle School Students

Foreword

First, the third method for studying elementary politics:

1. Class analysis. It is a class society. Reasons : one class (not all social), the most common and the most basic of political cooperation.

2. The class struggle still exists to some extent in China; in the international community the class struggle becomes more complicated. Therefore, we observe and analyze both international and domestic social phenomenon which have class struggle characteristics (ideology with class struggle characteristics uses this method; it should not be overdone), sometimes we need to use class analysis.

Second, learning the meaning and methods of learning political basic knowledge (students need to understand)

First, the meaning of state:

1. The origins of the state. The state is the product and the expression of irreconcilable class contradictions and class struggle;

2. The characteristics of the state. The state is the political power organ of class rule. (protecting the interests of the ruling class)

Secondly, the characteristics of the state or the state system.

1. Meaning. This means the position of each social class within the state. The country’s ruling class determines the characteristics of the state.

Second, Determining the nature of a state

Third, Democracy and dictatorship

Democracy (Need attention to the following three points: Within a certain range of class, what is referred to is the ruling class, therefore democracy has clear class characteristics, which express the will and interests of the ruling class; The political principles used to jointly manage state affairs; Democracy is a state system, and so includes both the meanings of state and government)

The relationship between democracy and dictatorship (should have been memorized):

A democratic system is a combination of democracy of the rulers and the dictatorship exercised with respect to the ruled classes. (Note: This is a democratic system, an authoritarian state is not (such as a feudal state) China has a democratic system and so Chinese democracy is an integrated blend of democracy and dictatorship.



State functions:

Relationship between state functions and the characteristics of the state

What are the kinds of functions of the state with respect to the domestic and the foreign; how do they differ.

China’s state system:

The state system includes the state and the political system.

The PRC is a socialist country under the people’s democratic dictatorship. Know the meaning of the people’s democratic dictatorship, and how to understand its meaning. (The leadership of the working class is the most important characteristic of the Chinese state), The worker-peasant alliance is the class basis of state power. (The social foundation of state power is the people in general, this more broadly based than its class foundation)

The people’s democratic dictatorship in China is a new type of democracy (the first time democracy was achieved for the great majority of the people; this Chinese people’s democracy is broad and authentic), and a new type of dictatorship (which puts into practice the dictatorship of the great majority over a small minority of enemies) is an important basis for China.

The fundamental nature of the Chinese people’s democratic dictatorship is to make the people the masters in their own home.

Reasons why we must uphold the people’s democratic dictatorship:

Upholding the people’s democratic dictatorship is the foundation of the country, is one of the four cardinal principles that have been enshrined in our constitution.

Upholding the people’s democratic dictatorship is a political guarantee for the socialist modernization drive.

Upholding the people’s democratic dictatorship as it has been given new meaning through the history of reform and opening up and the conditions of our times.