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Advantages of China's Political System The China Model Works Exceptionally Well

China's One-Party System is Proving its Superiority On March 10, Singapore's zaobao.com published an opinion written by its columnist Song Luzhen entitled "Why China is Superior to the West in the Political System". In his article, Song pointed out that the great achievements of the China Model will undoubtedly lead to a global study of it, but all of these studies have one flaw in common: they evade the great importance of China's political system. Actually, he wrote, the really unique characteristic of China is its effective political system, which is the reason China could make great economic achievements and pave a completely different way to modernization named The China Model. Six Advantages of The China Model The author summarized six major advantages of China's political system compared with the Western multi-party system. 1.  The first advantage, he wrote, is that under the one-party system，China could formulate a long-term plan for national development and ensure stabilization of its policies without being affected by the alternation of parties with different positions and ideologies. 2.  The second one lies in its high efficiency and prompt and effective reaction to emerging challenges and opportunities. Song added that this is especially true in response to sudden and catastrophic accidents, and provided some examples. Terminal Three of the Beijing Capital International Airport built for the Beijing Olympics was finished in three years, which would not be even enough time for the approval process in the West. In 2008, after the 'once in a generation' Wenchuan earthquake that hit Sichuan, China impressed the whole world by its fast and efficient response. The Shanghai-Beijing HSR - 1,300 Kms. of rail, took two years to build and cost about $10 billion. The UK is proposing a track of only 400 Kms, which they estimate will take 10 years to construct and will cost between 35 billion and 50 billion Euros. 3.  The third is its effective containment of corruption during this social transition development period. Song pointed out that China is in a period of economic prosperity and social transition, a time when throughout human history all developing countries generally face large amounts of corruption . The West enjoys broadcasting accusations of corruption about China. However, compared with India and Russia in the same period, China has far less corruption, faces it openly, and deals with it firmly. 4.  The fourth is a more responsible government. Song said that, in democratic societies, officials are elected with fixed terms and cannot be put out of power before the expiration. Once their terms expire, elected officials will not be blamed or held personally accountable for any problems. In China, however, the Principal Officials Accountability System has been steadily improved, and officials will be, and are, held responsible for their incompetence, negligence of duty or mistakes at any time. 5.  The fifth one, he stressed, lies in its government personnel training and selection system and avoiding the waste of talented people. In practice, China's systems of selection from one level to another, and conscious personnel training, are much superior to the West's election system. 6.  The last one is that only one party can truly represent the whole people. Song wrote that under the Western multi-party system, each party represents different interest groups. But in China, since the reform and opening up, economic policies have been made without special bias in favor of any interest groups. Editor's Note: This was originally adapted from an article that appeared in the China Daily, 2010-03-19 Return to Index