By Yew Lun Tian

BEIJING (Reuters – China, which wasn’t invited to the Summit for Democracy in Washington DC has begun to highlight the many benefits of the country’s “whole-process democracy”.

Recent weeks saw diplomats and Chinese media intensify criticism of America’s democracy.

It is generally believed that the Communist Party-ruled China has become more authoritarian in recent years under President Xi Jinping. The phrase “whole process democracy” was first used in 2019 and became law in March.

China wasn’t asked to participate in the event held by Biden on Dec. 9-10, however Beijing claimed Taiwan.

Le Yucheng, Vice Foreign Minister, described Washington as “very contrary to democracy”, because it was divisive, and pointed fingers at other countries.

Le stated that China’s entire-process democracy was not one that wakes up during voting, but goes back to sleep after,” he told the foreign media on Thursday at an event in Beijing.

China will publish a whitepaper on democracy this Saturday. It calls its version consultative. Voting is allowed at the local level, and feedback from the public can be collected prior to any law being implemented.

This definition doesn’t include an independent judiciary or free media.

Zhang Weiwei was the director of Fudan University’s China Institute. He said at that same event, “too foolish” to associate democracy with elections. These can be controlled by interests groups, money and disinformation via social media.

China’s promotion of its own model for politics is meant to increase its legitimacy and appeal to emerging countries.

Charles Parton (a former British diplomat, a senior associate fellow at The Royal United Services Institute) told Reuters, “Xi has used for a long time the claim that party’s governance is superior than that of the West”

Eric Li, a Chinese Venture Capitalist, was asked Thursday at the event why Beijing seemed obsessed with comparing itself against Washington.