China’s democracy is about social concerns, not ‘who’s the coolest, who’s the handsomest’
Beijing does not try to teach democracy with Chinese characteristics to other peoples. At first glance democracy with Chinese characteristics looks as unusual as Chinese characters. There is no alphabet and there are no letters in Chinese but whole words written in the form of characters. Chinese democracy also operates not with individuals but with masses of people.
China's political system today is as different from Western democracy as Chinese characters are from the Latin or Cyrillic alphabets. But it does not make this system inferior or less attractive. The Chinese call their political system "people-centered socialist democracy" and they have gained remarkable and globally eye-catching social and economic achievements. They have also developed an efficient market economy, which is the second biggest in the world. In the past 10 years they have rapidly improved the livelihoods of Chinese people and eliminated poverty for the first time in human history. Per capita GDP as well as national GDP have doubled and the middle class is now about 450 million people.
Justin Yifu Lin on China's reform path and "shock therapy"
[China] embarked on a different development path in 1978 and have achieved impressive results, but why has the narrative of the “Collapse of China” persisted over the past 40 years? How come we keep hearing the narrative about the imminent collapse of China’s economy? The main reason is that our way of thinking on transformation is different from the prevailing one in the world at that time.
Four Major Changes in China’s Overall Social Structure
China has witnessed seismic changes in its overall social structure since the reform and opening up. The former social classes and strata, such as farmers, workers, and intellectuals, have changed, and many new social classes have emerged. Regarding these changes, Lu Xueyi put forward the view of “ten classes”, which is, in fact, an explanation of occupational stratification.
The ABCF mission is to build a deeper understanding between the Chinese people and Barbadians and Caribbean people from all walks of life. The association’s focus is on personal experiences, people-to-people contact, cultural exchanges and exchanges of ideas, and the facilitation of travel, business and study. From the outset we aim to learn from and build on the experiences of the Caribbean and China, and to develop mutual understandings and support that will be to the benefit of both sides.
