BEIJING: China on Wednesday released a white paper arguing that it does practice democracy, even if not in a form understood elsewhere in the world. The Communist regime’s first white paper on the topic comes on the heels of a high-visibility speech by Deputy Secretary of State Robert B. Zoellick last month that criticized China as a single-party state that has made little progress toward democratic ideals.

The Chinese paper was released on the same day Defence Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld visited an elite Communist Party university in Beijing and urged this nation to become more open, forthcoming and accountable.

In the 12-part report, China says that while its system still has room for improvement, it has a ‘socialist political democracy’ that adheres to basic Marxist principles while having distinctive Chinese characteristics.

“China’s democracy is a democracy guaranteed by the people’s democratic dictatorship,” the white paper said.

Beijing in recent years has employed creative semantics such as ‘democratic dictatorship’ to justify its marriage of an increasingly pragmatic economic policy and traditional Marxist ideology.

Despite a raging economy that some have likened to the robber baron days of the late 19th century in the West, China bridles at the suggestion that it has embraced capitalism, preferring instead to label it a ‘market economy with socialist characteristics’. And when criticized on its human rights record, Beijing often argues that human rights are enshrined in its constitution and that raising a nation from poverty is the ultimate human right.

China has adopted limited democracy, allowing elections for many village committees. But villages are technically not part of the government, in the way that a neighbourhood association would not be in the West. Furthermore, despite two decades of experimentation, Beijing has not taken the next step and allowed elections in townships, the next rung up, which are part of the government.

“Trial democracy at the village level is necessary and meaningful,” said Cao Siyuan, president of the Siyuan Think Tank in Beijing. “But it’s too slow. At this pace, it might take 50 years just to get elections at the county level, which does not meet Chinese people’s expectations.”

Even where village elections are held, they are subject to political pressure. The village of Taishi in Guangdong province recently attempted to recall its local Communist Party chief amid corruption allegations over a real estate deal. Provincial authorities stepped in, several villagers and reporters were beaten up by unidentified assailants and the official kept his job.

Analysts say as communication improves and nongovernmental groups become more active, Beijing is increasingly worried that a successful, high-profile recall in one village will spur a rash of similar demands, quickly threatening the Communist Party’s monopoly on power.

On a second front, the government has introduced some limited reforms within the Communist Party for low-level party officials sometimes elected from a slate of candidates. But the vote is open only to other party members, not the general public. Nor is there any public record of vote tallies or the number of candidates involved.

Some analysts say there was more intraparty democracy in the 1980s, when more than one candidate competed for positions on the elite Central Party Committee. But the trend was reversed after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and crackdown.

Analysts said the Chinese white paper offers little evidence that the new leadership team of President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao plan to make political reform a cornerstone of their administration.

The lengthy document offers no timetable for meaningful elections, no mention of political checks and balances or making Communist Party officials subject to the rule of law.

Rather, they said, the document’s timing and content suggest its primary aim is to counter foreign criticism and signal that people should not get their hopes up, that political reform will be gradual at best.

Even as an English summary suggests that China can learn from western democracies, the Chinese version adds that it’s ‘absolutely impossible to blindly follow foreign regimes’.

“It’s part of the game,” said Jean-Philippe Beja, a senior fellow with the Center for International Studies and Research in Paris. “They need to stake out their position, and show they’re not going to go further anytime soon.” —Dawn/LAT-WP News Service