Democracy with Chinese Characteristics

As China celebrates a new lunar year, its leadership has a lot to contemplate. China's new president Xi Jin Ping faces the challenges of slowing economic growth, environmental constraints of China's trends towards urbanization, an aging population, and most importantly a loss of face for the Communist Party itself. In recent years, local and provincial governments in China have revealed bureaucratic atrocities that have left unkind reflections of the party as a whole to the media and general public. From the Bo Xi Lai scandal to the public uprising in the city of Wukan, Guangdong, the CCP is increasingly being viewed as an illegitimate source of leadership. This is why earlier this year according to Xinhua News Network, President Xi proclaimed "We must have the resolution to fight every corrupt phenomenon, punish every corrupt official and constantly eradicate the soil which breeds corruption, so as to earn people's trust with actual results." President Xi continued by promising that abuses of power will be "reined within [a] cage of regulations." Xi Jin Ping shows foresight by recognizing the problem now before it's too late. As China's economic growth starts to slow down with millions still in poverty waiting for the benefits of state capitalism to trickle down, the CCP's legitimacy problem will begin to yield consequences at the national level. 

But how should the new president address the issue of party corruption, and what should be the objective in doing so? The end is obvious, maintaining legitimacy, and the means to such legitimacy must be transparency, and the CCP can ensure transparency at the local level of government by implementing a solution that I call democracy with Chinese characteristics. 

This system would require local governments to be coupled with elected citizen committees. The purpose of these committees is purely for the sake of transparency and to provide a voice for concerned citizens. In essence they will serve as public watch dogs to ensure that local party cadres are acting within the confines of the law established by the national government. These elected bodies will consist of a President and Vice President elected to 4 year terms, and a group of 6 to 8 other members elected to 2 year terms. Each of these 2 year members will oversee one particular policy area namely education, environment, business/management, infrastructure and development, healthcare, media relations, agriculture/ farmers' interests (where applicable), and labor/workers' interest (where applicable). These choices are designed to cover a diverse array of special interests within civil society and can be trailered to fit the needs of the area applied. For instance, the labor representative can be changed to mining representative in areas where the primary source of employment is mineral extraction and the environmental representative can be changed to parks and recreation executive in an area with little environmental degradation but with rich amounts of public parkland or historical heritage sites. A minority or women's right's representative can also be added in larger cities or autonomous regions.

 Naturally, each of the representatives elected must be required to have extensive experience in the field of the office they are running for. For example, doctors for healthcare, business leaders for business/management, a factory worker for labor, a teacher or school administrator for education, a journalist for media relations ect. The President and Vice President should be reserved for candidates who are very familiar with the Chinese legal code and constitution for they will be the representatives who determine if a local cadre has overstepped the boundaries established by Chinese law by committing an abuse of power. Viable candidates would include lawyers, policemen, judges, and previous members of the Chinese government.The President will serve as the face of the elected body and the manager of council meetings and orders of business as well as the chief diplomat between the elected council and the local government. He or she will also serve as the consultatory source of knowledge on Chinese law to other members of the council. Vice President will serve as President in the event of the President's death, resignation, or temporary leave. 

Each member will have the duty to investigate and analyze a policy that concerns their area of expertise and report their assessment to the public. A policy will naturally overlap the jurisdictions of several representatives on the citizens's council. This is exactly the reason why so many groups must be represented. For instance, if a new chemical factory is being proposed for construction, the environmental representative, the business representative, and the labor representative all can provide a valuable voice on the potential costs and benefits to public welfare. If a new highway is being proposed for construction across land owned by farmers, the infrastructure and agriculture representatives would both be consulted to determine the value of the land being built upon as well as the structural integrity of the highway being constructed. If a policy is being considered concerning the education of the children of migrant workers, the labor representative and education executive would review the reforms proposed to the determine the potential benefit to migrant worker communities and the potential challenges that educational institutions would face with a new wave of students joining already crowded facilities. After hearing all the interests concerned, the council can vote on approving or disapproving the proposed policy. While the local government can chose to ignore the advice of the council, the council still gives the perception that a public voice is being heard. 

However, if the council determines and proves that a local government official has abused the power of his or her office through bribery, threats, or by harming the public welfare in any way for personal gain, they will have the power to remove them from office by a 2/3rds vote. As mentioned earlier, only the president can confirm whether a member of the local government has committed such an act, since they are the de facto legal expert and consultant. If an official is removed from office,  the central government can then chose another party member to replace the disgraced official, one that is more fit to accept the responsibilities of the leadership position. 

This solution is by no means full proof. Local government policymaking in China is often dominated by back room deals, bribery, and personal relationships (Gaunxi). An elected council will not be immune to such behavior. Elected officials in the US are in many ways congruent with their appointed counterparts in China. It's easy to see how such a system could be corrupted if a local official simply bribes council members into keeping quite and turning a blind eye. Still such a system would require local officials to bribe a considerable amount of people into getting away with an abuse of power, thereby reducing the incentive for such behavior, and an idealist like me has hope that not all of those who chose to campaign for office would do so simply for personal gain. 

This is a solution made to settle the anxieties of both sides, the CCP and the citizens of China. I don't think the people of China want to see their government overthrown, and they want to believe in their political leadership just like anywhere else. But such desires are unattainable in the face of illegal land seizures, environmental health disasters and the helpless status of migrant workers. These councils will give people in China the perception that they are actually able to voice their concerns to the government in a safe, legal and effective way. It will also provide a necessary amount of transparency to warrant legitimacy. In doing so it will benefit the CCP by stabilizing their hold on power despite slowing economic growth, environmental health problems and an aging population. The CCP can't rely on fear alone to preserve its hold on power in the face of such environmental challenges. It must also rely on sustainable sources of power such as admiration and the legitimacy of its leadership position.