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URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.86.10420

couldn’t fit into China’s special situation, because China claims that its economic system is

“socialist market economy with Chinese characteristics”.3 If that is the case, then the next

question needs to be answer is what it actually does mean.

Nonetheless, China’s special situation seemingly has nothing to do with culture, since it cannot

explain why Taiwan can be a democratic country based on the same or similar culture

background. If culture doesn’t play a role in explaining China’s special situation, then what

does? We may find a clue from China leaders’ statement about ‘not to copy the Western political

system’.4 There must be a philosophy behind China leaders’ statement, otherwise how come

China leaders are so confident that they are able not to learn from the other political system.

Therefore, one may say that it is about identity. According to Cambridge Dictionary, identity

means who a person is, or the qualities of a person or group that make them different from

others. 5 Benedict Anderson defines a nation as socially constructed community which is

imagined by the people who perceive themselves as part of that group.6 If China leaders would

like to regard them as different from Western countries, it is hard to find more suitable concept

to describe this complex other than identity. As a result, this paper will elaborate how identity

is formed and how it makes China difficult to move on the road of democratization.

There are two different way to describe democratization. One is to use basic criteria of

democracy, as Juan J. Linz and Alfred Stepan state that democratization needs to have open

competition to take government power,7 the other is to emphasize that democratization is the

transition process from authoritarian regime to democratic regime, as David Potter says that

democratization is political change to the direction of democracy.8 The former one is easy to

confuse with the concept of democracy, so this paper will use the latter definition of

democratization. In other words, this paper prefers to define democratization as the changing

process from non-democratic system to democratic system. If it fails to establish democratic

system, the political change cannot be defined as democratization.

The purpose of the paper is to answer the question why China hasn’t democratized. Firstly, it

will lay out some cases to prove imitating the Western system kind of Chinese tradition; it is

groundless to say not to copy the Western system. Secondly, this paper will discuss the first

factor behind China’s identity and the reasons for that. Thirdly, this paper will cover the second

factor behind China’s identity and explain why that matters. Fourthly, this paper will show the

3 Alan Wong and Viola Zhou, “Is China socialist? A long (and better) answer”, 2018,

https://www.inkstonenews.com/china-translated/china-translated-china-socialist/article/2161467. 4 Zhengsheng Yu, “ China will not copy Western political systems”, China Daily, March 12, 2013,

http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/2013-03/12/content_16303372.htm 5 Cambridge Dictionary, Identity,

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/zht/%E8%A9%9E%E5%85%B8/%E8%8B%B1%E8%AA%9E/identity

6 Benedict R. Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (Revised and

extended. ed.), (London: Verso, 1991), pp. 6–7. 7 Juan J. Linz and Alfred Stepan, Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation: South Europe, South America,

and Post-Communist Europe,(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

1996),p.1

8 David Potter, “Explaining Democratization”, p.3; Robert Dahl also argues, on the way, but only on the way in Robert

A. Dahl, On Democracy, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998), p.22.

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third factor behind China’s identity and elaborate why it happens like this. Finally, there are

conclusions of the paper. Maybe there are some other factors behind China’s identity, which

might need further paper of other colleagues to find out.

IMITATING THE WESTERN SYSTEM IS KIND OF CHINESE TRADITION

When China leader boldly argued that they would not copy the Western political system,

probably they forgot that to learn from other countries’ system was kind of tradition. That

means that we may find lots of cases in Chinese history. ‘The Hundred Days' Reform’ or ‘Wuxu

Reform’ was kind of movement to copy the Western national, cultural, political, and educational

system that occurred from 11 June to 22 September 1898 in late Qing dynasty China.9If the

Hundred Days' Reform did not fail, the present China probably would be a totally different one

today.

Japan had same experience in learning from the West with the subsequent major political,

economic, and social change, especially putting focus on Western learning in 1868 as ‘Meiji

Restoration’ that brought about the modernization and Westernization of the country. 10

Ironically they observed what happening in nearby China, decided to adopt the slogan “Enrich

the country, strengthen the army” (Fukoku kyōhei), and sought to create a nation-state capable

of standing equal among Western powers.11 Japan defeated China in 1894 and Russia in 1905

respectively at war that proved ‘Meiji Restoration’ effectively to help them reach the objective

of capable of standing equal among Western powers, which was one of the driving forces behind

China’s May Fourth Movement.

May Fourth Movement is another case for China to learn from the Western system that

happened in 1918. As Spence argues, “Chinese nationalists called for a rejection of traditional

values and the adoption of Western ideals of ‘Mr. Science’ and ‘Mr. Democracy’ in place of ‘Mr.

Confucius’ in order to strengthen the new nation”.12 There was no indigenous source for Science

and Democracy in China when May Fourth Movement was launched. If China were unwilling to

copy the West system, it was almost impossible to see Science and Democracy growing in

China’s own land. However, the bottom-up movement was unable to change the system on the

top, so that we didn’t see the same effect of movement happened in China as ‘Meiji Restoration’

did in Japan.

China leaders might forget that May Fourth Movement spurred the successful reorganization

of the Nationalist Party (Kuomintang), later ruled by Chiang Kai-shek, and stimulated the birth

of the Chinese Communist Party(CCP)as well.13 In other words, if there was no such a

movement trying to copy the Western system, we may not see the CCP is still ruling China today.

As a result, CCP should have thanked the idea of copying the Western system, not the other way

around.

9 Paul E. Eckel, (1948). The Far East since 1500. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company. pp. 278–280. 10 The editor, “Meiji Restoration”, Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/event/Meiji-Restoration 11 Ibid. 12 Jonathan D. Spence. The Gate of Heavenly Peace: The Chinese and Their Revolution, 1895-1980. (New York:

Viking Press, 1981), pp. 117-123. 13 The editor, “May Fourth Movement”, Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/event/May-Fourth-Movement