Video: Chinese democracy, Asian democracy, it works!

Video: Chinese democracy, Asian democracy, it works! But most racist Chinese haters never set foot in HK, Singapore or Shanghai to experience it. 中國民主，亞洲民主，行得通！ 但大多數仇視中國的種族主義者從未踏足香港、新加坡或上海去體驗它.

https://vimeo.com/656412912
https://youtu.be/OYNFYuGSpSE
https://www.facebook.com/100036400039778/posts/620851112471551/?d=n

Scores of articles are discussing the shrinkage of Western liberal democracy around the world—and contrasting it with its alternative, authoritarianism, portrayed as a terrible system creating dystopian societies.

The trouble is that anyone who has travelled even a little bit quickly sees the dichotomy is completely fake. Singapore, Shanghai, Hong Kong – they may not count as Western liberal democracies, but its clearly ridiculous to portray them as dystopias.
The fact is, some of the foundational texts of Western liberal democracy actually recommend a different option for places in Asia.

In his book On Liberty, published in 1869, John Stuart Mill says that liberal democracy is a good thing for everyone except for developing countries. For those, “Despotism” was “legitimate… provided the end be their improvement”.

In the 1940s, British colonial official Lord Malcolm Hailey said his country exercised power over Asia and Africa “as part of the movement for the betterment of the backward peoples of the world”.

Asia’s alternative system is sometimes defined in just two words. The classic Western formulation is “benign dictatorship”. Benign means kind. That was what British colonial leaders of Hong Kong liked to call their period of governance, in which a handful of foreigners made the decisions but held regular democratic consultations. Some political scientists prefer “illiberal democracy” or “consultative authoritarianism”. In China they like “full-process democracy”.

Spanish speakers use dictablanda and the Portuguese talk of ditabranda. These terms indicate leaders who are labelled dictators by outsiders but who are actually widely appreciated by their citizens. Xi Jinping’s China is clearly a ditabranda society.

Media commentators today can point their fingers at a system which combines strong leadership with consultative democracy and call it whatever they like. I just call them “Asian democracy”. It works.