Democratization and Human Rights in China

Sakuna

Eddie

China bullet trains crash accident

- Chinese civil right activist

- visiting Professor of New York University

CHEN Guangcheng ( 陈光诚 )

• Economic Development

• Culture Change

• Leadership Inclination

Modernization hypothesis:

Democratic consolidation correlates to economic level.2

China’s GDP Growth

2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

(Source: ブルームバーグ )

単位：兆米ドル

GDP Forecast in 2050

China U.S Japan0

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

60000

70000

80000

(Source: ゴールドマン・サックス経済調査部 )

単位：兆米ドル

PPP per capital GDP3

1988 2010 20170

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

14000

16000

TaiwanChinaKorea

単位 :RMB

Chinese Government Trust Degree 4

trust92%

distrust

the Open Information of the Government Action

Power of celebrities

Profession rally driver

Best selling author

Singer

China’s popular blogger

“ 我不认为天鹅绒革命能发生在中国。”( I don’t believe that Velvet Revolution 6 can take place in China.)

“ 中共有 8 千万党员，三亿亲属，已不能被简单认为是一个党派或一个阶层了。” ( The CCP has 80 million members and 300 million people belong to families in which someone has Party membership. The Party is no longer just a political party or class.)

“ 党组织庞大到一定程度，它就是人民本身，人民就是体制本身。” (when the party organization reaches a certain size, it becomes the people itself , and people form the system.)

Power of Mass Media

Premier WEN Jiabao

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUpcQSJ0tTE

The Fourth Plenary Session of the 17th Party Congress

公推直选（ public recommendation, public election)

Xi-Li ear. (2013-2022)

Problems in China

• Environment Pollution issues• Unbalanced population in rural and urban area• Unemployment • Gap between the rich and the poor• “Freedom” to speak out• “Freedom” to use the internet• Corruption

Problems

Economic

achievements

• Democracy is a form of government in which all

eligible citizens participate equally—either directly or

through elected representatives—in the proposal,

development, and creation of laws. It encompasses

social, economic and cultural conditions that enable

the free and equal practice of political self-

determination.1

▲ Ask again: what is DEMORCRACY?

what is HUMAN RIGHTS?

▲ Is China READY for that?

Does China really NEED that?

conclusion

• “With the vote in the wrong hands, the wrong people get selected who then manipulate the electorate.”

• “Western people are not open-minded about political systems, they can’t accept that other systems might be good.”

• Deliberative Authoritarianism

Reference and Explanation

• 1 Democracy Wikipedia Retrieve from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy

• 2 Yu,L .& Dingding,C., (2012)The washington quarterly. Why China Will Democratize 35.1 (pp.41-63)

• 3 International Monetary Found, (September, 2011). World Economic Outlook Database.

• 4 Yunhan,C et.al.,(2008) How East Asians View Democracy., Columbia University Press (p.229)

• 5 Global Analysis (2012) Maintain Stability in China. Retrieve from: http

://globalanalysis2012.blogspot.jp/2012/10/maintaining-stability-in-china.html

• 6 was a non-violent revolution in Czechoslovakia that took place from November 17 to December 29,

1989. Dominated by student and other popular demonstrations against the single-party government of the

Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, it saw to the collapse of the party's control of the country, and the

subsequent conversion to a parliamentary republic.

THANK YOU

Q&A