Division-inciting, US-style democracy denounced

Beijing has denounced Washington's attempt to turn democracy into a tool and a weapon to incite division and confrontation in order to preserve its hegemony over the world.

The Foreign Ministry issued a spokesperson's statement on Saturday after the United States concluded the two-day so-called "Summit for Democracy", to which it invited only countries and regions it deemed "democratic".

The ministry spokesperson's statement gives rise to the question of whether the US, given the nature of its democracy, is qualified to make that appraisal.

"The US is not a 'beacon of democracy', and the US-style democracy has deviated from the essence of democracy," the statement said.

The dysfunction of US-style democracy is a fact that cannot be covered up, the statement said, adding that its problems like money politics, identity politics, partisanship, political polarization, social division, racial tension and the wealth gap are getting worse.

US-style democracy is a money-based game for the rich, it said, with 91 percent of congressional elections being won by candidates who have greater financial support.

US-style democracy is "one person one vote" in name, but the "rule of the minority elite" in reality; the general public are wooed when their votes are wanted but ignored once the election is over, the statement said.

US-style democracy puts partisan interests above national development, it said, and its purported system of checks and balances has devolved into a "vetocracy".

"The flaws of such an electoral system are self-evident," the statement said, adding that the rampant use of gerrymandering to manipulate the division of electoral districts has compromised fairness and justice.

Despite the structural flaws and problematic practice of its democratic system, the statement said, the US has turned democracy into a "weapon of mass destruction" to interfere in other countries' affairs, which does not work and has had disastrous consequences.

According to the statement, the US has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, caused millions of injuries, and displaced tens of millions of people with its wars and military operations in many places including Afghanistan and Iraq since 2001.

"As US media commented, if there is one country that is still seeking global hegemony, coercing other countries and defying rules in the 21st century, it must be the United States," the statement said.

China holds that a country's path to democracy should be chosen independently by its own people in accordance with its national conditions and realities, rather than imposed from outside.

China practices whole-process people's democracy and its democracy is people's democracy, the essence and core of which is making sure that the people are the masters of the country, the statement said.

Facing the impact of COVID-19 and major changes unseen in a century, the statement called for choosing solidarity over division, dialogue over confrontation, and democracy over hegemony.