Xi Jinping’s “New Era” and the Future of “Chinese Democracy” (Zhongguo de Minzhu)

Abstract: Starting from China’s willingness to think democracy outside  the Western conceptual framework, and in an attempt to distance our selves from both the Eurocentric perspective and the one that supports  Chinese exceptionalism, this essay offers a reflection on the meaning of  the concept of democracy in China (minzhu 民主) adopting a concep tual history approach from a global viewpoint. The discourse on de mocracy has generally served the Communist Party to emphasize its  leading role as representative of all social classes. Considering this evo lution, the recent proliferation of discourse on democracy propagated  by Xi Jinping should come as no surprise. Since the beginning of his first  term, he has forged his own version of democracy, describing the Chi nese democratic system as an intra-party consultative and deliberative  process based on meritocracy. Xi Jinping defines the democratic model  as changeable and adaptable to the peculiarities of each context, pro posing for the first time in 2019, at the height of the clashes with  Trump, the expression “Whole-process People’s democracy” (quan  guocheng minzhu, 全过程民主).  

Keywords: Contemporary Chinese Political Thought- CCP- Chinese De mocracy -Chinese Political System – Xi Jinping