Dong Yunhu, vice-minister of the State CouncilInformation Office, delivered a speech at the fourth BaliDemocracy Forum on Thursday. Text below:

I am very glad to have this opportunity to attend thefourth Bali Democracy Forum. Today, state leaders andexperts from different countries gather together at Bali,the beautiful "Flower Island," to share experiences andexchange views of developing democracy, and exploreways to promote the democratic development of our owncountries. It carries great significance in this era, whenthe world focuses its attention on Asia and is generallyoptimistic about the prospects for its development. Firstof all, I would like to express my heart-felt thanks to theIndonesian government for its kind invitation andthoughtful arrangements, and extend my warmcongratulations to the success of this forum.

Democracy is a significant achievement during theprogress of human society and an important symbol ofmodern civilization. It is not only the common pursuit ofpeople all over the world, but also the important goal ofthe revolution, construction, reform and development ofChina. For more than 100 years in modern times, theChinese people had indomitably fought againstimperialism and feudal autocracy to achieve nationalliberation and democracy for the people. In 1949, underthe leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the Chinese people won a great victoryin the New Democracy Revolution, founded the People's Republic of China and realized theirrights as masters of the country. After the founding of New China, the Chinese government andits people went through all kinds of hardships and setbacks to explore ways to build anddevelop socialist democracy in such a big oriental country, at the time poor andunderdeveloped. Since the reform and opening up, the Chinese government and its people,based on the country's unique situations, have unswervingly advanced reforms in both itseconomic and political structure. Continuously improving the democratic system and enrichingthe forms of democracy, we have actively promoted democracy in the country's political andsocial life. We expanded citizens' orderly political participation and successfully blazed a path ofdevelopment for socialist political democracy with Chinese characteristics. We have infusedvigorous vitality for China's peaceful rise.

China's political democracy, adhering to the universal value and the basic principles ofdemocracy, has distinct Chinese characteristics.

First, China's democracy is the people's democracy, that is, people are masters of the country.The essence of China's socialist democracy is that the people are masters of the country.According to the Constitution, all power in the People's Republic of China belongs to thepeople. The National People's Congress and the local people's congresses at various levelsare the organs through which the people exercise state power. Having a unicameral legislaturethe National People's Congress China did not adopt the system with the separation of threebranches or a two-chamber parliament democracy. The National People's Congress is thehighest organ of state power. All administrative, judicial and procuratorial organs of the stateare created by the people's congresses to which they are responsible and by which they aresupervised. The people's congresses exercise the powers of legislation, supervision,appointment and removal of officials, and make decisions on major issues; the administrativeorgans are responsible for implementing laws, resolutions and decisions adopted by thepeople's congresses, and courts and procuratorates, in accordance with the laws, exercise thejudicial and procuratorial power independently and respectively. The National People'sCongress and the local people's congresses at various levels are constituted throughdemocratic elections. They are responsible to the people and subject to their supervision.Deputies to the people's congresses at the county and township level are directly elected bytheir constituencies; deputies to the people's congresses above the county level are elected bythe people's congresses at the next lower level. Deputies to the people's congresses at variouslevels come from different ethnic groups, industries, social strata and parties. They hence havea broad representation of the society. In practice, it has been proven that the people'scongress system is China's fundamental political system to ensure the people's position asmasters of the country.

Second, China's democracy is to implement the system of multi-party cooperation and politicalconsultation under the leadership of the CPC. In addition to the CPC, there are eight otherpolitical parties in China: Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang, ChinaDemocratic League, China Democratic National Construction Association, China Association forPromoting Democracy, Chinese Farmers and Workers Democratic Party, China Zhi GongParty, Jiu San Society and Taiwan Democratic Self-Government League. The system of multi-party cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the CPC is a political partysystem with distinct Chinese characteristics, which was established and has been developedduring the long-time cooperation between the CPC and eight other democratic parties in thecourse of the Chinese revolution, construction and reform. It's different from both the two-partyor multi-party competition system and the one-party system practiced in some countries. Itssalient characteristics are: multi-party cooperation under the leadership of the CPC, with theCPC holding power and the democratic parties participating fully in state affairs. The eightdemocratic parties are close friends of the CPC. They unite and cooperate with the latter intheir participation in state affairs, instead of being opposition parties or out-of-power parties.The CPC takes a leading role in the country's political principle, political orientation, and majorpolicies and programs. These democratic parties participate in the exercise of state power, theconsultation in fundamental state policies and the choice of state leaders, the administration ofstate affairs, and the formulation and implementation of state policies, laws and regulations.They also exercise democratic supervision over the work of the party in power and the stateorgans through diversified channels and means. As a basic political system with people'sdemocracy, the system of multi-party cooperation and political consultation under theleadership of the CPC is not adversarial or competitive like the one in Western countries, butcollaborative and consultative. It can achieve wide political participation of the democraticparties, mass organizations and people of all walks of life, and promote the scientific anddemocratic decision-making of the party in power and the governments at all levels. Moreover,it can avoid both the problem of insufficient supervision common under one party rule, andpolitical chaos and a lack of stability and unity that may be caused by the disputes and strifeamong several parties.

Third, China's democracy is based on equality, unity and mutual assistance among all ofChina's ethnic groups. China is a unified multi-ethnic country. Besides Han, there are 55 ethnicminority groups. In order to guarantee equal rights among all ethnic groups and specialinterests of ethnic minorities, China practices the system of regional ethnic autonomy in areaswhere people of ethnic minorities live in compact communities. There, government organs areestablished to exercise the autonomous rule. China currently has 155 ethnic autonomousareas, including five autonomous regions, 30 autonomous prefectures and 120 autonomouscounties (banners). In addition, there are 1,173 townships where ethnic minorities live inconcentrated communities. According to law, ethnic minorities not only enjoy equal rights toparticipate in the administration of state affairs, but also have the exclusive right to govern thelocal affairs of their ethnic groups and other affairs within their respective administrativeregions. The ethnic autonomous areas have the power to formulate autonomous regulationsand separate regulations on the basis of the political, economic and cultural characteristics ofthe local ethnic group(s). Where certain provisions of the laws and administrative regulationsare concerned, adaptation may be made in autonomous regulations and separate regulations.They also have the power to independently arrange, manage and develop the local economic,social and cultural undertakings. The head of an ethnic autonomous area shall be a citizen ofthe ethnic group exercising regional autonomy in the area concerned. The country providesspecial support in terms of policy, capital and personnel, speeds up the economic, social andcultural development in ethnic minority areas, and ensures all ethnic groups have the freedomto use and develop their own spoken and written languages, have the freedom to preserve orchange their own folkways and customs, and enjoy the freedom of religious beliefs. In practice,it has been proven that the system of regional ethnic autonomy is a significant system toguarantee that all ethnic groups work together for their common development and prosperity.

Fourth, China's democracy is to practice extensive self-governance at the grassroots level. Thegrassroots democratic self-governance system is the most effective and widely-used way forthe people to directly exercise their democratic rights and realize their positions as masters ofthe country. China has now established a grassroots democratic self-governance system,which mainly includes the rural villagers' committee, the urban neighborhood committee and theconference of workers and staff in business organizations. In these grassroots massorganizations of self-governance in urban and rural areas, the Chinese people directly exercisetheir legal rights of democratic election, democratic decision-making, democratic managementand democratic supervision, so that they can manage the public affairs and welfareundertakings of their grassroots organizations and communities by themselves. This is a greatachievement during the development of China's political democracy. In particular, it hasbecome the most direct and widely-used democratic practice in contemporary China tosuccessfully implement villagers' self-governance in rural areas with a total population ofaround 700 million. That has greatly aroused the enthusiasm of the masses living in rural areasand enhanced their creativity and sense of responsibility.

Fifth, China's democracy is to implement the rule of law. It is an important principle for China'sbuilding of political democracy to integrate the people's status as masters of the country andthe rule of law. Since the reform and opening up, China has been adhering to the basicstrategy of governing the country according to law, actively promoting the building of a socialistcountry under the rule of law, continuously improving the legal system to guarantee people'sdemocratic rights, and making great efforts to bring all work of the state under the rule of law.By pushing forward the institutionalization, standardization and proceduralization of politicaldemocracy, China has strode ahead on the road of democracy and the rule of law, and openedup a new realm in the development of human political civilization. Now, the socialist system oflaws with Chinese characteristics has been established, with the Constitution reigning supremeand the laws, administrative and regional regulations at various levels as the majorcomponents. There are laws to abide by not only for carrying on state affairs and social life, butalso in legislation, judicial, governance and administration activities. The system of people'sdemocracy is hence under reliable legal protection.

Sixth, China's democracy is to put people first, respect and safeguard human rights.Respecting and safeguarding human rights is the important content and purpose of China'spolitical democracy. Since the reform and opening up, the Chinese government has embracedrespecting and safeguarding human rights as one of the major principles for managing stateaffairs, applied it to the various fields of economy, politics, culture and social construction, andcontinuously promoted the development of its human rights protection and modernization.Especially, during this new century, the principle of respecting and safeguarding human rightshas been enshrined in China's Constitution and the Constitution of the Communist Party ofChina. China has been the first among the world powers to promulgate and implement anational plan on human rights protection, the National Human Rights Action Plan of China(2009-2010). The plan promotes the all-round development of its human rights. Now, China isdrafting a new national human rights action plan for the period from 2012 to 2015, the secondof its type in China. For more than 30 years, the nation's poverty-stricken population has beenreduced by more than 200 million. The overall living standard of the Chinese people hascompleted two historical leaps, from poverty to subsistence, and then to being well-off. With anaverage life expectancy of up to 73 years, all Chinese people have gained dignity and morefreedom to lead their lives in their own ways.

From the practices of China's building of political democracy, we have obtained the followingimplications:

First, the development of democracy must hold on to and always adhere to the essence ofdemocracy. There are various definitions for democracy, among which the most fundamental, Ithink, is that the government should follow the will of its people and act according to the will andrequirements of most people. This is the essence of democracy, and also the touchstone tojudge and examine whether a political system is democratic. If a government, against theinterests and requirements of the majority, acts according to the will of a minority andimplements its "democracy" in a variety of dazzling yet superficial forms, it will not be democracyin the true sense. The greatest characteristics and advantage of China's building of democracyis that the CPC and the Chinese government have always been committed to realizing thefundamental interests and requirements of the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people. Insemi-colonial and semi-feudal old China, the Chinese people's greatest wish was to realizenational independence, national liberation and people's democracy. The CPC has led theChinese people to fulfill this wish and requirement, and hence won their support. After thefounding of New China, the Chinese people's greatest wish and requirement was to get rid ofpoverty and backwardness, bring the people wealth and the country strength. The CPC andthe Chinese government have led the Chinese people to continuously explore and successfullyblaze a development path of socialism with Chinese characteristics. The country has henceachieved the rapid economic and social development, people's life has been greatly improvedand the comprehensive national power and worldwide influence has significantly increased.Step by step, the Chinese people's century-old dream is coming true, and therefore the CPCand the Chinese government are supported by most people. According to the 2008 survey onthe public's levels of satisfaction with their own government by the Pew Research Center,among 24 participating nations, the Chinese people expressed the greatest level of satisfactionwith 86 percent being satisfied with the way things were going in China. Also, they were themost satisfied with their country's current economic situation 82 percent say the economy isgood.

Second, the development of democracy must be customized to China's own conditions, and weshould seek a political development model suitable to the nation's needs. Both history andrecent experiences show that the development of democracy is restricted by historical, social,economic and cultural factors in various countries. Due to their different historical backgrounds,cultural traditions and development levels, they tended to adopt different models to achievedemocracy. There is no universal model of democracy in the world. Only based on its ownhistory and unique conditions can one country explore a development model of democracysuitable to its own situations, so that the country and its people would be full of vitality. It's veryharmful to ignore the objective reality and copy the model of democracy from other countries.China's democracy is effective, because it not only fully draws on the achievements of humanpolitical civilization, but is rooted in the Chinese nation's traditions in culture and knowledge forthousands of years. It was created by the Chinese people according to China's uniqueconditions, during their great works of striving for national independence, people's liberationand the country's prosperity. China is the biggest developing country in the world. Due to itslarge population, inadequate resources per capita, underdeveloped economy, aged culture,imbalanced development and other basic characteristics, the country for a long time faced atough task of going through the modernization, which it only took decades to match whatdeveloped countries achieved in a hundred year or even hundreds of years. China needs astrong government to carry out its plans and push forward modernization. It needs to safeguardstability and unity for its development and mobilize the masses to bring their initiative andcreativity into full play. Just based on this reality, China has found its own democracy, featheredwith a unicameral legislature the National People's Congress, the system of multi-partycooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the CPC, the system of regionalethnic autonomy and the grassroots democratic self-governance system. They all meet theneeds of development for contemporary China and the requirements for the people'sdemocratic participation, and embody the Chinese traditional culture which advocatesharmonious cooperation and the basic spirit of "harmony but not uniformity." Such a model ofdemocracy guarantees a strong system for China's modernization.

Third, the development of democracy must adhere to reform and innovation, gradual andorderly development. Democracy is a continuously developing historical process. It cannot beachieved in one go, nor can it stray from the objective reality, or surpass or lag behind stagesof social development. China's experiences have proven that its building of political democracymust adapt to continuous changes of the economic and social development, as well as thepeople's continuously growing enthusiasm and level for political participation. China mustcontinuously study new situations and problems with the spirit of reform and innovation, exploreand create the new mechanism and means to realize democracy, and promote its orderlypolitical development in accordance with the rule of law. Like China's modernization, its buildingof political democracy is now in the development stage. It faces many problems and challenges,and needs to be improved and developed through further reform and innovation. China willadhere to taking the path of political development under socialism with Chinese characteristics,and carry out political restructuring in an active yet prudent manner. By further improvingsystems, enriching forms and broadening channels, it will expand citizens' orderly politicalparticipation at various levels and in different fields, mobilize and organize the people on thelargest scale to manage state and social affairs and economic and cultural undertakingsaccording to law. It will continuously improve and develop the system of political democracy,and make due contributions to the development of human political civilization.

For a long time, developing countries have been making great efforts and paying a huge priceto seek the model of democracy suitable for them. Encouragingly, some emerging countries,based on their countries' own unique conditions, have actively drawn on the helpful experienceof developed countries and strived hard to explore the path and model of democraticdevelopment with their own characteristics. They have made remarkable achievements andaccumulated rich experience. When advocating for democracy, the international communityshould take into consideration the experience and contributions of both developed anddeveloping countries. Especially, adequate consideration should be given to the actualconditions of developing countries, their exploration for development of democracy, theirefforts, contributions and valuable experience. The international community should listen moreto the voices of developing countries. It does not conform to the spirit of democracy if a smallnumber of developed countries hold a dominant control of democratic discourse andinterpretation. The Bali Democracy Forum provides an important platform for countries withvarious cultural backgrounds and in different stages of development to hold dialogues anddiscussions on the issue of democracy. This is a good first step.

We have come into an information age. The development of the Internet has greatly changedthe human society, people's mode of production, lifestyle, way of thinking, as well as means ofcommunication and government administration. It not only provides a wider space for peoplefrom various countries to enjoy their rights to be informed, to be heard, to participate and tosupervise, but also poses daunting challenges for the political development of both developingand developed countries. The information age calls for innovation of the concept and system ofdemocracy, and urges all countries to strengthen cooperation and seek political development.

China is willing to strengthen exchanges and cooperation with other countries in the world. Wecan learn from each other and join hands to explore and push forward the new progress ofpolitical democracy in the information age, and make unremitting efforts to build a harmoniousworld with lasting peace and common prosperity.