You know, a lot of people have said that China just isn’t ready for democracy. There’s too many people, who aren’t educated enough, and, as former Chinese minister of Foreign Affairs, Li Zhaoxing said, “transportation is not developed in some places, so direct election will be difficult.”
Yes, bad roads are the reason China doesn’t have democracy. Doesn’t stop New York, though.
But back to Chinese democracy! Highly anticipated for years, promised but pushed back multiple times, and then ultimately banned in China for being too controversial. Wait, sorry, that’s the well-intentioned but ultimately mediocre Guns N' Roses album. I never thought that Axl Rose would be one of the most woke celebrities on China.
But for real Chinese democracy, look no further than Wukan Village in China’s Southern Guangdong Province.
In 2011, the entire village erupted into protests. Their local communist officials were taking villagers’ land and selling it to real estate developers for huge profits. Something that’s happened in countless villages across China for years. But in Wukan, villagers put up barricades and kicked out the officials. But instead of villagers getting Tiananmen Square'd, Wang Yang, the Party Secretary for Guangdong Province, stepped in.
Surprisingly, instead of brutally crushing the protesters, he let the Wukan villagers vote for new officials. And they elected Lin Zuluan—one of the protest leaders. This was an unprecedented moment in modern Chinese history, where the Communist Party backed down in the face of protests—and allowed for real democratic elections.Media began referring to it as the Wukan model.
Some people thought that soon this kind of local-level democracy could be implemented everywhere across China. However, it didn’t last long, as evidenced by recent civil unrest in Wukan, and its brutal reprisals by the CCP. Apparently the Wukan model is to briefly allow democracy, and then crush it.
And you know what? Even during the period when democracy worked in Wukan, it didn’t really work. After villagers elected Lin Zuluan to represent them, he found himself immediately blocked from doing—well, anything—by officials the next level up. So five years later, much of the land taken from villagers has still not been returned.
Frustrated by this, “three months ago Lin Zuluan had threatened to bring his people back out on to the streets.”
Unbelievable! How dare he ask for the thing that he was promised five years ago? And they did arrest him. Not for threatening to hold public protests, mind you. But for taking tens of thousands of dollars in bribes and kickbacks. And if you think those are just trumped-up charges, you couldn’t be more wrong. While being detained by authorities, Lin admitted to the charges! And by admitted, I mean confessed on state-run CCTV. So you know it’s legit.
Good thing they suddenly discovered his bribes and kickbacks right before he was about to mobilize those pesky protesters! And last week, they formally sentenced Lin Zuluan to three years in prison. That makes Lin now the third democratically elected village official involved with the 2011 Wukan protests to be imprisoned by authorities. Two others were jailed in 2014.
