How Modern Chinese Political Thinkers View Democracy

Abstract

Chinese politics in the Hu Jintao era (2003–2013) is marked by a certain degree of ideological pluralism. This period is a peak of creative work of Yu Keping and Wang Shaoguang — the two Chinese public intellectuals whose works are examined in this article. Their positions differ in many aspects, yet one remarkable idea unites them: China can and should be democratic, and this does not mean building a Western-style democracy. In this research we conclude that democratic ideas proposed by modern Chinese pro-party intellectuals are, in essence, a reconsideration of Chinese political thought of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.