China has lashed out at Germany after its foreign minister called Xi Jinping a “dictator” and summoned Berlin’s ambassador for a dressing down, in the latest flaring of tensions with a western democratic power over how the Chinese leader is described overseas.

  • TheSaneWriter@lemmy.thesanewriter.com
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    1 year ago

    Most dictators haven’t gone by that term, preferring instead some other executive role like chairman, supreme leader, or president. If Xi doesn’t want to be called a dictator, maybe China should start holding open elections, see how popular the CCP really is.

    • sevenapples@lemmygrad.ml
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      1 year ago

      The CCP has higher approval rates than western governments and the vast majority of Chinese believe they are living in a democracy. This is confirmed by western studies; latest one I’ve seen was from Harvard.

      • hydrospanner@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        the vast majority of Chinese believe they are living in a democracy.

        So do the vast majority of Americans.

      • Bernie_Sandals@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Okay but what meaningful influence does the average Chinese person have on who is chosen as Paramount Leader.

        • sevenapples@lemmygrad.ml
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          1 year ago

          Enough for them to believe that they live in a democracy, it seems (and I don’t say that sarcastically).

          It’s not like people in liberal democracies have more influence. We can’t choose who runs, and each individual’s vote is negligible. I don’t know the specifics of China’s government, but I suspect they value being able to influence local policy and higher official elections via the Communist Party more than a direct vote on its leader – I would too, honestly.

        • zephyreks@programming.dev
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          1 year ago

          A fair bit, actually. China’s political system is basically a popularity system from bottom to top. At the lowest level, politicians only stay in power if their population is happy. This trickles up to the provincial level, where politicians again only stay in power if their population is happy. At a national level, the national leaders stay in power by building, essentially, large cabinets out of different provincial and regional leaders - thus, their entire position relies on keeping the provinces happy.

          It’s not the perfect system, but Chinese citizens can fairly easily impact local and even provincial policy and, by extension, influence national policy (recently, by repealing the COVID lockdowns with mass protests).

          The CCP isn’t an absolute monarchy or something. At the end of the day, it serves it’s people. The power of the Chinese economy is in its industrial capacity, after all, not in its wealth: the needs of the people need to be addressed to keep the country stable.

          • discount_door_garlic@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            don’t make conflations with the USA and other liberal democracies. There are plenty of transparent, effective democracies where popular votes matter massively, and saying because the USA is electorally broken that everywhere is only serves the narrative that true liberal democracy “isn’t possible” i.e., exactly what China and Russia suggest.

      • Syldon@feddit.uk
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        1 year ago

        The CCP does not have confidence in that though, hence the way it runs the elections there.

        • sevenapples@lemmygrad.ml
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          1 year ago

          I’d say that it has confidence in that, but their elections and government are structured in a different way.

          • Syldon@feddit.uk
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            1 year ago

            Just like Ford sold their cars in any colour you want, so long as it is black.

            • sevenapples@lemmygrad.ml
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              1 year ago

              If 95% of ford owners were satisfied with their black cars, vs 40% for another manufacturer that provides cars in multiple colors, then ford would be the better manufacturer.

    • Spzi@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Most forced elections haven’t gone by that term, preferring instead some other description like people’s elections, free elections, or secured elections. Made up words but you get the idea.

    • MaggiWuerze@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      Most dictators haven’t gone by that term, preferring instead some other executive role like chairman, supreme leader, or president.

      Don’t forget Führer

    • creamed_eels@toast.ooo
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      1 year ago

      Maybe he would prefer, as you say, an alternative executive role and the ego-soothing title that accompanies it? Supreme Pooh has a really nice ring.

    • clutch@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Open elections when there is only one party in practice are moot

      • TheSaneWriter@lemmy.thesanewriter.com
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        1 year ago

        Yeah, our elections suck. They should be more open and should be ranked choice. Likewise, the Electoral College is complete bullshit. Even still, Xi is a dictator and China is not a democracy. Multiple things can be true.

          • Gabu@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            You can choose between voting for wumao Pooh or being kidnapped. Great choice!

          • ahornsirup@artemis.camp
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            1 year ago

            Nazi Germany had elections. North Korea has elections. As long as there’s no actual opposition on the ballot, just having elections means nothing.

        • LarkinDePark@lemmygrad.ml
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          1 year ago

          China is a democracy, the USA isn’t. Xi is the democratically elected leader of his country and enjoys massive popular support. Your past two presidents are hated by the peasantry. You have no understanding of the world because you live in what you think North Korea is like.

          Your press is censored, your internet is censored, you have a one party state with no democracy and people die from preventable diseases daily. Homelessness and poverty are rampant. Child slavery and child poverty have skyrocketed under the current regime. America is a shithole, circling the drain and your pathetic racist shit in this thread just exemplifies how little you have to come back with.

          • SeaJ@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            Xi is the democratically elected leader of his country

            How many people voted for him? How many votes did his opponent get?

            • LarkinDePark@lemmygrad.ml
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              1 year ago

              No idea. I couldn’t even tell you that about my own country or the USA, you know that place that’s totally a democracy where they don’t count all the votes and keep the black people from voting with dirty tricks.

              • SeaJ@lemm.ee
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                1 year ago

                The general population does not vote for the presidency in China, the electors chosen by the CCP do. That is significantly less democratic than the US which is also not a very democratic country when it comes to the presidency.

                • Faresh@lemmy.ml
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                  1 year ago

                  Neither do americans get to vote for their president nor the germans for their chancellor.

                  • Lols [they/them]@lemm.ee
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                    1 year ago

                    the electors chosen by the CCP do

                    but americans do get to vote for the electoral college, and germans iirc do get to vote for the bundestag