China claims its one-party system is a democracy — and one that works better than the US
 As some 100 countries prepare to convene virtually for US President Joe Biden's Summit for Democracy, China is busy trying to convince the world that it's also a democracy — and its version is superior to the United States.
Beijing, which was not invited to the virtual gathering on Thursday and Friday, has reacted with scorn and derision, denouncing the summit as an "exercise in hypocrisy" to promote US hegemony.
Further infuriating Beijing, Taiwan, a self-ruling democracy it claims as part of its territory, was invited, as was Nathan Law, a pro-democracy activist and former legislator from Hong Kong now exiled in London.
In response, China has ramped up propaganda efforts in a bid to promote an alternative model of "democracy," twisting the definition of the term to fit its own authoritarian one-party system.
"This is a preemptive strike against Biden's Democracy Summit," said Jean-Pierre Cabestan, an expert on Chinese politics at Hong Kong Baptist University. "Now China feels that it needs to be not only on the defensive, but also on the offensive as well."
Over the weekend, Beijing held its own two-day virtual International Forum on Democracy, joined by politicians and scholars from more than 120 countries.
In his keynote speech, Huang Kunming, the ruling Communist Party's propaganda tsar, extolled China's so-called "whole-process people's democracy" — a concept put forward by Chinese leader Xi Jinping — describing it as a "true democracy that works."
Huang later expounded on the theory, confusingly insisting it "integrates process-oriented democracy with results-oriented democracy, procedural democracy with substantive democracy, direct democracy with indirect democracy, and people's democracy with the will of the state."
In tandem to the event, China's cabinet, the State Council, released Saturday with fanfare a white paper titled "China: Democracy That Works."
"There is no fixed model of democracy; it manifests itself in many forms. Assessing the myriad political systems in the world against a single yardstick and examining diverse political structures in monochrome are in themselves undemocratic," the 13,000-word document said.
By most international standards, China is the opposite of a democracy. The ruling Communist Party has held onto power for more than seven decades since the founding of the People's Republic of China. There is no separation of powers, independence of the judiciary, freedom of association, expression and opinion, periodic free and fair elections by universal suffrage or independent media — which are essential elements of democracy defined by the United Nations.
And China sits squarely near the bottom of most international rankings on political and personal freedoms, including the annual "freedom score" given by Washington-based NGO Freedom House, based on 25 metrics of political rights and civil liberties.
Chinese activists calling for democracy are routinely silenced, harassed and jailed, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, who died in prison in 2017 after spending almost a quarter of his life behind bars.
Of course, none of this is mentioned in China's latest propaganda offensive. Instead, it is attempting to muddy the waters as to what constitutes a democracy, said Dali Yang, a political scientist at the University of Chicago.
"This is a struggle over the global discourse on democracy. They (Chinese officials) have got used to the idea that if you assert something and repeat it enough times, you can actually go a long way," he said.
Xi, China's supreme leader, has repeatedly underscored the need for the country to "struggle for international discourse power."
"If you're backward, you'll be beaten up; if you're poor, you'll have to starve; if you can't speak, you'll get a scolding," Xi said in a speech in 2015, noting "getting scolded" is the only outstanding problem China needs to resolve.
And in the eyes of the Communist Party, the perfect time to speak up is now. Having managed to contain the spread of the coronavirus, Beijing is now holding that success up as evidence of the superiority of its political system. It is also seizing on the divisions sown under former US President Donald Trump as proof of the demise of Western political models.
On Sunday, China's Foreign Ministry released a lengthy report attacking American democracy, listing the Capitol riot, Black Lives Matter protests and the country's pandemic response as evidence of its deep-rooted flaws, dysfunction and chaos.
But China's rush to proclaim itself a democracy may also be driven by a sense of increasing necessity.
Since Biden came to office, the US has reversed its inward-facing retreat from the global stage under Trump and doubled down on building alliances with like-minded partners to counter China's rising influence — a challenge characterized by Biden as part of a broader ideological battle between democracies and autocracies.
While China's self-declared model of democracy is unlikely to convince any democratic countries — especially among the developed world — Yang, the expert at University of Chicago, said it might find a more receptive audience in the global South.
China has framed its "democracy" as one that is more effective in addressing people's needs, highlighting the country's rapid economic development.
"I think some of the emphasis on producing results can actually be persuasive to people," Yang said. "One cannot underestimate the percentage of people who are willing to sacrifice some elements of democracy for better economic welfare."
The emphasis on performance also comes with inherit dangers, Yang warned. "When the economy is slowing down, you risk looking very bad. And when it worsens significantly into a crisis, it fuels questions (regarding legitimacy)."
But the Chinese Communist Party is also arguing that it is a "process-oriented democracy," pointing to the country's multi-tier legislative system as proof. In theory, delegates to the village- and county-level legislatures are elected directly by residents, who in turn are tasked with choosing delegates for the level above, and so on. At the very top of the system is the National People's Congress, a rubber-stamp parliamentary body that convenes annually to approve major decisions and policies made by the party.
In practice, however, these grassroots "elections" are highly scripted affairs. And under Xi, it has become virtually impossible for independent candidates — especially those who disagree with the party — to play a role in the process.
In October, 14 independent candidates attempted to take part in the local People's Congress elections in Beijing. They ended up being harassed, placed under house arrest or forced to take a trip out of the city, and none of them succeeded in participating.
"To put it simply, the Chinese 'democracy' is under the dictatorship of the Communist Party," said Cabestan at Hong Kong Baptist University. "So if you're obedient to the party, if you accept the dictatorship of the party, you can participate in political life. If not, you're excluded."
In its white paper, the Chinese government argues that "whether a country is democratic should be judged by its people, not dictated by a handful of outsiders." But even within China, there are signs many are not convinced by the official narrative.
On Weibo, China's heavily-censored version of Twitter, a post by party mouthpiece People's Daily on the foreign ministry's attack on American democracy was flooded with sarcastic comments before censorship kicked in.
"Who has ever elected a representative to the People's Congress? Who has ever cast a vote?" said one of the top comments. "I'm not even an 'extra' in the performance," said another.
These remarks were later removed. Out of more than 2,700 comments, only a dozen were allowed to be shown — all critical of democracy in the US.
Another post by state news agency Xinhua on China's "whole-process people's democracy" has completely disabled its comment section.
A user shared the post, commenting: "(China is) so democratic that it doesn't need the comment section anymore."  Nectar Gan is China Reporter for CNN International in Hong Kong. She covers the changes taking place in China, and their impact on the world.  Steve George is Senior Editor for CNN International in Hong Kong. He oversees coverage from across the Asia-Pacific region, with a special focus on China.   In 2008, then-President George W. Bush was seen cheering for Team USA in the stands at the Beijing Summer Olympics. His father, former President George H.W. Bush, also attended the Games as the honorary captain of the US team. Thirteen years on, things have changed drastically, with the Biden administration announcing Monday it will not send an official delegation to the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics as a statement against China's "ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang."  A couple in southern China were reunited with their missing teenage son in an emotional ceremony on Monday, ending their 14-year-search which inspired a hit movie.
Sun Zhuo, 18, was abducted in the city of Shenzhen in 2007 at age 4, but his parents never gave up hope they would see him again.
His father, Sun Haiyang, and mother, Peng Siying, sold properties to fund their search, and offered a reward of up to $31,000 for information on his whereabouts, Chinese state media reported.
Over the years, Sun Haiyang said he had traveled to nearly every region of China to look for his son, according to a website run by the Ministry of Public Security.
"Dearest," a 2014 film by Hong Kong director Peter Chan based on Sun's story grossed more than $50 million at the box office, according to IMDb, and brought the pervasive issue of child abduction and trafficking in China into the spotlight.
Experts say the problem was exacerbated by China's one-child policy, which has been relaxed in recent years. For decades, those who had a second child were given heavy fines, or made to abort pregnancies.
Traditionally, families — especially those in rural areas — viewed boys as more able to provide for the family, and carry on the family line — driving a black market for infant boys, and pushing many families to give infant girls up for adoption.
Authorities tracked down Sun in the eastern province of Shandong after police used facial recognition technology to help them identify a suspect, surnamed Wu, who they accuse of abducting the boy, the ministry website said.
Sun's identity was confirmed by DNA analysis, state media reported.
Wu has been detained in connection with two child abductions, including that of Sun, police said. Sun's adoptive father and mother were bailed pending trial, state media reported.
In a twist to the tale, Sun told state media he would stay with his adoptive parents because they had raised him for more than 10 years and he was previously unaware of his true lineage.
— By Cheryl Ho  China's real estate woes are showing no sign of letting up.
Troubled developer Kaisa Group on Wednesday announced that it would suspend trading for the second time since November. In a stock exchange filing, the company said the halt was pending the release of "an announcement containing insider information," though did not elaborate further.
Kaisa was supposed to repay $400 million worth of US-dollar denominated notes on Tuesday. The company has said nothing publicly about whether those debts have been repaid.
The country's real estate sector is in crisis. Evergrande, China's most indebted developer, warned late last week that it might not have enough money to meet its financial obligations.
Evergrande was supposed to pay overdue interest Monday on two of its dollar-denominated bonds to avoid default. As of Wednesday, the company has not said anything about those payments. It did acknowledge in a filing late Monday, though, that it would set up a risk management committee that would be headed by company chairman Xu Jiayin, focused on "mitigating and eliminating" future risks. The committee includes top officials from China Cinda Asset Management, a major state-owned bad-debt manager, and other state-backed entities in Guangdong.
Fears of default sent shares of Evergrande plummeting 20% Monday to an all-time low. After a slight rebound Tuesday, the company's stock fell more than 2% on Wednesday to another new low.
Chinese authorities have been trying to contain the fallout from Evergrande's debt crisis. On Friday, the local government in Guangdong province, where Evergrande is based, said it would send a working group to Evergrande to oversee risk management, strengthen internal controls and maintain normal operations, at the request of the company.
The People's Bank of China and other top financial regulators have also tried to reassure the public that Evergrande's problems can be controlled, in response to concerns about spillover risk. The central bank on Monday also said it would pump $188 billion into the economy, apparently to counter the real estate slump.  Laura He is a reporter and digital producer for CNN Business. She covers news about Asian business and markets from Hong Kong. Around Asia
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