If free and fair national elections are considered the hallmark of a democratic state, Taiwan has much to boast about.
In January, the self-governing island held its eighth presidential election at the same time as a parliamentary vote.
Just 160 kilometers (100 miles) away, across the Taiwan Strait, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has ruled China since 1949, and although the party often claims to govern a democratic state, there is no process comparable electoral. with that of Taiwan.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has referred to “full-process people's democracy” to describe the Chinese political system where “the people are the masters,” but the party-state apparatus directs the affairs of the people on their behalf. .
Ken Cai*, a 35-year-old businessman from Shanghai, does not share Xi's definition of democracy.
“The truth is that [mainland] The Chinese people have never been allowed to elect their own leaders,” Ken told Al Jazeera.
“That's just propaganda.”
Ken's critical assessment contrasts sharply with a claim frequently put forward by the CCP that the Chinese people find their one-party rule satisfactory.
President Xi has long said that China is following a unique development path under the guidance of its distinctive governance system. Chinese officials have also criticized Beijing's record on human rights and democracy as being based on a lack of understanding of China and the Chinese people.
That is why the fact that Taiwan has organized successful multi-party elections challenges Beijing's argument that liberal democracy is incompatible with Chinese culture.
At the same time, Taiwan's liberal democratic system clashes with Xi's vision of a rejuvenated Chinese nation firmly under CCP control and a fractious Taiwan eventually unified with mainland China.
“The Taiwanese experience is a clear affront to the CCP's narrative,” said Chong Ja Ian, associate professor of Chinese foreign policy at the National University of Singapore.
The Taiwanese elections are a much more sensitive issue for Beijing than elections in other democracies, as the democratic example Taipei is setting may be a more direct source of inspiration for people in mainland China, said Yaqiu Wang, research director for China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. at the US-based advocacy group Freedom House.
“When you see that people in your own group have democracy and can elect their leaders, it can cause particular frustration with your own unelected leaders,” Wang said.
“That makes the Taiwanese elections a threat to the CCP,” he added.
China censors Taiwanese elections
Perhaps it was not surprising that, while leaders of countries such as Japan, the Philippines and the United States congratulated Taiwan on the successful conclusion of its elections, the Chinese government did not.
Relations between China and Taiwan have been on a downward spiral since outgoing president Tsai Ing-wen was elected in 2016.
The CCP considers Tsai, her replacement President-elect William Lai Ching-te and other members of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to be foreign-backed separatists and has not ruled out the use of force in its future plans to unify Taiwan with China. .
Chen Binhua, spokesperson for Beijing's Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO), reacted to the election results by saying that Lai's 40 percent vote and the DPP's loss of the parliamentary majority revealed that the party “cannot represent the dominant public opinion on the island”, and the result “will not prevent the inevitable trend towards the reunification of China.”
On Chinese social media, many reacted to Chen's comments by focusing on Beijing's own democratic credentials.
“Enough is enough, how can you criticize others' elections when elections are not even allowed at home?” wrote one user on Chinese social media platform Weibo.
“So a general election does not represent the majority public opinion? What new kind of understanding is this? He read another comment, while a third even directly attacked Beijing's Taiwan Affairs Office: “[TAO is] the most shameless, useless and rubbish government department.”
All three comments have since been removed by censors.
Ailene Long*, a 31-year-old translator from the Chinese city of Shenzhen, told Al Jazeera that she found comments criticizing Taiwan's elections ridiculous compared to the shortcomings of China's political system.
“You can't ask questions about public opinion in Taiwan when people in China have never been allowed to choose anything other than the Communist Party,” Ailene said.
Freedom House's Wang noted that many similar Chinese responses appeared on Chinese social media platforms as the Taiwanese election results became known.
“But many of them were eliminated quickly; even within a couple of minutes, many were gone,” he told Al Jazeera.
The state's vast censorship network repeatedly removed hashtags, comments and news about the Taiwanese election from Chinese social media. Along with strict censorship, there were also indications that Chinese authorities on election day in Taiwan had attempted to stifle interest on Chinese social media by inflating other hashtags.
According to Wang, these actions were a way for the authorities to eliminate signs of public criticism, but the underlying sentiment remained one of discontent with the government in Beijing.
China's democratic deficit in difficult economic times
Ken Cai from Shanghai thinks that many of the online comments about Taiwan's elections were actually trying to express discontent with the situation in China.
“The economy is not good for many people, many are struggling and are taking the opportunity to release their frustration with the government,” he explained.
For Ken, Taiwan's elections also demonstrate the extent to which Beijing and Taipei have diverged.
Ken recounted how his grandparents told him that they used to be afraid of Taiwanese nationalists attacking China and that they had heard stories from Taiwan about the repression against the Taiwanese people.
After the Kuomintang (KMT), known as the Chinese Nationalists, was defeated by the Communists in the Chinese Civil War, they fled to Taiwan in 1949, where they initially had ambitions to reconquer mainland China. To consolidate its control over Taiwan, the KMT imposed martial law, cracked down on civil liberties, and rounded up Taiwanese who opposed its rule.
“But today it seems that Taiwan has free elections, a good economy and good relations with Western countries, while China has none of those things,” he said.
In his opinion, the democratic deficit in China became particularly evident during the COVID-19 outbreak in Shanghai in 2022, when most of the metropolis was placed under strict lockdown.
“The lockdown was worse than COVID,” he said.
“A lot of people suffered, but the government didn't listen to us or care about us, and maybe that would have been different in a more democratic system.”
For Ailene Long in Shenzhen, the government's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic convinced her that China needs political reform, and the recent Taiwanese elections present an attractive alternative.
Ailene paid close attention to the elections in Taiwan, where she studied at a university for two years starting in 2013. Now, the cold air blowing between Beijing and Taipei has made it increasingly difficult for her to organize work trips and visit friends. in Taiwan.
“So I was hoping that the opposition party would be elected this time so that things would be easier again,” he said, referring to Taiwan's largest opposition party, the KMT, which has traditionally been friendlier to China than the DPP. .
On election weekend she was disappointed when the final vote count showed a victory for Lai of the DPP, but at the same time she respects the result.
“And I think the Chinese government should also learn to respect those elections and maybe also be more open to holding similar elections in China,” he said.
“If Taiwanese can have free elections with different political parties, why can't we?”
Ailene also believes that democratic reforms would strengthen the CCP's legitimacy in China and its claim that the Chinese people are their own masters.
“That would show that they take popular democracy seriously.”
*Names have been changed to respect their requests for anonymity given the sensitivity of the topic.
