Alvaro Piaggio

Americans have just cast their ballots, and now voters in Beijing are heading to the polls today. How do two very different political systems approach elections, political representation, and democratic participation? Many years ago, when I was studying at Cornell, I had a roommate for one semester who was an exchange student from the Netherlands. His uncle was the deputy prime minister of the Netherlands at the time. So, naturally, our dorm room had no shortage of political discussions. Unfortunately, neither of us had the authority to settle any of them at the beginning. He knew relatively little about China, yet he had quite a few preconceived notions about the country, particularly its political system. And he's passionate. On Friday and Saturday nights, after the lights went out in our dorm, we would often lie in our beds and engage in heated but friendly debates that sometimes lasted late into the late night. While other college students spent their Friday nights partying, we spent ours debating in the dark. Not exactly the typical college experience, I know. Like many others, he was skeptical about how elections worked in China. I explained to him that deputies to the people's congresses at the county, county-level city, municipal district, township, are directly elected by citizens aged 18 and above who are entitled to vote. Representatives at higher levels are also elected, through an indirect electoral process. I also pointed out something about China's political representation that he hadn't realized: all 55 ethnic minority groups have representatives in the National People's Congress, with special arrangements to ensure representation even for groups with very small populations. I asked him: "Can the US Congress guarantee that every ethnic minority group has a voice of its own in the national legislature?" Silence fell over his bed. And if you knew how much we loved arguing, you'd understand how unusual that was. I continued: If, under one political system, everyone formally has an equal vote, yet certain groups consistently struggle to achieve adequate representation, while another system specifically guarantees political participation for smaller ethnic groups through its allocation of seats and institutional arrangements, how should we understand what democratic representation truly means? Through our countless late-night debates, some of his assumptions about China gradually began to shift. Years later, our friendship had outlasted our disagreements-and his connection to China had taken a turn neither of us could have imagined. Two years ago, he married a Chinese woman. And he invited me to their wedding! I guess China had found a more persuasive ambassador than me. Of course, marrying a Chinese woman does not mean that he has to agree with everything about China. But I firmly believe that when someone truly gets to know China and its people, the China they come to see is often very different from the China they once imagined. Today, I found myself thinking once again about my former Dutch roommate. Because it is election day in Beijing for a new term of deputies to the people's congresses at the district and township levels. Well before election day, both my local community and my workplace had both contacted me to ask where I intended to register and cast my ballot. I could also clearly sense that Beijing has placed considerable emphasis this year on encouraging and organizing voter participation. According to figures released by the Beijing municipal authorities, by late October 9.57 million voters have registered and been confirmed as eligible to vote in this round of elections. More than 13,000 polling stations have been established across the city. Voters will elect 4,898 deputies to the new district-level people's congresses and 11,137 deputies to the township-level people's congresses. On this very day, one polling station in particular attracted considerable public attention: the Huairentang (Hall of Cherished Benevolence/怀仁堂) polling station in the Zhongnanhai (中南海) electoral constituency of Beijing's Xicheng District. Huairentang was once the residence and office of the Empress Dowager Cixi, who wielded the real power in China during the final years of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). In 1900, when the Eight-Nation Alliance occupied Beijing, Marshal Alfred von Waldersee, the commander of the allied forces, unceremoniously chose Huairentang as his residence. The building was subsequently destroyed in a mysterious fire. Some accounts suggest that the blaze was accidentally started by Waldersee's cook. During the Republican era, Huairentang became a venue for presidential receptions and official ceremonies. In 1949, it hosted the First Plenary Session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a landmark gathering that helped lay the groundwork for the founding of the PRC. It subsequently became an important venue for meetings of senior CPC leaders. Chinese President Xi cast his ballot at the Huairentang polling station in Beijing's Zhongnanhai leadership compound. Xi presented his voter registration card and was handed a ballot after officials verified his eligibility. He then marked his choice and dropped the ballot into a box. Xi said electing deputies to people's congresses was essential to the functioning of China's people's congress system and a major event in the country's political life. He added voters should be ensured to elect representatives they are satisfied with. All of this brought back memories of the many debates I used to have with my Dutch roommate. In fact, China's electoral system has a number of features that deserve closer examination. The first is a basic question: How are deputies to China's people's congresses actually elected? China uses a combination of direct and indirect elections. Deputies to people's congresses at the county level, including those in urban districts, counties, autonomous counties and cities without districts, as well as deputies at the township level, are directly elected by voters. Deputies to people's congresses at higher levels, including cities, provincial regions and the NPC, are elected indirectly through people's congresses at the next lower level. The second concerns political representation: China's electoral law explicitly seeks to ensure that deputies do not come exclusively from a narrow political or social elite. China's Electoral Law of the National People's Congress and Local People's Congresses stipulates an appropriate number of deputies from females, the grassroots, particularly workers, farmers and intellectuals. It even provides for representation of returned overseas Chinese in the congresses in areas with significant populations of returned overseas Chinese. In direct elections, the number of candidates must exceed the number of seats by between one-third and 100%. For example, if three seats are available, there must be between four and six candidates. In indirect elections, where deputies are elected to the next higher level of people's congress, the number of candidates must exceed the number of seats by between 20% and 50%. Thus, an election for 10 seats would require between 12 and 15 candidates. Looking back, the question my Dutch roommate and I debated most fiercely was not really whether China's political system was better or worse than those of Western countries. It was something more fundamental: Is there only one legitimate model of democracy, or can democratic participation and representation take different institutional forms?