Commentary by Zheng Yongnian*
The recent protests in the United States are proof that despite its claims, "popular sovereignty" - where a state is not representative of some people and some families, but of all the people - is still to be fully realized.
In the formative years, all Western countries were ruled by white elites. And although most Western countries later adopted the "one person, one-vote" system, the equality they practice is still superficial.
The recent death of an African American following violent law enforcement by a white policeman and the widespread protests that followed across the US are the best examples of its failed governance.
The US claims to be a "melting pot" and "role model" for ethnic integration, and always likes to point fingers at China's ethnic problems, but its own racial problems have never been solved. Europe, too, faces similar racial and religious problems. So the problems with "democracy" and "equality" lie not in what kind of voting mechanism exists or if there is a law that contains such stipulations, but in whether there are specific administrative policies or measures to guarantee their implementation. For example, only with various supportive measures can legal equality lead to equality in reality.
China and the West have different modes of dealing with ethnic issues, and this is completely normal, because every country is entitled to making its own explorations. One cannot label the measures taken by China against violence and riots as "suppression of freedom" and those by the US, using military force, as a case of "maintaining law and order".
In the US, legal equality is used to replace actual inequality, because to make a law that stipulates "equality" is easy, but addressing socioeconomic inequality is not that easy. In this sense, as the most developed capitalist country, the US actually believes in "social Darwinism" and the "survival of the fittest" theory. During his presidency, Barack Obama launched health care reforms to offer black people, Latinos, and other minority ethnic groups at the bottom of the social hierarchy some welfare and social security. But his successor, after taking office, quickly abolished these programs. Therefore, the racial problems in the US are actually rooted in social Darwinism and the racial superiority theory among white people.
In the context of economic globalization, the widening gap between the rich and poor in the US and the solidification of its class mobility are also reflected in the changes of its political spectrum, but the people who benefit the most from this process are the American ruling class who have no intention or motivations to solve the problem. That is the saddest thing.
*The author is a professor at the NationalUniversity of Singapore
- Courtesy China Daily
