Is China a Dictatorship Regime?

A few days ago, in answer to one of my LinkedIn post, I received a direct message from a Chinese lady who has been living and working in Italy for several years already. Her question buzzed in me and here is the answer.

Her question appeared to be shy at first, but it was very direct: Good evening Mr. Antinucci, I follow you and I find some very interesting comments from you. I would like to hear your opinion as you see the Chinese political system? I noticed that you wrote in the discussion that it is not a dictatorship regime. Thanks and best regards, Zhao Wang.

Usually, I do not talk about politics. I keep politics outside my professional and personal life, even though it's deeply part of every strategic decision I take for my business clients. But this time, being her Chinese and having her lived in Italy for almost 10 years I took the liberty to reply to her in a very straight forward way. Here is my reply:

"Dear Zhao, I have been living in China since 1988 and also lived in Taiwan for many years.

Of course, I was born and lived in Venice - Italy until 19, then I spent most of my life in China.

Within these 30+ years, I have had a lot of different thoughts about China and its government. Most of them colliding with each other.

The main reason was clear to me: I was in the middle of a great change and could not feel or see it from within. I always had to go abroad (out of China) and get back a few weeks later to see and understand how things were changing.

Well, the fact that things changed so much and did not create a single continuous revolution within the last 30 years (yes, I was in Beijing on June 3, 1991 - I have a clear memory about it) made me think that only a stable government with a long term view of its development could grant this growth and peace of mind.

I lived in China as an "expat" with the pros and the cons. I lived free of worries and completely safe.

I never got robbed, beat, cheated, in danger or worried about anything.

I was granted medical assistance at all time and was cured when sick and fed when hungry,

These situations could not be found in dictatorship countries as used to be, for instance, Romania with President Ceausescu, or Yugoslavia with President Tito, or North Korea with President Kim, or USSR with President Brezhnev... et. etc.

Those countries during the '90s had a huge revolution.

China was at peace and was able to grow fast and strong with a great population that believed in the systems. 

This is not Dictatorship!

This is what they call "Socialism with Chinese characteristics" (中国 特色 社会主义). The term with which Deng Xiaoping defined the set of economic reforms that led the People's Republic of China to privatize a large part of the state-owned industries, also known by the term " market socialism ".

It works and should be an example for everyone.

Best. Alberto."

_______________________________

Her answer is as interesting as I could expect. I asked permission to repost it here:

"Thank you for the very interesting observation, Alberto. As I always said and always believed, only people who really lived in China for a long time can understand better about China.

Indeed, China is a vast country and the Chinese political system is very much complicated and not so easy to understand. I have lived in China for my first 24 years and now another 10 years in the west. And I continuously ask myself why China is different and is it something wrong in China? 

And gradually I understood that it is not wrong the system in China but suitable for China. Chinese people have tried to adopt the western democratic system(Xinhai revolution), we failed, then they tried to adopt the Soviet Union's communism system(planned economy), we failed. But we didn't stop learning and reinventing ourselves, by the new open up policy of Deng Xiaoping, China has opened the door to the rest of the world by a liberal economy with a certain level of macro-control but remained socialism in other areas, like free education for first 9 years for all, medical care and insurance coverage for almost all, the reform both in the economic and political system has never been stopped and Chinese system is still evolving. That's why it is called 中国特色的社会主义，because it has been studied for China and it is working!

In the past 30 years, the quality of time for most of the Chinese people has been dramatically improved and the uptrend is still going on. We live a better life compare to our parents and our parents to our grandparents. More than 85% of Chinese people are happy about their situation at this moment and they are very confident about the future. Which dictatorship state does the same thing to their people? 

Of course, there are still a lot of problems to be solved, but no state and no system is perfect. The important thing is comparing to the past if you are improving. If yes, you are on the right track.

That is my opinion on China.

Thank you for your kind message and I wish you a happy life in HK.

Best regards,

Zhao"