Because China is not allowed by the West to become democratic. In 1840, the west defeated China in the Opium War. They don’t ask China to be democratic, they ask for treaty territory, money, and privileges, such as extraterritoriality. Britain had Hong Kong after the Opium Wars. For 150 years, Britain ruled Hong Kong and never allowed Hong Kongers to elect the governors of Hong Kong. In 1900, 8 powers occupied Beijing, the capital of China. They didn’t ask China to establish democracy but asked for a huge amount of reparation. In 1911, Sun Yet-sen carried out a democratic revolution and overthrew the Qing Dynasty. The west, however, did not support Sun but supported warlord Yuan. In 1946, China had two governments in a civil war: the dictatorship of Chiang and the democratic Mao. Mao had a democratic government and Chiang had a dictatorship government. The west chose to support Chiang.
If China today becomes a democratic country, the west must denounce China as an authoritarian country. Because democratic country today has the privilege to invade to bomb other countries, and this privilege cannot be granted to China. We witnessed what happened to Russia. Russia becomes democratic in 1991. Russia has now a multi-party system, has a western style election, and every citizen has the right to vote. Yet, the west does not consider Russia a democratic country.
In today’s western language, every ally of the west is democratic, and others are not democratic. Regardless of what kind of political system China implements, the west will never regard China as democratic. It is not that China chose not to be a democratic country. China is a democratic country, but the west will not recognize it.
