The two-day program features a list of 110 countries that are diverse in governance and varied in democratization. A painful point for Beijing was the decision to invite Taiwan, which the U.S. considers a successful democracy—and which China says doesn’t deserve a place on the international stage.
In his opening remarks, Biden said the event wasn’t about asserting that any one country’s democracy was perfect, but about “renewing democracy” and discussing ways to strengthen democratic institutions. “Democracies are not all the same,” he said while seated next to Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
China accused the U.S. of “politicizing, instrumentalizing and weaponizing democracy.” In a press briefing in Beijing, its Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said Biden’s summit was only serving American interests in maintaining hegemony.
“The U.S.’s political manipulation in the name of democracy will only be met with wide opposition in the international community,” he said.
The president has framed the coming decades of international relations as a struggle between democracy and autocracy. Autocrats, he told Thursday’s virtual audience, seek to “export and expand” their influence around the global and “justify repressive policies and practices as a more efficient way to address today’s challenges.”
Neither Russia nor China were invited to the democracy summit. Moscow has been critical of the initiative, which raised eyebrows for including countries not traditionally associated with effective democratic governance, while also omitting American partners. However, it’s Beijing’s reactions that have been the most eye-catching in the lead-up to the event.
Last week, the State Council Information Office—China’s cabinet-level propaganda department—released a 50-page white paper rebutting Biden’s summit and Western liberal democracy in general.
Different Style of Democracy
The report titled “China: Democracy That Works” was accompanied by state television programs, newspaper columns and online videos that championed a Chinese-style democracy said to be not only more effective, but also fairer.
Beijing spent the week extolling the virtues of “whole-process people’s democracy,” in an information campaign that appeared to convince few about the Chinese Communist Party’s definition of democracy.
Dozens of virtual sessions planned throughout Thursday and Friday will feature talks with hundreds of government leaders, civil society members and business representatives. A pre-summit event called “day zero,” hosted by Secretary Blinken, took place on Wednesday.
A number of senior Biden officials are taking part, including Vice President Kamala Harris, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield.
