Mao Zedong ruled China from 1949 to 1976 when he died. For a brief period between the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, Mao was forced to retire. However, when he launched the Cultural Revolution, the people of China returned Mao to power.
Today, China has a one party system and there is a “small” body of citizens entitled to vote for the top leaders who then rule China.
China has a Constitution but the language of that Constitution is different from the Constitution of the United States and that Constitution is still being Amended as in the U.S.
China does not have a monarch or a hereditary head of state. The fact that China has both term and an age limit for holding political positions in the government is proof that China is not a dictatorship, which is a popular opinion held around the world.
Under Mao, who ruled for 27 years and who was known by some as “China’s Modern Emperor”, it would be safe to say a dictator ruled China.
Many may not agree with China’s legal system or laws, but that legal system and those laws were written and adopted by the elected representatives who rule China – not by a dictator or a monarch and they are still subject to change through future amendments as is the United States.
The United States and China are both Republics, and the evidence suggests that China is modeling their Republic after America, but with a Constitution to fit Chinese culture as the elected leaders of China interpret the document that is China’s law of the land.
Dr. Sun Yat-Sen – China’s Democratic Revolutionary wrote that he wanted to model China’s government after America but by combining Western thought with Chinese tradition.
It appears that is exactly what is happening.
If America had more than two centuries to amend the U.S. Constitution, what will China’s Constitution look like one-hundred-and-seventy-two years from now?
What if China is the real republic transitioning from a socialist state while the US was becoming a socialist democracy.
Return to Two Republics – Part 3
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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.
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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse 
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