What is a democracy? A democracy is where the numerical majority of an organized group makes decisions binding on the whole group. A Republic, on the other hand, does not allow majority rule.
China is not a Western democracy or has a Christian majority, never has and probably never will.
When you hear the estimated number of Christians in China, do not forget that China has more than 1.3 billion people.
Today, China, by definition, is a Republic and has one political party with two recognized factions.
In November 2005, Cheng Li, the Director of Research for the John L. Thornton China Center, presented a paper at a Conference on “Chinese Leadership, Politics, and Policy” at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
In One Party, Two Factions: Chinese Bipartisanship in the Making, Cheng Li makes a case that there are two informal and almost equally powerful coalitions within China’s central government.
Li calls one of the coalitions the “elitists” led by former Party Chief Jiang Zemin and now largely led by Vice President of the PRC Zeng Qinghong.
He identified the other coalition as the “populists” led by President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao. The core faction of the “populists” is the Chinese Communist Youth League.
Li also says it is unlikely that China will have a multi-party political system in the near future.
See Christianity in China or return to China’s Long History with Burma/Myanmar – Part 2
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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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