is china authoritarian?

Answer 1

Dana,

You need to look at a dictionary. Totalitarian means that a government controls all aspects of life. In the past, China was indeed totalitarian but that is no longer true.

People are free to travel, seek new employment, immigrate out of China, get rich, open businesses, move, buy homes, cars, any consumer item, which all goes against Totalitarian principles.

To answer the OPs question, authoritarian.
In some aspects yes, they do censor and don't allow public decent. But that is where it pretty much ends. They could care less what the average Chinese does or thinks, or what they do in private.

What is happening in China is it is slowly morphing from a communist dictatorship to a federal republic, much like the USA. They now allow non members of the communist party to hold high office and are encouraging people from outside the party to become active in government. Something that was unheard of a few years ago.

They are doing this all at their own pace. Not the pace the west wants, but rather at a pace they believe is healthy for their country and society. We've seen what instant change can do to countries that are not ready for such huge. Civil war in one country and government rule in another only in the capital, the rest ruled by warlords.

A good source to see China's government system:
http://www.china.org.cn

Signed, an ex pat from the USA who used to believe all the China crap till I experienced for myself to find that what most of us are spoon fed in the west is nowhere near being accurate.

Peace

Jim

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Answer 2

Not really. China has a one party government. The president serves a 5-year term. The officials are not elected by the people, but by representatives from each province at the Congress held every five years.

A lot of people are still talking about Communist China. The truth is: communism was abandoned 30 years ago.

Answer 3

No, totalitarian