CHINA’S ONE-PARTY SYSTEM CRUMBLING

A weak economy will lead to an unraveling of the one-party system in China, Dang Yuang of Deutsche Welle (DW) wrote on May 28, 2020 as Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has admitted the country faces major challenges and has refrained from disclosing economic trends and forecasts for the rest of the year.

“Premier Li Keqiang did not announce a GDP growth target for this year. It was the first time since 1990 that none was announced. Until now, the Communist leadership has used high economic growth to justify one-party rule. There is a kind of consensus between the rulers and the people: So long as there is more affluence, demands for democracy are put on the back burner,”

Dang argued.

“But what happens now that the economy is stalling? The government itself is talking about ‘downward pressure.’ This can be attributed to a variety of reasons and the COVID-19 pandemic is only one of them. On top of this comes a lack of innovation, disadvantages for private enterprises and a decrease in domestic demand. Combined, they pose a real threat to China's economy,”

Dang insisted.

This year's government work report, which sets the agenda for social and economic policies, mentions "securing job places" as a goal 39 times and Li vowed to achieve “press conference, the prime minister expressed optimism and promised "moderate" growth for 2020 despite the COVID-19 pandemic, DW concluded.