Not invited to Biden's democracy summit, China launches a propaganda blitz
President Biden's Summit for Democracy has kicked off. China is not invited — but it's still trying to project its own narratives about democracy.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is not among the more than 100 world leaders invited to this week's virtual Summit for Democracy hosted by President Biden. So Beijing held its own democracy dialogue.
Officials and pundits gathered in Beijing and online last week to push the idea that China's political system is, in fact, a high-functioning form of democracy of a different sort, and that it is delivering better results for its people than the broken U.S. system.
The discussions were part of a propaganda blitz that analysts say is designed to show that China can stand up to the United States, and to counter the suggestion that the Chinese system is
