Interview: China has been perfecting its political system: Canadian scholar

China's political system has successfully promoted social development and reduced poverty in the past decades and the Asian giant has been perfecting its model, said Canadian political observer Daniel Bell in an interview with Xinhua.

Bell took the interview after giving a speech titled "China and Political Power: what are the driving forces of its system?" on Friday in the University of Andres Bello in Santiago, Chile.

"China has its own political system, with a policy of meritocracy, and the civil servants are chosen through exams and are promoted to higher positions for their knowledge and work experience. The main leaders are chosen by the National Congress of Communist Party of China and the National People's Congress (China's parliament)," Bell said.

As the director of the Berggruen Institute of Philosophy and Culture, U.S.-based independent think tank on governance, and a professor on Political Philosophy at Tsinghua University, one of the top universities in China, Bell has been researching on China's meritocracy, and defined it as a political system where people rise to positions of power not because of their birth or wealth but for their own merits.

In his recently published book "The China Model: Political Meritocracy and the Limits of Democracy", he analyzed how China's political system has transformed the country into the world's second largest economic power.

"There is a misunderstanding surrounding China abroad because 'Reform and Opening Up' in 1978 did not include a political reform in the Western style," said Bell, "although all political systems have some imperfections, in the past 30 years, with the Chinese economic reform, China has been perfecting its model."

"You need to acknowledge that in recent years, China has made efforts against corruption and called for transparency," continued the Canadian scholar.

Achievements in reducing poverty are important when civil servants and officials are promoted, said Bell, "in the past 30 years, there has been awareness that China has had a high economic growth and this is the best way to reduce poverty. However, other problems exist, such as pollution, and the gap between the rich and the poor."

Bell called on western society to understand China's model, which he labeled as an alternative that is neither authoritarianism nor western democracy, emphasizing the necessity of recognizing the historic role China's model has played in the country's progress.

Speaking of qualities that a leader should have, Bell listed such items as intellectual capacity and understanding human psychology, international relations and history, the ability to understand the social aspect, to have empathy, to understand, to reach people and no corruption, among others.

"It is a complex process and we should understand how the Chinese system works so that we can better interact with this country in the 21st century," concluded Bell. Endi