Why China is More Democratic Than the US in the Digital Age

submited by

Style Pass

2021-05-21 00:00:08

As the founder and CEO of a multi million dollar AI company (Mathpix) that sells an app with a disproportionate number of Chinese customers (mostly Chinese STEM students), I have a pragmatic interest in the US-China relationship. I’ve also been to China twice and loved it, although ultimately I decided the hurdles towards setting up a fully functioning Chinese business presence were simply too great.

Though my interest in the US-China relationship started out as economic, I also became interested in understanding the pros and cons of both political systems, and how they are influenced by large media platforms.

I used to be skeptical that “the party” in China could compete with the US’s supposedly decentralized system, our “rule of law”, and our “democracy”.

However, in the digital sphere, which is the only sphere that really matters anymore, I believe we have lost both “rule of law” and “democracy”, to the extent we ever had true democracy, or that true democracy is even desirable.