More signs emerged from China this month that Beijing is reverting to more hardline communist policies and rejecting calls for democracy under its new leader President Xi Jinping.
The People’s Daily, official newspaper of the Communist Party of China, published a front-page commentary Aug. 6 attacking U.S. constitutional governance.
The commentary stated that U.S. constitutional democracy is "more in name than in reality," and that there is "no such thing as democracy and freedom under U.S. constitutional governance."
The commentary comes as the Chinese continue to debate political reform in online forums.
The Communist Party-ruled government appears to be moving away from democratic political reform under Xi, a doctrinaire communist "princeling" and son of Communist revolutionary, Xi Zhongxun.
Xi’s doctoral degree is in "scientific socialism," the euphemism for Marxism-Leninism. Xi also has taken a more pro-military stance than his predecessors. The military remains a bastion of communist ideology.
The People’s Daily commentary appears to contradict statements by Chinese leaders on the rule of law. Xi said recently that "no one should be allowed to be above the constitution," according to the South China Morning Post. The Hong Kong newspaper first reported the anti-democracy commentary.
The People’s Daily said efforts to promote constitutional rule in China are being carried out by groups linked to U.S. intelligence agencies that are seeking to overturn socialism.
The commentary was published as Chinese leaders are meeting this month at the summer retreat Beidaihe to discuss the political agenda for the party.
A State Department spokesman had no comment on the anti-democracy article.