[jabiko]

> China is a democracy

Regardless of which democracy index (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_indices) you consult, they all disagree with that statement.

[krainboltgreene]

V-dem, Bertelsmann, and EDI literally has scores for China. You'll notice places like Brunei, an absolute monarchy, isn't on the list.

Because China is a democracy and Brunei is not a democracy.

[jabiko]

> V-dem, Bertelsmann, and EDI literally has scores for China.

I think you confuse being listed on those indices with being a democracy.

On V-dem China takes place 177 of 179, the Bertelsmann index categorized China as "hard-line autocracy" and EDI categorizes it as "authoritarian"

[krainboltgreene]

"A list of democracies that don't score non-democracies" having China by definition means the indexes consider China a democracy.

[jabiko]

> "A list of democracies that don't score non-democracies"

This definition is nowhere to be found. I assume it's your interpretation, which, as already said, is flawed.

For example Saudi Arabia is listed on all of those indices even though its an absolute monarchy and the poster child for an autocracy.

[pqtyw]

Legally (according to their constitution) USSR was also a democracy. But that hardly meant much in practice. Of course the Chinese society is probably much "freer" than than the Soviet one was prior to Gorbachev's reforms but again.. an extremely low standard.

[shkkmo]

Brunei isn't on the Bertelsmann because it is small (<1 million people), not because of its political structure.

The EDI explicitly does not try to asses whether a country is democratic or not, but just allows relative comparisons. It also doesn't include smaller countries but doesn't have as clear of a cutoff.

If you are going to use inclusion on one or more of these lists as an argument, you'll have actually cite where those lists use status as a democracy as a criteria for inclusion and how that is assessed.

[wildzzz]

China has a fig leaf of a democracy. It meets the simplest definition of a democracy, the citizens do get to vote on something. Compared to most of the developed world, it's a far cry from a liberal democracy that allows for dissenting positions and parties. China's flavor of governing is objectively neither good nor bad (they have managed to become a superpower after all) but it's nothing like the democracies of the West.