Presidents Xi Jinping and Joseph Biden. Photo Credit: AP.

The United States and China are different kinds of countries.

The United States is a democracy. China is an autocracy. In the U.S., free elections decide who will be in power. In China, the Communist Party is in charge and makes decisions about who is in control.

This is the question. Is there enough of a difference between democracy and autocracy to make the difference between the U.S. and China matter? The answer is not so easy.

Democracy begins with the rights of each person, including the right to free speech. The right to vote in honest elections. The right to oppose the government. Autocracy begins with the decisions of officials who hold power without free elections.

If those were the only differences that counted, most people would choose to live in a democracy.

But something else seems to be as important. What? It is how people live. Do people have jobs? Do they have enough to eat, schools, health care, clothing, and houses? What is their standard of living?

The economy is central. Today, the world has what people call a “global supply chain.” That means things are made and shipped all over the world. America and China do billions of dollars worth of business with each other. Do people care more about where things come from than whether they can afford to buy them? How important is it that they have different kinds of government?

The last questions may be the most important. Which system will prevail? But why do they have to compete? The answer is that competition is the natural state of affairs between people and nations. It is why nations fight wars over territory, over ideas, and over religion.

China and the United States both have much to be proud of. They both have much that is wrong. For example, many nations and people condemn China’s treatment of its Muslim minority. China points out that the U.S. was a country of enslaved people and continues to be hard on minorities.

These are real issues. But the battle under consideration is for the influence of power. Whose economy will be bigger? Who will have a stronger military?

The two countries will compete on many levels. Most important will be their efforts to line up other countries to make deals with them. To be in alliance with them.

To most people, these matters make no sense. But the leaders of all countries have to present themselves to their people as ‘winners’ if they want to stay in power.

It is here that America may have a natural advantage. The Western model is about the people deciding who will be in charge.

Source: The New York Times