"The overwhelming majority of people living in China say they are living in a democracy.

"Most people in the United States say they do not.

These findings are part of a new study published by the Denmark-based Alliance of Democracies Foundation and Germany-based Latana data tracking firm. Part of the latest installment of the annual Democracy Perception Index published Monday, the study explores public opinions of democracy among 52,785 respondents across 53 nations and territories, including China and the U.S.., surveyed between March 30 and May 10 of this year.

When asked whether they believe their country is democratic, those in China topped the list, with some 83% saying the communist-led People's Republic was a democracy. A resounding 91% said that democracy is important to them.

Latana political research consultant Frederick Deveaux told Newsweek that the eagerness displayed by those in single-party-led nations such as China and Vietnam to describe their country as democratic "may perhaps be a function of not wanting to speak out against the government." But he argued "it could also be a real perception that their country is somehow acting in the interests of many people, and this is what democracy means."

"While some of these results are kind of surprising, it's also important to take this into account," Deveaux said, "because this will kind of determine who is winning the battle of democracy in the eyes of the public."

And, in the end," he added, "that's what matters more than if someone says, 'Actually, that's democracy, that's not democracy.'"

Other metrics in the report appeared to reinforce the sentiment that those in China expressed a more favorable opinion of their government than those in the U.S."

Observations:
1. Deveaux was trying to explain away China being democratic. But he was grasping. He could not suggest any way to allow him to objectively explain away the poll results.

2. It is interesting to compare China and Taiwan (actually ROC, Taiwan as an independent political entity does not exist.) on the State of Democracy.
These two groups of Chinese people comparable answers to the different questions. China is better.

(One can access the data from the poll's site after registration. Or from the following
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gdjTHqM_O2kDNyFgvLWVsCn4lFWzFRoMRUdTelXxTM4/htmlview#gid=1271546525 )