China holds elections

THERE was a time when optimists saw a glimmer of a chance for the development of democracy under Communist Party rule in China. A good way forward, they suggested, would be a simple one requiring no change in the rules. All that would be needed to kick-start the process would be genuine competition in elections for local legislators. In 1980, at the start of Deng Xiaoping’s “reform and opening” campaign, it almost seemed possible: grassroots elections across China saw their first lively campaigning since the party came to power. University students openly challenged the party itself. China’s president, Xi Jinping, is determined not to let that happen again.

This year 900m voters in China are being cajoled into voting in elections of the same type that (briefly) aroused such enthusiasm under Deng. By the end of the year they will have chosen 2.5m representatives to sit in local “people’s congresses”. These form the lowest rung of the country’s legislative ladder, and are the only ones that are filled through direct elections. Membership of higher-level congresses is decided by lower-level ones. On November 15th it will be the turn of the capital, Beijing, to go through the motions. How different the mood will be from those heady days 36 years ago.