Faced with the decline of the Western model, “has China won?”

The Statue of Liberty, seemingly exhausted, walks with her back hunched, hunched over her flame, which no longer illuminates much. Conversely, in the background, the five yellow stars of the Chinese flag diffuse light against a red background. “American Democracy vs. Chinese Governance: The Ultimate Showdown,” reads the cover title of the June issue of The Diplomat .

The American magazine, specializing in Asia-Pacific news, explores this month “the many forms of democratic backsliding” in this region. Of course, the newspaper’s editorial points out , the return of “US President Donald Trump has become, for many, the embodiment of the crisis” – but the problem is much broader:

“Disillusionment with the status quo of political systems, driven by problems such as corruption and economic inequality, ironically fosters the emergence of authoritarian leaders who promise to 'fix everything' – provided they are given absolute power. ”

This is the case in India, once the “world’s largest democracy.” Its 1.4 billion inhabitants are now “living a democratic experience that borders too closely on authoritarianism,” in a regime that has become a “plebiscitary democracy” serving a strongman, Prime Minister Narendra Modi .

But The Diplomat mainly asks: “Has China won?” – borrowing the title of a book, not translated into French, by Kishore Mahbubani, a researcher at the National University of Singapore, who wrote the newspaper’s lead article . If “American democracy is perceived as shaky, especially after Donald Trump’s return to power, Chinese-style governance is, conversely, perceived as stable.” But Trump, the author continues, is only a symptom of democratic decline in the United States, not its cause.

In "this final confrontation between American democracy and Chinese governance, it is important to take a clear-eyed look at the situation," the author cautions. And to ask the questions that are bothering the West:

“Is America as democratic as it claims to be? Is Chinese authoritarianism really a problem?”

And above all: "In today's world, which system do countries admire and which do they seek to imitate?" In Washington or Beijing, in Lhasa, in occupied Tibet, or in Kigali, in Rwanda, at Harvard University, where foreign students are expelled , or at Hangzhou University, where they are welcomed, the answer is more subtle than one might think.