2020 Democrat Michael Bloomberg claimed that the Chinese people “don’t seem to want” democracy.
During a CNN town hall event on Wednesday, Anderson Cooper asked Bloomberg about his comments from December 2019 where he pointedly claimed that Chinese President Xi Jinping is “not a dictator.”
“Well, it’s a question of, ‘What is a dictator?’ They don’t have a democracy in the sense that they have general elections. That is true,” the former New York City mayor said. “If your definition is a democracy where people vote and pick their leaders, that is not what China is about, and they don’t seem to want it.”
He added that he doesn’t agree with that idea of governance.
“I think they’d be better off opening things up, having freedom of the press, which they don’t have, having lots of different cultures come in. That’s the great strength of America. They don’t seem to think that, and I think we should work as hard as we can to change that,” Bloomberg said.
“You’re not going to go to war and try to force them. It is the second biggest economic power, and we should get used to the fact that China is going to keep growing and become stronger,” he continued, “and we have to figure out a ways to work with them while protecting our industries and protecting our country militarily.”
In 2018, the communist country ended term limits for the presidency, granting Xi the ability to hold the presidency for life. The legislative body overwhelmingly approved the change, allowing Xi to consolidate immense governmental power.
