Bruce Dickson, an American researcher who studied the Chinese government in the past years, published a book entitled "The Dictator's Dilemma" and explained why the Communist Party is still popular.
He and a team of researchers conducted 4,000 face-to-face interviews in 50 different cities in the country. They found out that the country is not headed for a democracy and despite this, the people of China respect the government.
Dickson was asked if he was surprised with the results of their survey. He said, "In many ways, my findings were consistent with just about every other survey I've seen coming out of China: No matter how you measure it, no matter what questions you ask, the results always indicate that the vast majority of people are truly satisfied with the status quo."
The author said that he was surprised at much Chinese are optimistic and are looking forward to a good future in the country despite the economic slowdown. He also found out that many people perceived that corruption was slowing down because of the government's anti-corruption campaign.
The general satisfaction of the public reflected in their belief on censorship. The author said, "Among the people who had experienced it (censorship), most of them said it didn't matter, that they weren't that bothered by it. Out of the entire set of respondents, only about 7 or 8 percent said that they were actually angry about encountering censorship."
The book reveals that the Chinese appreciation of democracy is different from the West. Dickson explained that most Chinese do not measure democracy with the rights that they exercise but with what they get from the government.
He said, "In addition, many people in China believe that the country is already becoming democratic, and most of them are satisfied with the level of democracy in the country. The twist is that they don't define democracy in terms of elections, a multiparty system [or] rule of law--the institutional features that we associate with liberal democracy. They associate it more with whether the government is benefiting the people."