Introduction
Democracy: A New PathOut of “Rise and FallPeriodic Law”

In July,1945, the famous democrat Huang Yanpei and CPC leader Mao Zedong held an immortal talk on governing the country in a cave house located in Yangjialing, Yan'an City.

Huang Yanpei said:“In the past sixty years, what I saw, not including what I heard about, has precisely illustrate that ‘A country falls as abruptly and rapidly as it rises'. A person, a family, a group, a place and a country at large can never jump out of this cycle. At the beginning, all attention and energies are concentrated with everyone diligently exerting his or her full efforts in everything, just to pursue a slim chance of surviving through trials and tribulations, until things get better when everyone gets sluggish and careless. In one case, long time duration naturally breeds sluggishness which spreads from one to more and thus becoming a widespread phenomenon so that even vigorous efforts and strength will not reverse or remedy such situation. In another case, as the region gets expanded due to natural progression or desire of achievements, leaders and talents are unable to deal with the environment which becomes more and more complex, leading to weaker dominance. The long history has witnessed‘officials taking place of emperors who are not diligent', or‘political measures being cast away because of death of the man who made them', or ‘striving for honor but resulting in shame'. In a word, everyone or every nation is stuck in the ‘rise and fall periodic law'. I have had a brief understanding of the Chinese Communist Party from past to present. All you need and want is to find a new path to jump out of this cycle.”

Mao Zedong replied with confidence:“We have found a new path to jump out of this cycle. It is democracy. Only the government supervised by people will stand eternally; only after everyone takes his responsibility will both administration and measures last.”

Delighted with Mao Zedong's reply, Huang Yanpei said:“I think you are right. Personal utilitarian desires can be avoided if fundamental polices are decided by the public. If everyone in every place is informed of everything, everyone's voice can be heard and everyone can advance with the times. It may work to apply democracy for jumping out of this cycle.”

This conversation, also awarded as “Conversation in Cavehouse”, is widely circulated. The answer given by Mao Zedong is not only a response to advanced Chinese people who have been worrying about, hesitating about and pondering over the development direction of China since modern times, but also a concentrated generalization and accurate expression of democratic course in which the Chinese communists make unremitting efforts to save the nation and realize great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. The Communists, from generation to generation, based on the country's actual conditions, have found a Chinese “democratic road” for stepping out of “rise and fall periodic law” by conforming to historical development trend and demands of the majority of Chinese people, and also by learning from excellent political outcomes and civilization achievements.

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote in Manifesto of the Communist Party that:“The first step in the revolution by working class, is to raise the proletariat to the position of ruling as to win the battle of democracy.” Chinese Communist Party, established in 1921, in the spirit of achieving communism, has always been regarding democracy as basic political value pursuit and has been, during the tide of revolution, continuously searching a way to realize democracy in China. In 1949, Chinese Communist Party established a democratic nation, which ended the unsuccessful attempts at imitating the western political development mode since modern times and marked the realization of great leap to the new people's democracy, thus opening up a new road for development of people's democracy. Since the reform and opening up policy in 1978, Chinese Communist Party, profoundly drawing lessons from historical experiences, positive and negative, has been stressing that people's democracy is the basis of socialism. The Party has also been, sticking to the idea that all powers belong to people, ceaselessly boosting political restructuring, which brings about significant development of socialist democracy, marking the successful creation of and persevere in socialist political development road with Chinese characteristics as well as formation of right direction to achieve the most extensive people's democracy.

Democracy is a focus of attention for development of China in 21 century. The term “democracy (minzhu)” appears for 69 times in Hu Jintao's report at the 18th CCP National Congress. Today, the thought that democracy is a good thing has been a basic consensus for Chinese people and communists. There seems to be no controversy in acquiring democracy. However, what is democracy exactly? What kind of democracy will China gain? What are the advantages and features of Chinese democracy? Which road shall we choose for development of Chinese democratic politics? Answers to these questions are what we must acquire and make clear.