Journalist Case

This has been an extraordinary month for an American like me to be teaching journalism at a Chinese university. Both our countries -- the world's two superpowers -- have just gone through the process of picking new presidents. The confluence of these two events, which will likely forge the political, economic, and military contours of the planet for years to come, is the type of rare occurrence that can jolt a journalist into joyous excitement.

Obviously, the way the Americans and Chinese chose their presidents is about as far apart as the two nations are from one another on the globe. While many Americans were riveted by the suspense of who we, the people, would elect to reside in the White House for the ensuing four years, the Chinese watched from the sidelines with barely a flicker of curiosity as Communist party leaders made the announcement that Xi Jinping would be the new president of the People's Republic, ostensibly for the next 10 years. Most Chinese interested enough to care have known since last year that Xi would become their president. No excitement, no sense of mystery. The party stalwarts made the decision on Xi's ascendancy well before Mitt Romney became the Republican party's obvious nominee last spring.

My classes of Chinese students have followed the presidential selection processes of the two countries, in both the western and Chinese press. They were particularly interested -- and sometimes dismayed -- by the way President Obama and Mitt Romney flexed their muscles during their debates when addressing U.S. relations with China. They saw some hypocrisy in the candidates' assault on their nation for its economic policies and for taking jobs away from the United States at the same time they observed Americans benefitting from low-priced Chinese goods and labor.

But they also spoke enviously of the transparency of the election campaign in the United States and the way the two candidates opened up their personalities to voters. They admired the president and Michele Obama while regretting that they know nothing about the lives of their own national leaders, other than when they are caught in the midst of a corruption scandal.

They like the idea that all Americans can have a hand in the decision of who their leaders will be.

I was surprised, then, to the responses I got when I asked several of my classes what they would think of the idea of China one day holding its own democratic elections. (I earlier had to explain that even American elections are not truly democratic, thanks to the oddity of the Electoral College.)

While most of my students love the concept of democracy and have great respect for our country, most did not think that democratic elections were a good idea for China.

This might sound absurd to Americans, especially the believers of American exceptionalism, who think everything we do is the best way. How can