A  movement of Independent candidates for local office is slowly beginning  to take shape in China.  Some of the barriers they face may sound  eerily familiar to Independents here in the US.

Over  the course of the next year and a half, China will hold local elections  for legislatures in over 2,000 counties and 30,000 townships across the  country under an electoral law amended in March 2010 to “guarantee  equal franchise to every citizen,” according to Xinhua.  The process  began on May 7th and will continue through December of next year.   China’s government is, of course, tightly controlled by the ruling  Communist Party.  However, the country’s constitution and electoral law  technically allow any citizen over the age of eighteen, who has not been  formally deprived of political rights, to run for office in local  direct elections, which are held every five years.

“Speak  to most Chinese about what they know about local elections, and you’ll  get incredulous looks. Who gave you the knuckle-brained idea there is  such a thing in China? But local citizen candidates have stood  successfully in elections before,” writes David Bandurski at the China Media Project.

Some have paid dearly for it.  The Christian Science Monitor cites the case of Yao Lifa, who won a municipal seat through the self-nomination process in 1998:

“A  teacher, [Yao] has not been given a teaching post since, has been beaten  up several times, had his bones broken twice, has been repeatedly  arrested, and is now under 24 hour police surveillance, he complains.”

Despite  the potential risks, in recent weeks, dozens of political activists have  announced their intentions to seek office in their town and county  elections as Independent candidates.  They include scholars,  journalists, bloggers, workers and students.  Observers project that  they will be joined by tens of thousands of other Independent and  self-declared candidates as the process progresses.

Exploiting  avenues of communication opened by social media, the movement is taking  shape to a great extent on Sina Weibo, a micro-blogging platform  similar to Twitter.  The China Elections and Government blog has detailed profiles of some of the candidates who have thrown  their hats into the political ring, including that of Liu Ping, whose  recent struggle with authorities and eventual expulsion from the  election appears to have galvanized the movement.

An  official in the National People’s Congress addressed the emergence of  the movement in a statement issued last week declaring that there is no  such thing as an “independent candidate” in China, but rather only  “deputy candidates” and “official deputy candidates,” according to  Xinhua.  Activists appear to be unperturbed by the pronouncement.  The New York Times quotes one former candidate who won election in 2003 stating:

“Over  all, I think the official response is a little more positive than  negative . . . Legally, there’s nothing wrong with what was said.”

The  Times took a more pessimistic view of the situation, stating that such Independent candidacies had been declared “illegal,” and detailing the  various procedural hurdles they must overcome to participate in the  electoral process.

“In  practice, candidates are largely handpicked by Communist Party  officials and committees, and outsiders are frequently discouraged from  seeking office . . . Candidates who lack official favor frequently find  their route to office blocked, even if they meet legal qualifications,”  writes Michael Wines.

Despite  the magnitude of the differences between China and the US, it  is difficult to ignore the fact that a number of the barriers facing Independent  candidates in the one-party state sound strikingly similar to those  faced by Independent candidates under our own two-party state.  Indeed, they are almost comical.

Just  two days before Xinhua reported that there is “no such thing as an  independent candidate” in China, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said  much the same thing regarding Independent lawmakers in New York.   Queried in a press conference as to how a new ethics law might affect  legislators who are not affiliated with the Democratic or Republican  party, the governor literally declared, “They don’t exist!”, garnering a  hearty laugh of approval from Democrats and Republicans alike.  In fact,  however, they do, as Capitol Confidential noted the next day.

One  might also consider that, as in China, there is technically no such  thing as an “independent” candidate in California either.  As it is  currently written, California’s top-two open primary law prohibits candidates  from describing themselves as “Independent” on the ballot.   Independents are rather forced to identify themselves as having “no  party preference.”

Furthermore,  third party and Independent candidates who – almost by definition –  “lack official favor” in the US routinely find their route to office  blocked by systemic barriers.  They face highly discriminatory ballot  access laws.  Operatives from the major parties systematically challenge  their petitions.  Media outlets and pollsters dismiss or ignore their  candidacies. They are  prohibited from participating in candidate forums  and debates, and so on.

China’s embryonic Independent movement has a long road ahead of them, as does our own.