Democracy is a system where the government implements the will of the majority and it is held accountable by the majority.
Western countries implement parliamentary democracy, and we now have ample evidence that this model of democracy does not work in practice. Western governments primarily represent the interests of the elites at the expense of the public as this study of US policy illustrates. US may be an extreme case, but similar situation is observed in most western nations.
Western chauvinists do not get to define whether other countries are democratic or not because western model itself is a failure.
People actually living in those countries get to define what their system is. Vast majority of Chinese citizens approve of their government, and think that it is in fact democratic.
But that’s not necessarily due to representative democracy. In fact IMHO it’s more likely caused by Capitalism that’s tearing the world apart whether in China or the US. When studying these (perceived) patterns it’s very tempting to confuse a prejudice with a causality. That also applies to me of course. BTW: I did a little comparison in the top 5 happiest countries (Finland, Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland, Netherlands; source: World Happiness Report of the UN) between 2019 and 2021 and I rather saw an upward trend in happiness than the opposite which doesn’t seem in line with growing discontent.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/happiest-countries-in-the-world
Representative democracy is precisely what perpetuates capitalism. Lenin provides a great analysis of this relationship in The State and Revolution.
Meanwhile, this is clearly not the case in China. Quality of life in China continues to steadily improve with every decade. Poverty has been effectively eliminated. In fact, China is the only place in a world where any meaningful poverty reduction is happening. If we take China out of the equation poverty actually increased in real terms:
China also massively invests in public infrastructure, they built 27,000km of high speed rail in a decade. 90% of families own their home with 80% of these homes being owned outright, without mortgages or any other leans. Wage adjusted for the prices you pay has gone up 4x in the past 25 years, more than any other country, and people enjoy a high level of social mobility. China also chose to prioritize public health over business interests when handling the pandemic, something that didn’t happen in any major capitalist state.
Chinese government has recently passed massive regulation on big business and released a a five-year blueprint calling for greater regulation of vast parts of the economy. The government has also openly stated that the era of capital expansion is over and the interests of the majority outweigh the interests of shareholders.
Also worth noting that Finland, Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland, Netherlands accounts for a tiny portion of the overall western population. So, even if we accept those results at face value, many bigger capitalist countries like France, UK, Canada, and US are having very turbulent times. You don’t have country wide protests happening when people are happy.