Of course, one might question whether that was really the case. Did the Chinese people really take control of their own country in 1949? The Chinese Communists choose the name "People's Republic" (renmin gongheguo in Chinese) for the regime they established in that year, but a strong argument can be made that the Chinese people have never really been in control: the Party has. I am reminded of the words of a Chinese scholar quoted by Perry Link in his 1992 account of China's disillusioned intellectuals Evening Chats in Beijing:
A young literary scholar refused to use the word "People's" in official terms like "People's Republic," "People's Post Office," and People's Daily [a newspaper]. "It is not the people's government; it is not the people's newspaper," she said. "These are simple, plain facts that anyone can see. Why should we misuse the words?" (p. 128)
Nevertheless, the fact that the Chinese Communists claim to base their rule on the people is a distinct contrast from China's rulers in the past. For more than 2,000 years (221 BC-1911 AD), China's emperors based their right to rule on the "mandate of Heaven" (Heaven being their name for the impersonal moral force that governed the universe). Such a claim, however, holds no resonance with those living in our modern times. Ever since (at least) the revolutions of the late eighteenth century, the notion of "divine right of kings" (or emperors) has became increasingly discredited. Even the most dictatorial of regimes have had to assert that they were acting in the name of the people they ruled.
Still, one has to wonder for how much longer the obvious contradiction between political theory and reality can be maintained in China. After all, in 1987, another Communist government, that of the Soviet Union, celebrated its 70th anniversary. Four years later, the Soviet Union disintegrated. Of course, China in 2019 is rather different from the Soviet Union in 1987. For one thing, China's economy is much stronger than the Soviet Union's at that time. Moreover, one reason the Soviet Union collapsed was the lessening of political control under Mikhail Gorbachev. At present, China's government seems to be tightening political control. Furthermore, authoritarianism is a long-standing tradition in Chinese civilization and has proven to have considerable staying power. Nonetheless, it seems unlikely that in the long run (however long it is) China's current political system can endure.
Of course, ultimately, it does not matter on what basis a government claims to rule, for, as the Psalmist reminds us "God is the king of all the earth...[He] reigns over the nations" (Psalm 47:7-8, NIV). It is He who will determine the rise and fall of nations--whether China or our own--according to His will. This is something we need to remind ourselves of, and we can hope (and pray) that the day will come soon when many of the Chinese people, in whose name their government claims to rule, will come to acknowledge this truth as well.
Image of the Gate of Heavenly Peace (Tiananmen) in Beijing from Wikimedia Commons