I understand this point, and what I am saying is that the claim that “Chinese people use elections to enact political change and express political will” is false.

China has elections. They are show elections that do not actually effect any change. Elections are not widely advertised and when it is, it’s more pomp and ceremony than actual serious political contention. There are no political debates. Candidates sometimes don’t even make their positions publicly known. Maybe they’ll write something on their WeChat page and that’s it. You show up, mark candidates off on a ballot, and deposit it in a box. It has the trappings of an election but it isn’t a vehicle for political change.

If you spend some time in China or read Chinese media, you’ll understand that the primary ways that citizens get what they want from politicians are much more direct:

• They complain on the Internet, post videos showing dilapidated infrastructure or frustrating encounters with civil servants. Provincial/central authorities find these posts and quickly order the relevant agencies to fix the problem if it can be quickly fixed.
• They dig through corrupt politicians’ social media and find evidence, then post it on Weibo. It goes viral, anti-corruption authorities see the posts and a month later the local People’s Procuratorate charges them with corruption and two months later they get executed.
• They avoid using public services that are annoying to use and complain about it to their friends. Eventually, it goes into the ear of a Communist Party member or a civil servant who tells their bosses about it. The complaint gets passed along to whoever can fix it.
• They will organise protests (see the Henan bank crisis) outside Government buildings. This usually is effective at getting things fixed but people do get scared of being arrested if the protests get too rowdy so it’s not common. It’s not like in the West where you can take up the whole plaza for a spontaneous protest. Protests in China are rarely to the tune of “fuck the Government”, usually it’s more of a “please help us” tone and this is useful for preventing the gathering from being dispersed by the police.

All of these are effective and you can call it Chinese-style democracy in action. China doesn’t use elections. It’s too wasteful. They’re not going to spend millions on political campaigns, election security and all those frills when the informal system works way better.