Although China has been experimenting with village level elections for over a decade, party leaders have been reluctant to extend these elections to higher levels, such as townships and counties. While there have been a few quiet experiments in some urban areas, China's leaders have placed a greater priority on maintaining order, especially in the countryside, than on spreading democracy to higher levels of the political system. The main obstacle to expanding elections is the fear that the wrong people will win the election. As in many areas of policy making in China, the attitudes of local officials seem to determine whether new reforms will be enacted in a proper and timely way, even if they have been mandated by the central leadership. The CCP seems uncomfortable with political processes where it cannot control the outcome.
Democracy is an inherently uncertain process.
This runs against the grain of the CCP, which is designed to monitor and control all aspects of its environment, not be subject to the whims of public opinion. Chen's victory is a vivid reminder that truly democratic elections are inherently uncertain. For advocates of political reform and democratization in the CCP, their job of convincing skeptics that elections will not sweep them out of power has gotten much harder. Expanding democratic elections to higher levels would also seem to require the formation of opposition parties. In a village setting, there is little need for political organizations because most political communication can be done face to face.