It may come as a surprise for many, but an election was held this week in Beijing. On November 8, Beijingers were given a chance to vote for representatives in the Chinese People’s Consultative Conference (CPPCC). The CPPCC stands alongside the Central Committee and the National People’s Congress (NPC) as one of the three main ruling bodies in the Chinese government. The annual ‘lianghui’ meeting actually refers to the annual meetings of both the CPPCC and the NPC.
China of course, is a one-party state and these CPPCC elections are a superficial way of trying to appear democratic. Only a small portion of representatives in the CPPCC are elected by the people. Many famous people are directly appointed by the government to be representatives in the CPPCC. I think even actress Zhang Ziyi is a representative, so obviously people with no idea about the real world can be appointed.
A woman votes in the CPPCC elections held in Xingning in September 2006. Photo courtesy of Meizhou Daily.
Most voters probably have no idea about who they are voting for. People only know the candidate’s name, they don’t even know the person’s gender (gender is not always clearly defined by Chinese names). In a way, it is similar to an Australian election – I’ve voted twice, and on both occasions I had never heard of the person that I voted for. At least in Australia, candidates are often aligned to a particular party, so voters can have an idea about the policies of candidates. Representatives in the CPPCC are similar to independents, except they don’t hold any casting votes. All they can do is suggest ideas to the government.
The election was a chance for top Communist leaders to get their mugs in the newspaper. Hu Jintao, Jiang Zemin, Wu Bangguo and Wen Jiabao all went out to vote. Check out this report in the English-version of the Xinhua website for a classic quote about Vice-Premier Huang Ju. Apparently Huang’s assistant helped him vote because Huang was “out of town on business”. Huang hasn’t been seen for ages and is rumoured to be embroiled in Hu Jintao’s attacks on the Shanghai faction. | 