China is notoriously secretive; its government mechanics inscrutable. The constitution says that power belongs to the people, but in reality the rights of the people belong to the Communist Party and its leaders, from whom workers and peasants receive scant attention. The CCP claims to have delivered a democratic revolution, but the country remains one of the world's most undemocratic. So irreconcilable are these paradoxes that the 16th Party Congress that will convene next week cannot hope but to show itself as a democratic sham.
China is notoriously secretive; its government mechanics inscrutable. The constitution says that power belongs to the people, but in reality the rights of the people belong to the Communist Party and its leaders, from whom workers and peasants receive scant attention. The CCP claims to have delivered a democratic revolution, but the country remains one of the world's most undemocratic. So irreconcilable are these paradoxes that the 16th Party Congress that will convene next week cannot hope but to show itself as a democratic sham.