what goes on at the Chinese Communist Party Congress?
What is the Party Congress, why is it important, and why only every 5 years? The Party Congress is the closest thing in China to democracy. It’s a gathering of about 2,000 delegates from across the country whose main job is to vote for a new Central Committee. The new Central Committee then chooses the Politburo – usually about 20 or so members – and its all-powerful Standing Committee of nine or seven people who really run the country. This may sound like little more than a rubber stamp and, indeed, most of the time that’s what it is. The delegates receive a list of candidates for the Central Committee – a few more candidates than seats – but they usually have received the nod from their bosses about who to vote for. They usually follow that advice – but they can ignore it. In 1987, for example, they kept a powerful hardline leftist ideologue out of the Central Committee and caused something of a furore by exercising their democratic power through a vote. The Congress is important for
