China's Communist Party Faithful Toe the Line at Choreographed Congress...

[Indi Guy]

Source: the guardian

Amid the ornate chandeliers and lush red carpets of Beijing's Great Hall of the People, flocks of Communist party delegates gathered this week to debate their country's future. Yet in these debates disagreements were hard to find.

The 2,268 delegates from across China have convened in the capital to participate in the 18th party congress, a once-in-a-decade leadership transition, which began on Thursday morning. The delegates are a diverse bunch: among them are provincial governors, generals, academics, migrant workers and an Olympic swimming medallist.

Ostensibly they are responsible for selecting the country's new central leadership and screening their superiors' work reports. Yet their true function – to rubber-stamp top party bosses' decisions – is a stark illustration of how carefully choreographed the congress truly is and how little has been left to chance.

"In theory they're providing feedback – if there's anything wrong with a report they'll point it out – but usually that's not the case," said Bo Zhiyue, an expert on Chinese politics at the National University of Singapore. "It's more of a celebration. They provide praise for the political reports."...

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/09/china-communist-party-faithful-congress

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Doesn't this last paragraph sound eerily like Fox News' pre-election coverage? (...and is this the only similarity between communism and the would-be Tea Party regime?)

[friendly_iconoclast]

1. Of course it resembles a would-be Tea Party regime.

Authoritarians of all flavors tend to resemble each other...

[valerief]

2. I didn't know Republicanism was a form of Communism. nt