China maintains eight small, legal opposition parties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). They are known collectively as “the democratic parties.” They have a total membership of about 700,000 members, mostly professionals, intellectuals, scientists, artisans, and entrepreneurs and they are functionally consultants to the CCP in their areas of specialty. As consultants, these parties seem to have some small impact on specific policy points.
Members of the democratic parties come together, like political parties in othe countries, at semi-regular intervals. They discuss issues, conduct research, and submit proposals to be taken to the CCP for consideration. And like other political parties, China’s democratic parties exist to represent certain segments of the population’s opinions.
Unlike political parties in other countries, they are bound by their charters to accept the CCP’s leadership of the country. There is no jostling between political parties. Membership is tightly controlled, as are the areas they can give opinions on, and no one joins the political parties thinking they might get to win an election someday.
