China’s parliamentary advisory body opened in Beijing on Tuesday as priority traffic lanes for delegates and officials created traffic gridlock, amid tight citywide security checks, residents told RFA Mandarin.
The Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, or CPPCC, the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s highest-ranking United Front organization, enlists carefully selected and loyal delegates from among celebrities, the private sector, ethnic minority communities and “people’s organizations” under the party umbrella — including the All-China Women’s Federation and the All-China Federation of Trade Unions.
It also hosts delegates from minority political parties, but only if they play a role that is narrowly defined and subservient to the ruling party.
The body, more colorful and visually diverse than the National People’s Congress that opens Wednesday, is portrayed by state media as proof of China’s consultative model of “whole process democracy,” as well as its inclusion of people from “all walks of life” in politics.
The opening session plunged Beijing into strict traffic controls, with some roads closed to allow motorcades of limousines and official buses to approach the Great Hall of the People in time, with the general public warned not to try to drive in the area.
Police bomb disposal teams were out in force checking vehicles near the venue, according to news photos, while Beijing residents complained of city-wide congestion and security checkpoints.
“I was driving along the Second Ring Road today and came upon the delegates' motorcade,” Beijing resident Ye Jinghuan told RFA Mandarin. “The road wasn’t closed, but only one lane was left for ordinary vehicles [out of three].”
“Three groups of buses have passed by, and we’re now stuck on the viaduct, motionless,” she said from her vehicle. “We don’t know how far back this goes.”
“This was a drive that should have taken half an hour, but now I don’t know how long it will be,” Ye said.
Strict security checks
Meanwhile, any passengers entering Beijing are having their bags checked twice at railway stations, according to the X citizen journalist account “Teacher Li is not your teacher.”
The account posted video clips of security personnel at the Tengzhou High-speed Railway Station in the eastern province of Shandong checking every item of luggage belonging to Beijing-bound passengers, with people grumbling at the level of security.
Similar checks were conducted on luggage belonging to Beijing-bound passengers in the northeastern city of Shenyang, a separate video clip showed.
There are also security checkpoints on highways entering the capital, Shandong resident Zhou Gang told RFA Mandarin on Tuesday.
“There are police at every highway exit, and all cars entering Beijing are being checked,” Zhou said.
Additionally, police continued to detain anyone using the official complaints system, bussing them out of town and handing them over to “interceptors” from their hometowns.
“They’re detaining people on a daily basis,” a resident of Beijing’s Fangshan district, who gave only the surname Li for fear of reprisals, told RFA Mandarin. “There are police vehicles throughout the village and outside.”
“Petitioners are now basically being detained as soon as they are sent back home from Beijing,” she said. “Things are very bad.”
Elsewhere in China, police are placing rights activists under house arrest until the CPPCC and the National People’s Congress, which starts Wednesday, are over.
“I can’t go anywhere right now,” Qingdao-based rights activist Zhu Le told RFA Mandarin. “The police told me that security for the parliamentary sessions will last until March 20, and I’m not allowed to leave my home before then.”
‘Just a formality’
Inside the Great Hall of the People, President Xi Jinping and other Chinese leaders attended the opening ceremony at 3 p.m., with Politburo Standing Committee member and CPPCC chairman Wang Huning delivering his annual work report to around 2,000 delegates.
Wang vowed to expand the Conference’s capacity to “bolster unity and friendship” and improve feedback and consultation.
“We need to improve the CPPCC consultation systems and mechanisms, and the mechanisms for adopting, implementing, and providing feedback on consultation outcomes,” Wang said.
While it does help to ensure loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party, the CPPCC isn’t widely expected to have much impact on policy.
A resident of Shanghai, who gave only the surname Wang for fear of reprisals, said the meetings were just there for show.
“These meetings are just a formality, with no substantive content now,” he said, citing the ending of three decades of press conferences once given by China’s premier at the National People’s Congress.
“The premier has stopped giving press conference, and they’ve also been canceled at the People’s Congress and municipal CPPCC in Shanghai too,” Wang said. “They hold their meetings and don’t want the people to get involved.”
“They don’t care about the same issues that the people care about,” he said.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie.