China says no to Western political systems
March 12, 2013, 9:22 am

Yu Zhengsheng, the newly-appointed chairman of the CPPCC [Getty Images]

The newly-elected leader of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) has today pledged to strengthen multi-party consultation.

“We need to steadfastly uphold the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC), adhere to and improve the system of multiparty cooperation and political consultation,” said Yu Zhengsheng, chairman of the 12th National Committee of the CPPCC, the country’s top political advisory body.

“We need to more strictly follow the socialist path of political development with Chinese characteristics, not imitate Western political systems under any circumstances, always adhere to the correct political orientation, and strengthen the CPPCC’s ideological and political foundations of collective struggle,” Yu told more than 2,000 political advisors at the closing meeting of the first session of the 12th CPPCC National Committee.

China will continue on the path of upholding and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics, Yu said.

Last week, China’s outgoing chief legislator Wu Bangguo had said while China would seek to borrow suitable aspects of other countries’ systems, it would never adopt Western style democracy.

“We fully understood the essential difference between China’s system of people’s congresses and Western capitalist countries’ systems of state power, resolutely resisted the influence of all kinds of erroneous thought and theories,” said Wu.

China’s new President Xi Jinping has followed his predecessors in emphasising the importance of continuing the policy of reform and opening up that Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping initiated two decades ago.

Source: Agencies