China's National People's Congress Explained

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• published: 08 Mar 2013
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So you may have heard there are some important political meetings going on in China this week. In Chinese they are called Liang Hui or the two meetings. It is through these meetings that Xi jinping and Li keqiang will become the new leaders of China. These two meetings are held annually and they are the National People's Congress or quanguo renmin daibiao huiyi and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference zhongguo renmin zhengzhi xieshang huyi phwew! What a mouth full! Now you may think these two meetings are like China's parliament, so like the House of Commons and House of Lords in the UK right? Or the Senate and the House of Representatives in the US? Not really. In a country ruled by the communist party gongchangdang it is questionable how much actual power they have. Well actually it's not questionable, they don't have any power. Ok let's start with the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference zhongguo renmin zhengzhi xieshang huyi. The key word here is consultative, it is an advisory body that advises the government, it doesn't actually make any political decisions its self. The conference is supposed to facilitate cooperation between parties but in reality the majority of members are still Communist party gongchandang members. And they even put some movie and sports stars in there to jazz it up a bit. Kungfu movie actor Jackie Chan was a delegate at the conference this week. Chan is known for sucking up (cough) I mean being a supporter of China's Communist party. In answer to a question on censorship in China's film industry on Hainan island in 2009 Chan responded "I'm gradually beginning to feel that we Chinese need to be controlled. If we're not being controlled, we'll just do what we want." That comment lost Chan his job as ambassador for the deaf Olympics in Taipei. And then there is Yao Ming, the Chinese basketball star who made it big in the NBA playing for the Houston Rockets xiusidun huojian. (you probably don't need that bit of vocabulary, but whatever) Great athlete, but what is he doing as a delegate at China's parliament? He seems a little confused by that paper? And look now he's on his cell phone! Probably having a quick game of Temple Run 2. (cuts back to ben with phone, playing temple run 2) Oh sorry! But you know this would never happen in the United States of America right? A sports or movie star becoming a politician?.....Right? (picture of Arnold Schwartzernagger appears on Ben's right, ben embarrassed, pushes it away.) Well even though you may think the Americans were crazy for doing so, the citizens of California did actually democratically vote for the Terminator to be governor of California. Arnie by the way is called a nuo in Chinese. Now let's turn our attention to the other meeting, the National People's Congress or quanguo renmin daibiao huiyi. Now this meeting does carry a little more weight. According to the Chinese constitution it is supposed to be the most powerful organ of the state. But the BBC yingguo guangbo gongsi describes it as "little more than a rubber stamp for party decisions." And that makes sense, since two thirds of its seats are taken by Communist Party members and the rest are taken by members of other parties that are ultimately controlled by the Communist Party anyway. China is after all a one party dictatorship, yidang zhuanzhi, so other parties that posed a real threat to the Communist party's hold on power would not be tolerated. So who is going to make the decision for Xi Jinping, who became the general secretary zong shu ji of the communist party at the end of last year, to become the president of China? But wait a minute president? I don't remember hearing them say that in Chinese? Oh that's right, in Chinese he will be called guojia zhuxi or the Chairman of the country. But I guess the word Chairman contours images of Chaiman Mao, Mao Zhuxi the Communist dictator who over saw the cultural revolution da wenhua geming. So I see, they changed the English translation to president for PR, smart move actually. Anyway, back to this decision on the new Chairman of China, although the National People's Congress will approve the new leaders, the actual decision was made by the real highest organ of state power, the Communist Party's politburo zhengzhi ju and within the politburo, the politburo standing committee or zhengzhi ju chang wei, the collection of 9 old guys who rule China. It used to be 9, in the new line up it has been reduced to 7, all of which they picked them selves of course. So after the National People's Congress votes yes on March 15th, and it will vote yes, Xi Jinping will become the Chairman of China guojia zhuxi and Li Keqiang will become the Premier or Zongli. Now Temple Run, where was I...... If you liked this video, please subscribe and let us know what Chinese vocabulary you would like to learn by leaving a comment below.