What the sessions are for

Let us remember three names as the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) concludes its annual session: Zhang Weiqing, Zhu Zhenzhong, and Huang Wenzai.

Recent CPPCC sessions have seen some of its members pass daring critical comments on current affairs. But Zhang, Zhu and Huang deserve special mention, because they suggested what the annual sessions of the CPPCC and the National People's Congress (NPC) should be.

Zhang exposed the omnipresence of dishonesty in officialdom. Zhu created a stir by censuring the pandemic bureaucratic rhetoric that is insincere, boastful, pointless and flattering. And Huang interrupted a fellow CPPCC member who had spent 20 minutes praising the advantages of socialism and reviewing the process of the country's political democracy before speaking for another 20 on spiting and smoking.