Despite Western skepticism, democracy thrives in China

Almost every year, just before the annual sessions of the National People's Congress, the country's top legislature, and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committe, the country's top political advisory body, some people have claimed the two great institutions play the role of rubber stamps, and China's democracy cannot truly represent the people.

Criticism of the Chinese system comes mostly from abroad. But even some Chinese critics have been, from time to time, influenced by these foreign perceptions.

China is often analyzed and judged strictly according to Western norms and rules, which is chauvinistic and amazingly patronizing, to say the least. However, China, with thousands of years of history and culture, deserves to be defined and judged by its own people and according to its own measures.