‘China delegates blind men on blind horses’

Empty talk, self-censorship, brain-dead conformity — that’s outspoken delegate Cui Yongyuan’s assessment of China’s national Parliament, celebrated by the Communist Party as empowering the people but which he calls a big waste of time.

Nearly 5,000 delegates from across the country are in Beijing for the annual Communist-choreographed session, the world’s largest parliamentary gathering.

The spectacle monopolises Chinese television

Some of our (delegates) don’t take action because they feel there is some sort of danger

— Cui Yongyuan, China delegate

screens and other media every year for 10 days and is touted by the Party as proof that it at least listens to the people despite its hammer-lock on power.

But as the session prepares to close on Wednesday, Mr Cui, among China’s most-recognised television personalities and former host of a talk show called Tell It Like It Is, is doing just that.

In an interview, Mr Cui, 54, bemoaned what he described as delegates’ timidity, blind party obedience and self-censorship, in a rare unvarnished critique of the tightly scripted show.

“Some of our (delegates) don’t take action because they feel there is some sort of danger, thinking — if I dare to speak the truth, then next year I won’t have a chance any more, or perhaps even this year my leaders will take me to task,” said Mr Cui. “This isn’t a stage, to put on a show. It’s not a place for everyone to put on their pretty clothes and take pictures. This is a place for political participation.”

He spoke while petting his cat “Little Fatty” and sipping tea in his calligraphy-lined office at the Communications University of China, where he teaches at an oral-history research centre established in his name.