The mainland's eight 'democratic' parties were rolled out yesterday at the annual National People's Congress meeting.
In a display of the grandly titled 'multiparty co-operation and political consultative system', the leaders of the eight officially approved, non-communist parties held a news conference on issues from the gender imbalance of newborns to democratic reform.
The speeches by the heads of the organisations drove home the fact that while there may be nine parties on the mainland, only one calls the shots. Wan Gang , appointed chairman of the China Zhi Gong Dang in December and minister for science and technology in April, said Beijing would install more non-communist ministers as long as they 'fit the country's criteria'.
'It can showcase our democratic political system,' said Mr Wan, the first non-communist cabinet minister in 35 years.
Jiang Shusheng, head of the China Democratic League, stressed the importance of studying the 'Scientific Outlook on Development' - the theory of Communist Party chief Hu Jintao, which was recently written into the constitution. 'We'd support whatever is in line with the scientific development,' said Mr Jiang, a renowned physicist.
Yan Junqi, chairwoman of the China Association for Promoting Democracy, said her 100,000-member party, founded in 1945 before the Communist takeover, would 'evolve around the goals and development tasks set by the Communist Party'. While heaping praise on Mr Hu's speech on Taiwan, Lin Wenyi of the Taiwan Democratic Self-Government League - a 2,100-member party made up of people originally from Taiwan - listed her party's contributions to cross-strait relations.