Recent CPC elections

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=165206203&m=165233677
Good and very informative 4 and a half minute report by NPR on China’s Communist Party elections.
Seems that the lives of some Chinese peasants have improved quite a bit, despite being far from Beijing, which is where the politicians stick around. As one farmer said: “villagers have no personal feel for the country’s leaders”, yet he, like his wife and many other rural villagers, still favor the Communist Party.
Of course, there are critiques brought up regarding what is deemed as the authoritarian manner in which said elections have taken place, particularly from those that reside in the urban areas of the country.
Two observations and a question:
Observation 1: (yes, general and perhaps over simplistic, but not illegitimate all the same) There is some level of continuity, whether conscious or unconscious (i.e. intended or unintended) by Mao’s efforts to improve the lives of the poor in the country. Though it is not clear to what degree the poorest class’s conditions have improved in China, it would be interesting to draw comparisons with how the conditions of the “1%” of the U.S. have improved because of policies set by elected politicians here, particularly given the recent emphasis on intolerance of corruption in the speeches given by Chinese Communist Party members.
Observation 2: despite not having open/direct suffrage from Chinese civilians, the development and outcome of elections in China appear to not be too dissimilar from elections in the United States, given the nature of the “PAC” and “super-PAC” influence as far as who is allowed to be electable in this country (i.e. third party candidates not even allowed to be part of the presidential debates). From there, one does not have to be too politically literate to understand that whether a democrat or a republican is elected, the status quo in regards to economics, the economic structure, the influence of lobbyists, etc. will never create a decent amount of change in the world’s number one “superpower”, which also has some of the most (if not THE most) drastic economic inequities among the world’s “superpowers”.
Question: How would a Chinese person, frustrated with the nature of China’s electoral cycle, and who may be versed in the U.S.’s manner of carrying out elections (including the electoral college system, influence of “super-PACS”, etc.) react to what many the façade of “choice” that is given here in the United States?

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