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4. Both the KMT and the CCP share a dislike of public debate and confrontation. It goes against both Confucian thinking and, in the case of the CCP, Marxist-Leninist certainty. It is not something wholly Chinese nor wholly Marxist, for in Japan and Korea, elaborate means have traditionally been and are still today found to reconcile differences to that as far as possible a public facade of unity can be presented. "Democratic consultation" is therefore a means whereby disagreements and dissenting opinions can be taken into account but are not brought into the open.
5.
Delegates to the fourth National People's Congress in January 1975 were said to have been elected after "extensive democratic consultations and repeated discussions". No details were given of exactly what this process involved. A clearer picture of democratic consultation in action in the context of elections emerged in an article in People's Daily of 9 October 1978. The article, entitled "The election of deputies" attacked undemocratic features in the conduct of elections. In particular, the article argued that deputies should be chosen by the people through elections rather than imposed from above. In an election, it said, "democratic consultation and secret balloting must be conscientiously carried out.
As we know, the masses want genuine true democratic rights and not something facetious or in word only". A further detailed explanation of democratic conslutation came in the Minister of Civil Affairs' report in March 1981 to the NPC Standing Committee. The Minister, Cheng Zihua, who was also head of the office in charge of nationwide direction elections at the county level said, inter alia;
6.
"Our elections are truly democratic elections by
the masses of people. Candidates are recommended by following the mass line. Any qualified person can be recommended as a candidate provided he is nominated by another voter supported by three
more.
The CCP, the various democratic parties and the various people's organisations may also recommend candidates. Through repeated democratic consultations aimed at selecting the best, a formal name list of candidates is drawn up. From these candidates, whose number is greater than that of deputies to be elected, and through the process of secret ballot, the deputies trusted
by the most voters are elected." (NCNA in Chinese, 2 March 1981, in SWB FE/6665/C/4.)
This method of selecting candidates was formally enshrined in article 28 of the December 1982 NPC electoral law. (The full text of the electoral law was carried by Xinhua in Chinese on 15 December 1982 in SWB FE/7212/C/1 of 18 December 1982.) Article 28 says in part: "The name list of candidates nominated as deputy by various quarters and the background data on these candidates shall be collected by the selection committee and made public 20 days prior to the date of election for repeated discussion and democratic consultation by vote of groups of the respected electoral districts."
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17.