China's official Xinhua News Agency attacked Western democracy as divisive and confrontational on Tuesday, praising on the eve of a key Communist Party Congress the harmony and cooperative nature of the Chinese system.
China's constitution enshrines the Communist Party's long-term "leading" role in government, though it allows the existence of various other political parties under what is calls a "multiparty cooperation system." But all are subservient to the Communist Party.
Activists who call for pluralism are regularly jailed and criticism of China's authoritarian system silenced.