BEIJING 17 Oct (ANA) - 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 “multi-party 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. In a lengthy English-language commentary, Xinhua took aim at the “crises and chaos swamp(ing) Western liberal democracy”. “Unlike competitive, confrontational Western politics, the CPC and non-Communist parties cooperate with each other, working together for the advancement of socialism and striving to improve the people’s standard of living,” it said. “The relationship maintains political stability and social harmony and ensures efficient policy making and implementation.” China’s system leads to social unity not the divisions which are an unavoidable consequence of the adversarial nature of today’s Western democracy, Xinhua said.(ANA)

FA/ANA/17 October 2017---