At a high-level meeting on November 3, Yu Zhengsheng, the Chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), disclosed that Chinese officials have been buying and selling memberships in the CPPCC committees at all levels as if they are “commodities” on the market and that the price of a CPPCC membership has risen to more than 500 million yuan (US$72.52 million). The meeting issued documents asking for a thorough investigation and for the rectification of the problem of the Hong Kong and the Macao SAR CPPCC members at all levels, demanding that a thorough investigation of the Hong Kong CPPCC system be conducted.
At the meeting, it was pointed out that memberships at all levels of the CPPCC have a “market price used for bargaining.” The so-called “bargaining price” is the amount tendered as a quote to society’s elite. For example, the price for a CPPCC National Committee membership was 20 million yuan (US$2.9 million) in the late 1980s and grew to 500 million yuan today for one who makes donations or invests in enterprises. Similarly the price of a provincial CPPCC membership was 5 million yuan in the late 1980s and rose to 30 to100 million today. The CPPCC membership at the prefectural level has risen to 10 to 30 million yuan depending on the local economic situation and the geographic location.
Although the CPPCC National Committee and the National People’s Congress (NPC) are known as “vase organizations” [for the Chinese Communist Party, they are for show], there are many benefits to buying the title of NPC or CPPCC member. For example, if a city official wants to become the mayor or vice mayor, he will need the votes of the NPC members. When each vote is given a monetary value, it is easily worth tens of thousands, millions, or even tens of millions of yuan.
Source: Mingjing News, November 19, 2016
http://www.mingjingnews.com/MIB/blog/blog_contents.aspx?ID=0000047000004789