The annual session of China’s national legislature, the National People’s Congress (NPC), began in China’s Great Hall of the People on March 5, 2012. While the NPC is technically the highest organ of state power in China, its still the Chinese Communist Party that calls the shots, and his highly ritualized event is generally regarded by pundits outside China (and may Chinese) as having little real political significance — and its “delegates” certainly not being representative of the Chinese people. The following cartoon, posted by artist Crazy Crab to his WordPress blog hosted outside China, needs no introduction. It depicts a congress of pigs in a setting very much resembling China’s Great Hall of the People painted as clowns and wearing joker hats. Crazy Crab is a Chinese cartoonist now living overseas who uses the internet and social media to distribute his cartoons inside China.


David Bandurski

CMP Director

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