Political mass gatherings in China often revoked painful memories of elder Chinese who went through the violent "class struggle sessions" during the tumultuous Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and 1970s.

People labeled "class enemies" -- in many cases heads of government offices, schools, state institutes -- were dragged to the crowd with hands tied to the back, got kicked and sometimes beaten to death.

But the mass gathering that took place late October in the town of Yongledian, like many others in today's rural China, was of completely different political dimension and showed how far China has marched on in the past four decades in the political system.

At the Yongledian public square, on the southeast outskirts of Beijing, Ding Jianhua delivers his annual work report to about 5,000 villagers sitting on stools on Oct. 31.

At the Yongledian public square, on the southeast outskirts of Beijing, Ding Jianhua delivered his annual work report to about 5,000 villagers sitting on stools. Everyone had a questionnaire on the hand that would decide the 53-year-old's political career.

Now the third time to face the crowd, Ding said he has grown accustomed to this performance assessment sessions held once a year. If his performance was rated "unsatisfactory" by the majority of villagers twice sessions in a row, he had to resign as secretary of the Nanxi village committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), regardless of the term tenure.

Yu Xuehe, secretary of the Yongledian Township Party Committee, said over the past six years, nine village Party chiefs in Yongledian had been sacked over poor performance ratings.

"I feel pressured, not because I am afraid to be bolted out but because I have a re-election to win next month," Ding said. "I want the villagers to vote for me."

The vibrant CPC-led grassroots democracy, from direct elections to various checks-and-balance mechanism, has fundamentally changed the political culture in rural China, where for the centuries of dynasties, people used to call their administrators "parent officials."

More than a week after the mass gathering in Yongledian, the CPC, the world's largest ruling party with 82 million members, convened its 18th National Congress in Beijing.

In a report to set the development agenda for the next five years or beyond, Hu Jintao called for both active and prudent efforts to "carry out the reform of the political structure and make people's democracy more extensive, fuller in scope and sounder in practice."

Though it remains unsaid when to expand the vibrant democracy like in Yongledian to upper levels of the Party hierarchy, political experts interviewed by Xinhua including those involved in the drafting of the report said the Party is sincere in pursuing democracy and positive changes, though might not be imminent, can be expected.

Consultative decision-making

China started political reform as early as in the 1970s. Important moves like the mandatory retirement of senior officials were made in the 1980s, spearheaded by charismatic former leader Deng Xiaoping.

In the 13th National Congress in 1987, the CPC formally stated its goal in political reform as to create a form of democracy that is better and more practical than the ones adopted by the developed capitalist states.

"The core of reform is to help the Party maintain leadership status, enhance the rule of law, and expand people's democracy," said Li Chongfu, a veteran Marxism scholar with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. "Multi-party rule is not a goal. Such a political system is intolerable in a socialist state."

Hu Jintao also reiterated in his report that "we will never copy a Western political system."

Political experts said while the CPC's leadership is not to be challenged, the Party is undertaking reforms to its decision-making more open through increased consultation with the public.

Yan Shuhan, a professor of the Central Party School, said Hu's report signals efforts to boost "consultative democracy," a Chinese innovation of democratic form.

"Hu's report shows increased confidence China has in its own political system," Yan added.

The Central Party School is a top think tank for the CPC and a theoretical training camp for the up and rising Party elites.

Yan said while still in infancy in many Western countries, consultative decision-making has been widely practiced in China's political system since 1949 when the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) was founded.

The CPPCC, pooling together representatives from a wide variety of political and professional backgrounds, acts as an advisory body parallel to each level of the Party hierarchy. These advisors, divided into specialized committees, are consulted or entitled to make proposals during the policy making of the ruling party.

Zhou Tianyong, a Central Party School professor, said the election-centered representative democracy has its flaws when it comes to the matters concerning ethnic minorities or regions with a small population because the decision is made by voting.

"It is a major hallmark of modern democracy to expand the scope of political participation," Wang Changjiang, a Central Party School professor specialized in Party's mechanism improvement said in his new book.

"A form of political participation is to allow the public to express their opinions in a way to influence the decision-making of authorities."