Critically analyse how China’s CPPCC functions as a consultative body to legitimise the CPC’s “United Front” strategy without holding actual legislative power.

The CPPCC is China’s top advisory forum, projecting participation while real authority remains with the CPC and the National People’s Congress.

• Function: It debates major policies, submits proposals and offers “democratic supervision” on economic, social and ethnic issues before and during implementation.
• United Front role: By bringing in elites, experts, entrepreneurs, minority representatives and approved party figures, it co-opts potential critics and widens the CPC’s social base.
• Limits: The CPPCC cannot make laws, has no binding power and is not a state organ; consultation is guided by the CPC.

Thus, it legitimises the CPC’s United Front strategy through managed consensus and an image of inclusiveness, while revealing the absence of genuine pluralism and independent legislative power.