It is wrong to assume that there is no democracy within the CPCbecause its cadres are appointed by superior leaders rather than selected by the people. In the past, prospective cadres were investigated by the CPC organization departments and evaluated by the rank-and-file membersbefore their appointments were discussed and decided by the Partycommittee. Although major leaders of the Party committee had agreat say in such personnel matters, the appointments were made bythe Party committee as a whole, mainly based on the opinions of therank-and-file. The unit I was once with had no head for a long time,because no consensus could be reached among the ordinary peopleas to who is capable of taking the job after several investigations. Soeven before the reform and opening up in 1978, it was not simply thecase that cadres were appointed by superior leaders and the ordinaryParty members and people had no right to select cadres.