Gong Li, the famous Chinese actress, can melt hearts on the silver screen. But she’s getting darts as a politician.

Last year, Gong Li was heavily criticized for failing to show up at the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the main national advisory body, which holds its annual session at this time of year.

Gong Li is one of 3,000 members, after all. How she got posted to the body is beyond me. But she’s supposed to at least show up for the session, which meets in tandem with the National People’s Congress, and the two are known in Chinese as the Lianghui.

Before you yawn, read what happened this year. She issued a proposal! She titled it, “To Protect the Environment, Start With Oneself.”

Problem is, this particular proposal received vicious ridicule. Someone using the pseudonym Huapingzi, or vase, which is the Chinese equivalent of “air head,”  posted an essay that was passed all around the internet and printed in the New Express News.

“Gong Li submitted a primary school composition for this year’s Lianghua,” it began.

“Auntie Gong Li is pretty good at correcting her mistakes. After she was criticized vehemently for being absent at last year's Lianghui, she diligently participates in politics and talks about it this year. She even has a new proposal to submit, which should really win some applause. However, this (proposal) is too naive to be praised. It sounds like an essay written by a primary school student or an activity announcement. How can it be taken as a political proposal?”

The essayist goes on to ask whether his countrymen “really need people like her to participate in politics and make proposals?”

So now the government has come to Gong Li’s defense. The state Xinhua news agency published a commentary March 12 that dismissed questions of whether her proposal “is naïve or sophisticated. It is a good proposal as long as it reflects the people’s voice.”

It goes on: “Gong Li expressed her environmental concern from her own experience and areas familiar to her, taking on the big subject of environmental protection from a small starting point and calling for everybody to take action.”

Think they’ll tap her for a Cabinet post?