China will never have Western-style democracy, a senior official said on the eve of the country’s most important political meeting in five years.

In speaking, over the years, Chinese from all walks of life, the announcement that China will not adopt a Western democracy model is not a surprise. The point about the announcement that is important in my mind is that it should be a clue to the international rule of law-civil society-democracy advocates, that their efforts in China will never result in a mirror image but rather some sort of hybrid at best or a complete return to the past at worst. Accordingly, our expectations need to be revised (if they haven’t been already) to take into account the fact that China may be listening to us but in the end makes no promises and will make its own decisions.

China rules out West’s democracy