After a recent tour of China, ANC Head of Research Thami Ka Plaatjie reported that the country has as many as five opposition parties. His comment set off a public debate with strong media blowback.

Plaatjie’s claim that China has opposition parties resulted in headlines and comments that he was being misleading (TimesLive), erroneous (RandDailyMail) and just plain wrong.

Plaatjie’s assertion prompted nonprofit fact-checking organisation Africa Check to do a little digging, the DailyMaverick reports.

The Chinese embassy in South Africa did not respond to phone calls or e-mails asking for information from Africa Check.

Here’s what Africa Check found: the Chinese government describes the country’s political system as a multi-party structure and lists eight minor political parties. The only party in power is the Communist Party of China. The eight other political parties participate in the discussion and management of state affairs, in cooperation with the Communist Party of China. Nowhere are they described as opposition parties.

In practice, these minor political parties are seen as a rubber stamp, said Ross Anthony, director of the Centre of Chinese Studies at Stellenbosch University, in an interview with Africa Check.

China’s minor political parties are “not legitimate opposition parties, as understood in democracies. They have no power at all and do not even make any public statements that differ in any way from the Communist Party,” said Jeremy Goldkorn, editor of Danwei, a media and research service on China, in an Africa Check interview.

Describing China’s minor political parties as “opposition parties” is misleading because “they don’t oppose anything” and they also don’t contest elections at the national, regional or local level, Goldkorn said, according to Daily Maverick.