"My father wanted democracy and the rule of constitution, he was a liberal," said Zhang.

The 57-year-old writer's father, Zhang Naiqi, was a cabinet minister and co-founder of a political party that was part of a coalition government at the start of China's communist rule in 1949.

But Zhang and his party, the China Democratic National Construction Association, would be purged less than a decade later under Mao Zedong's rule.

Since then, few outside the Communist Party have been allowed into the positions of government leadership, until this year when two non-communists were appointed as ministers.

The appointments of Science and Technology Minister Wan Gang, from one of China's eight non-communist parties, and Health Minister Chen Zhu, who has no affiliation, were hailed by the government as a sign of a more merit-based political system.

But Zhang sees their appointments as just a symbolic move to improve the ruling party's image -- and told of early days when non-communists shared genuine power in a coalition government.

The senior Zhang, a wealthy businessman, was in 1948 invited by the communists -- still an underground political party -- to form a clandestine joint government.

Believing that China had a future in democracy, he agreed.

After the communists defeated the Kuomintang in 1949, non-communist party politicians indeed enjoyed a brief honeymoon period in the new government.

In the coalition government headed by Mao Zedong at the time, three out of six vice-chairmen were non-communist politicians and half of the 56 government committee seats were occupied by non-communists.

But their position soon changed as the Mao regime began to initiate political movements targeting anyone who expressed dissenting views.

"After 1949, if you insisted on your own stance, you were attacked," Zhang said.

Like other politicians outside the communist party, Zhang senior's criticism of the government and refusal to compromise soon got him into trouble.

He was condemned as a bourgeois "rightist" in 1957 and eventually lost all his official posts. He was chased out of his elegant courtyard home in Beijing and tortured during the Cultural Revolution that lasted from 1966 to 1976.

"These movements were aimed at brain-washing and 'reforming' the intellectuals," Zhang said.

"The parties were toppled one after another... until eventually, it became a one-party rule," he sighed.

Since then, the eight non-communist so-called "democratic" political parties have existed in name only, with their roles relegated to "supporting the leadership of the Communist Party," according to government documents.

With little autonomy, they are funded by the state and no longer have their own ideologies.

"They are not really political parties any more, they have become part of the regime," Zhang said. "They have no political position of their own and they don't know who they are representing."

Zhang junior remains a member of the China Democratic National Construction Association, but he says only for the emotional link with his father.

The non-communist parties are now simply vehicles for networking and acquiring social status, according to Zhang.

"There are now just too many entrepreneurs there seeking to enlarge their social network and influence," he said.

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