>>509722070These were marginal clowns who held no power in the Communist Party other than being exotic clowns. None of them were in the Politburo or the Central Committee AND since 8th National Congress (1958) of the Communist Party no foreigner can even become a party member. You have to become a Chinese citizen first which is notoriously difficult.
You don't understand how China cultivates foreign personages. They are treated as visiting guest who are expected to say nice things about China and get some token gifts and attention in return if they have no further business value (such as proper investments of millions or billions of dollars)
Sidney Rittenberg was imprisoned multiple times. So much about his "power".
Sidney Shapiro was never a Politburo member, what you see is the CPPCC, a mere consultative circus which isn't even in the constitution of China. It's role is just to fool it's partitipants and the public to delude themselves that they matter. They don't.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_People%27s_Political_Consultative_Conference