Imagine a nation where husbands are required to pay their wives to be homemakers, internet cafes are banned and all problems are solved using a magical political formula known as “scientific development theory”.

These were just some of the ideas on show yesterday when China kicked off its annual political pageant in Beijing, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

The political advisory body has no power, but that does not stop its hand-picked members – film stars, ethnic minorities in national dress, sports stars, billionaire entrepreneurs and other “representatives of the masses” – parading their ideas about how the country should be run. It comes ahead of the annual meeting of the National People's Congress, the Chinese legislature, which starts tomorrow.