CPPCC committee member Song Zuying chose Chanel boots for the annual conference. (MP Life, via ChinaSmack.com)No, it's not "Beijing Fashion Week." It's actually a Chinese Communist Party political convention.

China's political elite have gathered in Beijing this week for the annual twin meetings of the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Congress (CPPCC). And Chinese netizens are taking to Asian micro-blogging sites to note that some of their representatives are turning up for the annual political powwows decked out in some rather conspicuously high-end French and Italian designer duds. Among the luxury labels in the fashion parade: Chanel, Hermes, Louis Vuitton and Bottega Veneta, according to a report in MP Life, translated via the English-language ChinaSmack blog.

Take, for instance, Chinese People's Political Consultative Congress (CPPCC) committee member Song Zuying (pictured in the photo at right), who arrived to participate in the conference in "a fur coat, [and] on her feet she wears Chanel's Autumn-Winter collection gold chain boots," MP Life wrote. (Retail value for the boots: $1,500, according to one shopping website--if you can still snag a pair.)

For CPPCC committee member and Heng Da chairman Xu Jiayin, the choice was Hermes. Mr. Xu "turns up late and is besieged and chased by journalists," MP Life reported on the arrival frenzy (photo below). "His Hermes leather belt was revealed by a fellow netizen to retail for 20,000 RMB"—or just over $3,100, according to the current exchange rate.

Noted MP Life, American political leaders are generally more careful about the signals they and their spouses' sartorial choices send to the voting public about superior financial means. "When the wife of the U.S. President participates in national conferences, she just wears regular, second-rate or third-rate brands like J. Crew," MP Life commented, according to a translated post on the ChinaSmack blog, before adding with apparent sarcasm: "It's easy to then see that the quality of life and taste of our kingdom's people's representatives are leading the world!" (In other words, no sweater vests here.)

The filmmaker behind the "Kony 2012" documentary, the mega-viral hit that  exploded on the Web this week, told NBC's Today show Friday that he makes no apologies for trying to put a human face on a complex and decades-old conflict.

"We can all agree we can stop him this year,'' Invisible Children filmmaker Jason Russell told the Today Show's Ann Curry, referring to guerrilla leader Joseph Kony, head of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). "We're not going to wait.''

Russell defended the film from criticism that it hypes and oversimplifies the guerrilla conflict, which has subsided considerably from its height in 2003-2004. Accused of atrocities and the abduction of thousands of children to fight in his guerrilla group over the past 20 years, Kony's LRA is estimated to have fewer than 200 soldiers now, and most reside outside Uganda.

"If that happened in San Diego, Calif., if that happened in New York City—200 children abducted and forced to kill their parents ... it would be all over the news,'' the filmmaker said.

Russell also encouraged the millions of viewers who have watched the video to donate $30 to his advocacy group, Invisible Children, and wear a wrist bracelet. Some observers have charged that Invisible Children and its "Stop Kony" campaign are essentially promoting "slacktivism"—low-effort, feel-good activism among millions of college students and young people mesmerized by the video that does very little to help anyone on the ground in Central Africa.

"The White Savior Industrial Complex is not about justice. It is about having a big emotional experience that validates privilege," Nigerian-born writer Teju Cole, author of "Open City," said about the Invisible Children project on Twitter Thursday. "Feverish worry over that awful African warlord. But close to 1.5 million Iraqis died from an American war of choice. Worry about that."

American young people turned on to the "Stop Kony" campaign are eager to have a moral cause, Russell said: "These are children and young people 25 and younger are saying, 'Mom, Dad, we want you to pay attention to this right now.'''

The San Diego-based filmmaker attributed the explosive interest in the film to its putting a human face on a complex, decades-old war story. The 30-minute documentary had been seen by more than 52 million viewers on YouTube and 14 million on Vimeo since it was posted Monday, according to MSNBC.

Former Israeli intelligence chief Meir Dagan, in his first U.S. television interview, says he believes that the Iran regime is rational and that now is not the time to attack Iran.

"The regime in Iran is a very rational one," the former top Israeli spymaster tells CBS' Lesley Stahl, according to excerpts of the interview released by 60 Minutes.

"No doubt, they are considering all the implications of their actions…They will have to pay dearly…and I think the Iranians at this point in time are…very careful on the project," says Dagan.  "They are not running."

An excerpt of Dagan's interview with Stahl is scheduled to air on CBS Evening News Thursday. The full interview will be broadcast on 60 Minutes Sunday.

The former Israeli intelligence chief's warnings against a premature attack on Iran reflect the widespread views of the White House and American military officials--but are sure to rile Israel's current political leaders.

The interview airs just three days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with President Obama at the White House, to try to push the U.S. to commit to use force against Iran if diplomacy and economic sanctions fail to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions.

"Israel has waited patiently for the international community to resolve this issue," Netanyahu told the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in Washington, D.C. Monday night. "None of us can afford to wait much longer."

But President Obama has maintained his preference for a diplomatic resolution to the Iran issue.