Special Report: NPC, CPPCC Annual Sessions 2008

Related: Premier Wen delivers gov't work report

Leaders of China's eight non-Communist parties meet the press together at a joint press conference for the first time on the sideline of the annual parliamentary and political advisory sessions in Beijing, capital of China, March 6, 2008.(Xinhua Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    BEIJING, March 6 (Xinhua) -- Leaders of China's eight non-Communist parties met the press on Thursday in their first ever group debut, vowing continued contribution to the country's economic and social development.

    For the first time ever, the eight leaders briefed Chinese and foreign journalists on their respective parties and answered questions.

    "We voluntarily accept the CPC's leadership and are heavily involved in the political consultation of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference," said Zhou Tienong, chairman of the central committee of the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang, which was founded in Hong Kong in January 1948.

    He said the committee will actively advise the ruling party on state affairs and promote peaceful development of ties with Taiwan.

    Jiang Shusheng from the China Democratic League, founded in 1941, said members of the league were invited to more than 70 high-level discussions over the past five years, half of which were presided over by General Secretary Hu Jintao of the CPC Central Committee and Premier Wen Jiabao.

    "We also submitted 22 letters to senior CPC leaders and each time received their responses," he said.

    About 60 percent of China Democratic League members are from the education circle, including 110 presidents or vice presidents of universities and more than 60 academicians, said Jiang.

    China Democratic National Construction Association, whose members are mostly from the economic circle, advises the ruling party on economic work including energy conservation, pollutant emission cuts, financial structural reforms, venture capital and development of the private sector.

    "We are also attentive to social issues, such as security, housing and living conditions of the low-income earners, and conduct surveys," said the association's central committee chairman Chen Changzhi.

    Yan Junqi from the China Association for Promoting Democracy said the association is a political alliance of intellectuals. "We keep to the multiparty cooperation system under the CPC's leadership and have played our role in promoting reform, opening-up and the modernization drive."

    Sang Guowei told reporters the Chinese Peasants and Workers Democratic Party, 60 percent of whose members are medical workers, would contribute further to the health industry and promote the conservation culture.

    More than 12,000 members of Sang's party fought the SARS outbreak in 2003 and some of them were contracted, he said.

    Minister of Science and Technology Wan Gang, also central committee chairman of the China Zhi Gong Party (China Public Interest Party), said his party was committed to pooling the wisdom and safeguarding the interests of overseas Chinese.

    Most members of the Zhi Gong Party, founded in San Francisco of the United States in 1925, have overseas working and education background.

    "At the CPPCC session we'll discuss how to help the returned students from aboard seek personal development in China," he said.

    Han Qide, representing the Jiu San (September 3) Society of scientists, said "building socialism with Chinese characteristics" is the only way out for China.

    "We will play a larger role in China's development as the country is determined to transform its economic growth pattern, and rely on science and technological innovation," he said.

    Lin Wenyi, chairwoman of the Taiwan Democratic Self-Government League central committee, briefed the audience on her party's goal to seek peace for Taiwan.

    "The league, consisting of people from Taiwan, is one of the participating parties in state affairs," she said. "We'll work harder to promote the peaceful reunification of the motherland and enhance cross-Straits personnel exchanges, trade relations and economic development."

    Lin, a native of Taiwan, was trained as an engineer at Beijing's Qinghua University.

    China's non-Communist parties, with a combined membership of more than 700,000, or one percent of the 73 million of the Communist Party of China (CPC), represent specific interest groups, reflect complaints and suggestions from all walks of life and serve as a mode of supervision of the CPC.

    The chairpersons and vice chairs of the parties' central committees were elected late last year.

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