China's top advisory body begins annual session - Jongo News - Daily News of China

(Foreign special envoys attending the meeting)
Click for more photos

BEIJING, March 3 (Xinhua) -- The Fifth Session of the Tenth National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) started in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing Saturday afternoon.

A total of 2,144 CPPCC National Committee members will underline major concerns of the nation's development during the 12-day annual meeting.

Top Party and state leaders Hu Jintao, Wu Bangguo, Wen Jiabao, Jia Qinglin, Zeng Qinghong, Wu Guanzheng, Li Changchun

and Luo Gan were present when the session opened at 3 p.m. (Beijing time). CPPCC National Committee Chairman Jia Qinglin delivered a keynote report on the work of the top advisory body in the past year and its work scheme in 2007.

The political consultants will also be present at the annual session of the 10th National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, slated to kick off on March 5, hearing and discussing the report on the government work by Premier Wen Jiabao, reports on the work of the Supreme People's Court and Supreme People's Procuratorate, and the drafts of the property right law and the corporate income tax law.

Three plenary meetings on economy, social and cultural development, and political construction will be held during the session, which is scheduled to conclude on March 15.

Founded in 1949, the CPPCC consists of elite members of the Chinese society who are willing to serve as the think tank for the government and for the country's legislative and judicial organs.

As an open forum where the ruling Communist Party, the non-Communist parties of China and people with no party affiliations discuss state affairs freely and on an equal footing, the CPPCC National Committee has been the manifestation of China's socialist democracy.