A rally was held in Beijing Tuesday to celebrate the 55th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), China's top advisory body. President Hu Jintao delivered the keynote speech.
Hu said that the CPPCC should constantly improve its performance in political consultation, democratic supervision, participation in and discussion of the government and political affairs, while adhering to Deng Xiaoping Theory and the "Three Represents" and being creative in its undertakings.
He urged the organization to make more effort to unite various parties and further strengthen the patriotic united front. The president said CPPCC shoulders significant responsibility and occupies an important position as the country works to build itself into a prosperous society.
China has established a socialist political system adapted to its actual conditions, stated Hu. The core of the system comprises the people's congresses, CPC-led multiparty cooperation and political consultation, and the system of regional autonomy for ethnic minority groups.
The key to the development of China's socialist democratic politics is to adhere to and develop all these systems, he said. The CPPCC is a patriotic united front organization of the Chinese people, serving as a key mechanism for multiparty cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the CPC. It is an important manifestation of the nation's socialist democracy.
At present, the CPPCC consists of some 2,000 representatives of the CPC and non-Communist parties, persons without party affiliation, and representatives of people's organizations, ethnic minorities and all social strata.
It also has the representation of compatriots of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Macao Special Administrative Region and Taiwan, returned overseas Chinese, and specially invited figures.
The main functions of the CPPCC are to conduct political consultation, exercise democratic supervision and participate in the discussion and the handling of state affairs.
An earlier form of the CPPCC was convened in 1946, pursuant to a decision taken by the CPC and the Kuomintang as part of the preparations for the formation of a new government. But the organization disintegrated within the year, when the Kuomintang betrayed the resolutions of the conference and unilaterally proclaimed the convocation of a National Assembly.
The first session of the new CPPCC was held in Beijing in September 1949. Authorized to perform the functions of the supreme organ of power, it adopted the Common Program to function as a temporary constitution, proclaimed the founding of the People's Republic of China, elected a council of the Central People's Government with Mao Zedong as the chairman, and elected the First National Committee of the CPPCC.
The CPPCC ceased to act as the supreme organ of power when the National People's Congress was convened in September 1954, shifting functions to become China's patriotic united front organization for broad representation. It has ever since played a vital role in the country's political, economic, cultural and social affairs and in international exchanges.
(China.org.cn, Xinhua News Agency September 21, 2004)
