Build unity to meet challenges, advisers urged

Nation's top political advisory body wraps up its annual session with call to pool wisdom

The country's top political adviser has called on all members of China's top political advisory body to promote the unity of the Chinese nation, as the country faces a changing world and profound transformations.

Given the complex situation, difficult tasks and diverse ideas, it's more necessary to raise the level of consultation to pool wisdom, seek solutions and build consensus, said Wang Yang, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

He made the remarks in a speech to about 2,000 national political advisers at the closing meeting of the 13th CPPCC National Committee's fifth session on Thursday in Beijing.

President Xi Jinping, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, attended the meeting with other leaders in Beijing.

National political advisers should continuously enhance their political judgment, the ability to observe problems with a political perspective, the ability to seek the essence of phenomena in complicated situations and distinguish between truth and falsehoods in the exchange of diverse thoughts, Wang said.

At the session's opening ceremony last week, Wang underlined the importance of strengthening the unity of all the Chinese people given the current circumstances.

"Today's world is experiencing rapid changes unseen in a century, and China is undergoing the greatest and most unique process of innovation in practice that has ever occurred in human history," he said.

At the same time, the country faces unprecedented heavy tasks in promoting reform, development and stability, and it faces a great number of difficulties, risks and challenges, as well as tough tests in national governance, he added.

Wang said CPPCC members should fully understand that each of them is an important force for strengthening this unity, and reach out to people from all sectors of society.

Efforts are needed to rally more people around the Party and pool greater strength in the historic advance to national rejuvenation, he said.

Wang called for exploring ways to maintain close contacts with the grassroots and employ modern means of communication to create efficient ways of serving the people.

Liu Hongyu, a national political adviser and a lawyer, said she believes that the unity refers to harmonious relations.

Now, people from all sectors of society can express themselves on the platform of democratic consultation of the CPPCC, which is a process of building consensus. Meanwhile, democratic consultation allows people to put forward good suggestions for economic and legal development, as well as people's livelihoods, Liu said.

"The wisdom of people from all walks of life can be gathered for the progress of the country," she said. "In the big family of the Chinese nation, through democracy and unity, we can keep achieving a lot more success."

An Laishun, a national political adviser, said that as a member from the cultural heritage and museums sector, he has the opportunity to build on his expertise and experience, and contribute his ideas and suggestions to the country through communication and consultation with different stakeholders.

An, who is vice-president of the International Council of Museums, said there are a number of ways in which he can perform his duties as a political adviser, such as through inspection visits on topics related to cultural heritage and museums to listen to opinions from different stakeholders in the field.

Cheng Yuezhu contributed to this story.