Building on the recent promotions of two non-Communists to ministerial posts, Hu Jintao said yesterday the CPC plans to add more non-Party members to leading government positions.

Hu said in his keynote speech that the Party will "select and recommend a greater number of outstanding non-CPC people for leading positions".

Wan Gang and Chen Zhu, the current ministers of science and technology and health, are the first non-Party members to hold Cabinet posts since the late 1970s, when the country undertook economic reform and opening up.

Wan, a member of the China Zhi Gong (Public Interest) Party, replaced 65-year-old Xu Guanhua as minister of science and technology in April.

The former engineer for Audi Corporation in Germany was born in August 1952. He served as president of the Shanghai-based Tongji University before his appointment.

The top legislature approved the nomination of Chen, 54, a Paris-trained scientist with no party affiliation, as the country's health minister in June.

Observers have said appointing non-CPC members to Cabinet posts represented an important step toward improving the system of multi-party cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the CPC.

Hu said the move is also part of the effort to "expand the patriotic united front and unite with all forces that can be united".

"Promoting harmony in relations between political parties, between ethnic groups, between religions, between social strata and between our compatriots at home and overseas plays an irreplaceable role in enhancing unity and pooling strengths," he said.

Acting on the principle of long-term coexistence, mutual oversight, sincere treatment of each other and the sharing of weal and woe, "we will strengthen our cooperation with the democratic parties, support them and people without party affiliation in better performing their functions of participation in the deliberation and administration of state affairs," he said.

Xinhua

(China Daily 10/16/2007 page6)