By Meng Na (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-12-26 10:58

Health Minister Chen Zhu, 54, is a Paris-trained scientist and has no political party affiliation. The white paper on China's political party system, released in November, says a key aspect of the multi-party cooperation system under the leadership of the CPC is that non-Communist party members can take leadership positions in the government.

By the end of last year, 31,000 non-Communist party members and non-affiliated people held government posts at or above the county (division) level. They are in posts with decision-making powers and the power to nominate and remove personnel.

Since the First Session of the 10th NPC four years ago, 177,000 non-communist and non-affiliated individuals have been elected as deputies to people's congresses, including seven who have served as vice-chairpersons of the NPC Standing Committee.

CAPD former chairman Xu Jialu says it's "a manifestation of the CPC's sincerity and determination" to "promote and deepen" the system of multi-party cooperation and political consultation under Communist leadership. Almost all non-Communist leaders have vowed in their online interviews to build their parties into more vigorous units in order to play a bigger role in China's future.

One notable development is that the newly elected central committees' members of the non-Communist parties are getting younger, with 50 being the average age of the 209-member central committee of the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang, three years less than the last central committee's in 2002.

The average age of the 265-member China Democratic League (CDL) central committee members is 49, while that of the 225-member Jiu San Society central committee is 50. What's more, half of CDL central committee members are doctorates.

The new office-bearers are young, energetic leaders with good academic backgrounds and have a strong desire to participate in State affairs, says You Luoping. As leaders, they will better reflect the opinions of the people they represent and help non-communist parties play a better participatory role in Chinese politics.

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