(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-04-12 16:41

BEIJING -- China currently has 205 non-communists working as provincial-level leaders in 31 of the provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions on the mainland.

They were working as either vice governors of provincial governments or vice-chairmen of the provincial People's Congress Standing Committee -- the legislature, or vice chairmen of the provincial committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference -- the political advisory body, the flagship People's Daily reported on Saturday.

Of them, 166, or 81 percent, were from the country's eight non-communist parties, the paper said. The rest were non-partisans.

Of the total non-communist provincial leaders, 118, or 57.6 percent,  were newly elected in the the latest provincial leadership reshuffle earlier this year.

Earlier reports said that in the reshuffle, 815 officials took posts in provincial-level legislatures, governments and political advisory bodies.

China's non-communist parties have a combined membership of more than 700,000, or 1 percent of the 73 million members of the Communist Party of China (CPC). They represent specific interest groups, reflect concerns  and suggestions from all walks of life and serve as a mode of supervision of the CPC.

They were all established before new China was founded in 1949. The oldest, the China Zhi Gong Party (China Public Interest Party), has an 83 year history.

Across the country, more than 31,000 non-communists were working as officials at or above county level, of whom at least 6,000 work for government organizations and judicial bodies at various levels, according to official statistics released in March.