Jia Qinglin, a member of the top decision-making body of the Communist Party of China (CPC), was elected new head of China's political advisory body, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

Jia, who entered the nine-member Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee at the first plenum of the 16th CPC Central Committee four months ago, succeeded Li Ruihuan as chairman of the 10th CPPCC National Committee.

With the participation of the CPC, eight non-Communist parties and personages with no party affiliation, the CPPCC is regarded as the best representation of China's "broadest patriotic united front". The CPC has called the united front one of the three "magic weapons" contributing to its past successes.

Many see Jia as a qualified leader of the CPPCC, as his first major assignment as a senior Party official was deputy Party secretary of southeast China's coastal province of Fujian, the ancestral home to numerous Taiwan residents and overseas Chinese.

A native of north China's Hebei province, Jia was born in March 1940 in Qingdao city of east China's Shandong province. After graduating from the Hebei Engineering College in 1962, he came to Beijing and worked in the former First Ministry of Machine-Building Industry as a technician. He was appointed general manager of China National Machinery and Equipment Import and Export Corporation in 1978, and became manager of the Taiyuan Heavy Machinery Plant in north China's Shanxi province in 1983.

Jia devoted more than two decades of the prime time in his life to the development of China's machine-building industry.

In 1985, Jia was dispatched to work in Fujian and stayed there for 11 years, serving successively as deputy secretary of the CPC Fujian Provincial Committee, the provincial governor, and Party chief of Fujian.

In his tenure, Jia attached great importance to the united front work and earnestly implemented the Party's policies concerning the overseas Chinese. Thanks to Jia's efforts to befriend the overseas Chinese and win their hearts, many overseas Chinese had invested in Fujian and contributed greatly to the local economic development. He also did a lot of work to strengthen ties between people of Fujian and Taiwan.

In October 1996, Jia returned to Beijing and served successively as acting mayor, mayor and Party chief of the capital city.

Jia was the one who put forth a high-tech-based "capital economy" concept and development strategy, which he believes would help bring into full play Beijing's unique advantages in education, science and technology, human resources, and information.

When Jia was transferred to work in the CPC Central Committee in October 2002, Beijing's financial revenues had risen to 53.4 billion RMB yuan (6.4 billion US dollars) from 18.23 billion yuan (2.2 billion dollars) in 1997, and the city's annual per-capita GDP (gross domestic product) had reached 3,355 dollars. The new and high-tech industry, spearheaded by the rapidly-growing Zhongguancun Sci-Tech Garden in northwestern Beijing, had contributed nearly 70 percent of the city's overall industrial growth, indicating a major improvement in local industrial structure.

In a display of his down-to-earth style of work, Jia visited grassroots units and local households for as many as 267 times in his six-year tenure in Beijing, mostly on the weekends and in all weathers, to learn the actual situation in the city. With a deep affection toward the common people, he frequently went to the homes of local needy residents, many of whom lived in worn-out and unsafe buildings, to listen to their problems and convey the concerns of the Party and the government. In six years he paid 11 visits to the Niujie area alone, a traditional Muslim neighborhood in the capital, to help shoot troubles for the local people.

When he was in office, Jia also required the Municipal Party Committee and the Municipal Government to do 60 "concrete things" directly linked to the interests of the general public every year. In five years, a total of 648,000 new jobs were created in Beijing, while most worn-out and unsafe buildings in the old city proper were renovated or rebuilt, bringing the per-capita housing space for the urban residents up to 18 square meters.

Jia and his colleagues pursued a human-centered course in urban construction and strove to turn Beijing into a city with a blue sky, clear water, broad roads and plenty of greenland. By 2002, Beijing residents had been able to enjoy a good air quality for 203 days of a year. Major progress was also made in afforesting the city's outskirts and in clearing and desilting local waterways, while the unique scenery of Beijing as an ancient capital was well preserved.

As head of the leading group for Beijing's 2008 Olympic bid, Jia played a key role in bringing the 2008 Olympic Games to the Chinese capital. After designing and carrying out a successful bidding strategy along with his colleagues, Jia also initiated the idea of "New Beijing, New Olympics", which many believe would guide Beijing's development in a new stage.

With an outstanding capability to command the overall situationin a highly complicated circumstance, Jia is quick to put forward feasible ideas and policies with a creative thinking, and help usher in a brand new situation for reform and development, sources said.

A typical man of the north China origin, Jia is known for his modesty and prudence. Sources close to him say that he is always strict with himself but tolerant of the others, and is easy to approach.

Those who had worked with him said that they were often impressed by Jia's superb ability to unite with people around him and to appreciate a person's capability and always assign the person to the most appropriate job.

Owing to his excellent skills for mobilizing all positive factors and combining the efforts of all people, local officials say, Beijing has ushered in an exciting new situation, with citizens concentrating on development and working hard to seize every opportunity.

The united front work remained a focus of attention for Jia while he served in Beijing. Actually, many of the leaders of China's eight non-Communist parties, as well as noted figures in the religious and non-Communist circles, regarded him as their "bosom friend".

After he became a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Jia immediately started to busy himself with affairs related to the united front work across the country and made an in-depth study of China's non-Communist parties.

In late December last year, Jia accompanied Hu Jintao, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, to visit the eight non-Communist parties and the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce. Shortly after this year's Spring Festival, or the Chinese Lunar New Year which fell in February, he also paid visits to various religious groups and met with the country's prominent religious figures, such as the 11th Panchen Lama from Tibet.

"The system of multi-party cooperation and political consultation led by the CPC is our country's basic political system, which we will always adhere to regardless of any possible difficulties and troubles," Jia repeatedly told the non-Communist figures he met.

Many non-Communist figures said afterward that these visits once again convinced them of the CPC's attitude of "treating each other with all sincerity and sharing weal and woe" in developing relations with non-Communist parties and organizations.

As many of his fellow Party members, Jia, a veteran Communist with a 43-year Party standing, tended to attribute all his achievements to the Party and the people. He often says: "I caught up with the good times in my six years of work in Beijing."

Jia and his wife Lin Youfang, a classmate of his in the college years, have a son and a daughter. Lin, who returned to Beijing in early 1997 after retirement, is now leading a happy housewife's life.