BEIJING, Nov. 29 (Xinhua) — The China Democratic League (CDL), one of China’s eight democratic parties, opened its 10th national congress here on Thursday.
The delegates will hear and deliberate a report of the party’s 9th central committee, adopt the revised party constitution and elect its 10th central committee.
Xi Jinping, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, met the delegates of the congress on behalf of the CPC Central Committee.
Xi, also a member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, commended the league for its contribution to national development in the past five years in a congratulatory message delivered at the congress.
At its 17th National Congress in October, the CPC stressed the need to improve cooperation with the democratic parties, support them and people without party affiliation to better advise on state affairs and supervise the work of the CPC, Xi said.
”The CDL should take full advantages of its intellectual resources to play a more important role in carrying out the country’s development strategies to promote education, personnel training, innovation, social harmony, as well as the country’s reunification,” Xi said.
The China Democratic League was secretly established on March 19, 1941 in Chongqing, and was then named China Democratic Political League. In September 1944, the China Democratic Political League held a national congress in Chongqing and decided to rename itself the China Democratic League.
With a membership of more than 181,000, the CDL is mainly made up of senior and leading intellectuals in the fields of culture, education, and science and technology.
Jiang Shusheng, chairman of the CDL, delivered a report on behalf of the party’s 9th central committee.
He said “the CDL will continues to consolidate the multi-party cooperation system, use the Outlook on Development in a scientific way to guide its work, and contribute more to the country’s development.”