Thaindian News

Beijing, Aug 14 (IANS) The Communist Party of China (CPC) has elected younger and more grassroots-level delegates to attend its upcoming national congress, a senior party official said here Tuesday.

About 30.5 percent of the delegates elected to attend the upcoming 18th CPC National Congress are from the grassroots level, up 2.1 percentage points from the previous congress in 2007, said Wang Jingqing, deputy head of the organisation department of the CPC central committee, at a press conference.

Party members who joined the CPC after the reform and opening-up in the late 1970s constitute the majority of delegates, Xinhua quoted Wang as saying.

A total of 1,640 delegates joined the party after November 1976, accounting for 72.2 percent of the total, 20.5 percentage points higher than that of the congress in 2007, he said.

The average age of the delegates is 52, and 64.8 percent of the delegates are under age 55, Wang said.

There are 114 delegates under 35, accounting for 5 percent of the total, 1.9 percentage points higher than the previous congress.

The youngest delegate is Jiao Liuyang, the London Olympics swimming champion in the women’s 200m butterfly event. She was born in March 1990 and joined the party in 2008.

The oldest is former mayor of Beijing Jiao Ruoyu, who was born in December 1915 and joined the CPC in 1936. The two are not related.

“The wide age span shows that the CPC’s cause has been passed from the older generation to the younger generation and maintained its dynamics,” Wang said.

Among all the delegates to the congress, the number of workers saw the sharpest increase, from 51 in the 17th congress to the current 169, including 26 migrant workers.

Grassroots delegates include rural teachers, village doctors, farmers as well as village party officials.

Female delegates account for 23 percent of the total and ethnic minorities account for 11 percent.

The CPC central committee will also invite some party members who have retired from their leadership posts as special delegates to the congress, Wang said.

According to the criteria set by the CPC central committee, delegates to the national congress should have firm faith and a correct political stance. They should also be morally upright, excellent at their work and qualified for their duties, Wang said.