BEIJING: Before the National Committee of the 14th Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the country’s top political advisory body, commenced its annual session on March 4, its new subdivision was already making headlines.
The CPPCC National Committee is composed of representatives from the Communist Party of China (CPC), other political parties and from people’s organizations and ethnic minority groups, as well as prominent citizens without political party affiliation. These representatives are then divided into different groups based on political parties, ethnic groups and social sectors. The committee fine-tunes its “grouping process” in line with changes in the major undertakings of the CPC and the state. Moreover, the committee is reshuffled once every five years.
Focusing on the environment and resources, the newest group has 85 members, making it the ninth largest among the 34 participating groups. Among the members of this new group, more than 40 percent are officials with backgrounds in environment and natural resources, and more than 30 percent are experts and scholars with the same backgrounds, while about 20 percent come from energy and chemical companies.
Previously, political advisors in the field of environment and natural resources were scattered across the different participating groups. Today, their joint efforts can specifically target environmental and resource issues and will allow the experts to draft proposals which they will then submit to the related government departments for further review—and acceptance.
–The Daily Mail-Beijing Review news exchange item
