"At the CPPCC session we'll discuss how to help the returned students from aboard seek personal development in China," he said, referring to the ongoing First Session of the 11th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

A spokesman of the annual political advisory session said more eligible non-Communists are expected to become high-ranking officials in China following last year's appointments of Wan Gang and Chen Zhu, the new Minister of Health with no political party affiliation.

Across China, more than 31,000 non-Communists are working as officials at or above county level, of whom at least 6,000 work at government organizations and judicial bodies at various levels, said spokesman Wu Jianmin.

"WE READILY FOLLOWED THE CPC"

In response to a question on the non-Communist parties' political status in China, Chen Changzhi, from the China Democratic National Construction Association that groups specialists from the economic circle, said it was their own choice to follow the CPC. "When our association was founded in 1945, we were fed up with the then ruling Kuomintang and its civil war, but had common goals and aspiration with the Communists," said Chen.

That was why the association, upon its founding, inscribed in its charter that it followed the CPC, he said.

"We readily followed the CPC even before it became the ruling party, because no other political power in China could have led the country to where we are today," he said.

"The CPC is very sincere in political consultation and the non-Communist parties can always speak up in a frank and open manner," said Zhou Tienong, chairman of the central committee of the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang, which was founded in Hong Kong in January 1948.

Zhou himself joined more than 100 consultations with top CPC leaders.