The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference ([]; shortened as 全国政协, 全國政協, Quánguó Zhèngxié), abbreviated CPPCC, is a political advisory body in the People's Republic of China. The organization consists of both Party members and non-Party members, who discuss Chinese communism's principles. The members are chosen by the Communist Party of China, but are from a somewhat broader range of people than normally chosen for government office. In particular, the CPPCC contains members from the United Front parties allied with the CPC and non-Party members. The CPPCC typically holds a yearly meeting at the same time as plenary sessions of the National People's Congress (NCP). Both CPPCC and NPC are often called the Lianghui (Two Meetings), making important national level political decisions.

A less common translation is "the National Congress". This translation is discouraged, as it causes confusion with the National People's Congress as well as with the National Congress of the Communist Party of China.

History

The Conference dated prior to the existence of People's Republic of China. During negotiations between the Communist Party of China and the Kuomintang in 1945, the two parties agreed to open multi-party talks on post-war political reforms via a Political Consultative Conference. This was included in the Double Ten Accord. This agreement was implemented by the National Government, who organised the first Political Consultative Assembly from January 10 - 31, 1946. Representatives of the Kuomintang, Communist Party of China, Chinese Youth Party, and China Democratic League, as well as independent delegates, attended the conference in Chongqing.

In 1949, with the Communist Party having gained control of most of mainland China, they organised a "new" Political Consultative Conference in September, inviting delegates from various friendly parties to attend and discuss the establishment of a new state. This conference was then renamed the People's Political Consultative Conference. The first conference approved the Common Program, which served as the de facto Constitution for the next five years. The conference approved the new national anthem, flag, capital city, and state name, and elected the first government of the People's Republic of China. In effect, the first People's Political Consultative Conference served as a constitutional convention.

From 1949 to 1954, the conference became the de-facto legislature of the PRC. In 1954, the Constitution transferred this function to the National People's Congress.

The present

Since then, the CPPCC has not been formally included in the PRC Constitution. However, its role and powers are somewhat analogous to an advisory legislative upper house and there have been occasional proposals to formalize this role in the PRC Constitution.

The People’s Political Consultative Daily

The People’s Political Consultative Daily (人民政协报) is the press window of information on direct policies and viewpoints of the CPPCC. Like most of the Chinese political organs, the newspaper serves as the mouthpiece and press for the conference. Compare with other governmental newspapers, such as The People's Daily or The PLA Daily, The People’s Political Consultative Daily is not as hard line, but rather smooth in terms of wording. This is geared towards the nature of the organization which many non-party members also participate in the conference.

List of Chairpersons

#	Chairmen of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference			Took office	Left office	Term
	Romanized	Hanzi	Picture
01	Mao Zedong	毛澤東 / 毛泽东		October 1949	December 1954	01
02	Zhou Enlai	周恩来 / 周恩來		December 1954	April 1959	02
				April 1959	January 1965	03
				January 1965	January 8, 1976	03
—	(vacant)			January 8, 1976	March 1978
03	Deng Xiaoping	鄧小平 / 邓小平		March 1978	June 1983	05
04	Deng Yingchao	鄧穎超		June 1983	April 1988	06
05	Li Xiannian	李先念		April 1988	March 1993	07
06	Li Ruihuan	李瑞環 / 李瑞环		March 1993	March 1998	08
				March 1998	March 2003	09
07	Jia Qinglin	賈慶林 / 贾庆林		March 2003	March 2008	10
				March 2008	Incumbent	11

Annual Sessions

• 2006 CPPCC

External links

• Official website
• Official News website
• Official Newspaper website