Top Chinese leaders Sunday evening attended a tea party with ethnic minority deputies to the on-going Fifth Session of the Ninth National People's Congress (NPC) and members of the Ninth National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).
Jiang Zemin, Li Peng, Zhu Rongji, Li Ruihuan, Hu Jintao, Wei Jianxing and Li Lanqing attended the gathering, which was presided over by Tomur Dawamat, vice chairman of the NPC Standing Committee.
Speaking at the tea party, Wang Zhaoguo, vice chairman of the CPPCC National Committee, said the NPC and the CPPCC house excellent representatives from all 56 ethnic groups in China.
The NPC has 428 deputies from minority groups, or 14.36 of the total, while the CPPCC has 257, or 11.7 percent of the total, said Wang, who heads the United Front Work Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.
He called for promoting common development and common prosperity among all ethnic groups in China.
(People's Daily March 11, 2002)
