The ongoing 16th CPC National Congress, which began on November 8, is participated in by over 2,000 delegates representing 66 million Party members. Women delegates account for 18 percent of the total. Who are they? And what are they thinking about the Party's important event? China.org.cn presents their stories in a series.

Chen Yanhua: A Woman Standing Firmly Against Corruption

As deputy secretary of the CPC Ningbo City Committee, whose main responsibility is discipline supervision and inspection, Chen Yanhua was elected a delegate to the 16th Party Congress.

After several corruption cases took place in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, negative public opinions spread in the city. Therefore, in 1998, Chen Yanhua was appointed secretary of the Discipline Inspection Committee of the CPC Ningbo City Committee. When probing into corruption cases concerning leading officials, Chen found that corruption usually started with accepting gifts or money. As there was a lack of supervising mechanism in the personnel system, it was difficult to curb corruption -- authorities at higher levels finding it hard to deal with such an issue; colleagues of the same unit feeling embarrassed; and those at lower levels having no way to supervise their supervisors.

Under the support of the CPC Ningbo City Committee, the project of Integrity Publication was launched. The enlarged session of the CPC city committee held in 2001 added a new item to its agenda: all the 16 leading officials of the city had to report their own integrity status (such as the use of official cars, housing, income, financial situation of spouse and children), and then listen to comments of the attendants. After Secretary Huang Xingguo took the lead, 721 officials with the city government followed suit. A department chief turned in lots of gift certificates and made stricter regulations for himself and other people in his department.

The Integrity Publication project strengthened the supervision within the Party, while the 96178 Corruption Report Center encouraged the supervision from the people. The public complaints effectively curbed the phenomenon of illegal charge, illegal apportion, rampant fining, etc. Last year, Chen and her colleagues inspected 51 cases concerning officials failing to carry out their responsibilities, and 41 persons were disciplined.

"Discipline inspection should follow the trend and stand in the front line of reform," said Chen. Currently, with the improvement of the city's supervision mechanism, a new pattern combining supervision from the Party with that of the people and the media is taking shape in Ningbo.

Lin Mingyue: A Delegate of Taiwan Origin

Born in Taiwan, Lin Mingyue has been working in the mainland for 22 years. "I am lucky to have witnessed a great era ever since I returned to mother land," She said. Lin was very fond of Chinese culture. In 1971, she went to Japan to study, together with her husband and they left Japan for the united States in 1973. Inspired by the "Message to Taiwan Compatriots" delivered by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on the New Year's Day of 1979, the couple returned to Shanghai, taking with them their six-year-old son, and began working with the Shanghai Harbor Bureau.

In the early 1980s, while computer technology had been universally applied in advanced ports of other countries, Shanghai harbor is still a virgin ground in this regard. As an expert of computer sciences, Lin was determined to change the situation. Supported by the bureau leaders, she selected Gaoyang Port as her experimental spot to develop data systems for handling capacity statistics and three other functions, making Gaoyang the first port in Shanghai and the country to conduct computerized operation. Two years later, the "Shanghai Gaoyang Production Management Information System" was completed and put into operation in the port's 22 departments. Through this system, more than 200 items were monitored on screen and over 200 types of charts were printed. Its data system covered 75 percent of the port's operation, efficiently solving difficult problems such as over-dated goods and waif goods while saving labor force and storage space for the port. Her port management system was evaluated as the first class of its kind applied in international ports, and became a key project promoted by the Ministry of Transportation. In 1985, Lin joined the Communist party of China.

In recent years, Lin has devoted herself to the information network construction of Shanghai Port. This is a key step to build Shanghai Port into a huge and modern international container hub. Now, 23 companies of the port have had their websites linked, which has improved the management and enhanced the competitive of Shanghai Port. The handling capacity of the international port has reached 6.4 million standard containers in 2001, four times of that in 1995 (1.52 million). Shanghai is currently the third biggest port in the world.

Beside the delegate to the CPC 16th National Congress, Lin Mingyue is also a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the executive commissioner of the All-China Women's Federation, vise-president of All-China Taiwan Compatriots Association and president of the Shanghai Taiwan Compatriots Association. She has done a lot in promoting the exchanges between the two sides across the straits; offering help to Taiwan youths who are studying or working in the mainland; and showing concern for senior people of Taiwan origin who live in the mainland. Lin is highly acclaimed among the Taiwan compatriots.

Dong Weiping: A Bold and Honest Woman Entrepreneur

Dong Weiping, President of the Baida Group in Hangzhou, has been a CPC member for 23 years. As an outstanding entrepreneur, she was selected the delegate to the CPC 16th Congress.

Ten years ago, when Dong first took over the leading position, the company was in a heavy debt of over 70 million yuan. Now, under her management, the former department store has grown into a listed incorporation with an annual profit of over 50 million yuan. Its business scope has also expanded to cover tourism, restaurants, hotels as well as foreign trade. With "Honesty and Trust" as their motto, the employees of Baida all work one-hearted to realize the slogan of "offering one hundred percent services to the society."

Dong said that Baida owes its development to the timely seizing of opportunities. In 1992, when Dong was appointed general manager of Baida, she decided to transfer her company into an incorporation instead of remaining as a state-owned company relying on preferential policies. But it was hard for the employees to accept the idea that they should become stock holders of their own company, which was considered very risky for them. In order to win the support, the CPC committee of the company organized seven lectures to explain the new concept and the company's development plan to the employees, who finally gave their full support. "Should the Party Committee had not taken the initiative, we would have not accomplish the task of convincing the employees in such a short time. Neither could we have finally seized the important growth opportunity." Dong said.

Dong believed that honesty and trust are as important as the scientific management for an enterprise's development. The success of her company, to a great degree, comes from the good services of its more than 1,000 employees who believe in honesty and trust. By the end of 2001, a total of 92. 32 million yuan had been made out of the 68 million yuan of state investment in Baida, creating a high capital-return rate of 39 percent.

(China.org.cn November 17, 2002)