Besides the CPC, there are another eight political parties. They are: China Revolutionary Committee of the Kuomintang, China Democratic League, China Democratic National Construction Association, China Association for the Promotion of Democracy, Chinese Peasants and Workers? Democratic Party, China Zhi Gong Dang, Jiusan Society, and Taiwan Democratic Self-government League. Most of them came into being and developed during the War of Resistance Against Japan and the War of Liberation. They supported the CPC leadership politically, and this was the historic choice they made during the long years when they cooperated and fought side by side with the CPC. These non-Communist parties enjoy political freedom, organizational independence and lawful equality within the fixed scope of the Constitution. The basic principle of the cooperation between the CPC and the other parties is: long-term coexistence, mutual supervision, sincere treatment with each other and the sharing of weal and woe.

The non-Communist parties are neither parties out of office nor opposition parties. They are parties fully participating in the political life of the nation. At present, all the standing committees of the people?s congresses, the committees of the CPPCC and government organs at all levels and the economic, cultural, educational, scientific and technology and other departments have members of the non-Communist parties as leaders. For instance, the current chairpersons of the eight non-Communist parties central committees hold the posts of vice-chairpersons of the NPC Standing Committee and the CPPCC National Committee. The ranks of the non-Communist parties have also swelled. All the provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities and large and medium cities now have local and basic organizations of the non-Communist parties.

The Eight Non-Communist Parties

Name	Date of Foundation	Main Constituents	Membership	Chairperson of Central Committee
China Revolutionary Committee of the Kuomintang	January 1948	Former Kuomintang members and people having historical connections with the Kuomintang	60,144	He Luli
China Democratic League	October 1941	Higher and mid-level intellectuals	144,184	Ding Shisun
China Democratic National Construction Association	December 1945	Specialists, scholars and other people in the economic field	78,415	Cheng Siwei
China Association for the Promotion of Democracy	December 1945	Intellectuals working in educational, cultural, scientific, publishing and other fields	73,914	Xu Jialu
Chinese Peasants and Workers' Democratic Party	August 1930	Higher and mid-level intellectuals in medical, cultural, educational and sci-tech fields	73,802	Jiang Zhenghua
China Zhi Gong Dang	October 1925	Returned overseas Chinese, relatives of overseas Chinese, and representative individuals and specialists and scholars with overseas connections	17,855	Luo Haocai
Jiusan Society	December 1944	Higher and mid-level intellectuals working in science and technology, culture, education and public health	77,947	Wu Jieping
Taiwan Democratic Self-government League	November 1947	People born or with family roots in Taiwan Province currently residing on the mainland	1,811	Zhang Kehui