Besides the CPC, there are eight other 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 democratic parties enjoy political freedom, organizational independence and lawful equality within the fixed scope of the Constitution of the state. 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 democratic 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 agencies at all levels and the economic, cultural, educational, scientific and technological and other departments have members of the democratic parties as leaders. For instance, the current chairpersons of the eight democratic parties' central committees hold the posts of vice-chairpersons of the NPC Standing Committee and the CPPCC National Committee. The ranks of the democratic parties have also swelled. All the provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities and large and medium cities now have local and basic organizations of the democratic parties.

In November and December 2002, the eight democratic parties held their own national congresses, in which they adopted their own constitutional amendments, and elected the central committees of the new term.

The Eight Democratic 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	65,000	He Luli
China Democratic League	October 1941	Higher and mid-level intellectuals	156,000	Ding Shisun
China Democratic National Construction Association	December 1945	Specialists, scholars and other people in the economic field	85,000	Cheng Siwei
China Association for the Promotion of Democracy	December 1945	Intellectuals working in educational, cultural, scientific, publishing      and other fields	81,000	Xu Jialu
Chinese Peasants and Workers' Democratic Party	August 1930	Higher and mid-level intellectuals in medical, cultural, educational, and science and technology fields	Some 80,000	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	Some 20,000	Luo Haocai
Jiusan Society	December 1944	Higher and mid-level intellectuals working in science and technology, culture, education, andpublic health	Some 80,000	Han Qide
Taiwan Democratic Self-government League	November 1947	People born or with family roots in Taiwan Province currently residing on the mainland	Some 1,800	Zhang Kehui