Among 880 delegates at the Ninth Congress of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee, eight were selected from private enterprises, three from joint ventures and seven from joint-stock companies.

This is an unprecedented happening in the history of the province's Party congress.

Guangdong, which has scored a vigorous development of private businesses and foreign investment, was the test field for the nationwide reform and opening up in the late 1970s.

Liu Shaoxi, 39, is the president of a company with two billion yuan (US$240 million) in total assets and over 2,000 employees. He felt surprised and strongly invigorated to be able to attend a CPC congress and speak on behalf of private entrepreneurs.

Liu took the lead among private entrepreneurs in applying for the setting up of a Party branch in his company in 1993. The number of CPC members in Liu's company has increased from six at that time to around 150.

"I'm honored to be elected to attend the CPC congress. This means the Party and the people trust me," said Liu.

Liu and other representatives from non-State enterprises consider it both a kind of pressure and an encouragement to be able to attend the congress.

Electing delegates with non-State businesses to a CPC congress was incredible and impossible in the past, so their appearance in the Party's local congress have profound historical significance for the Party, said Cai Dongshi, secretary-general of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee.

After the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, non-State businesspeople were considered representatives of the oppressing class and marked for "reform" in accordance with a socialist ideology.

The social status of the non-State businesses has been gradually acknowledged since China started its reform and opening up in 1978.

In 2000, the private sector contributed more than half of China's gross domestic product (GDP). To date, 130 million people work in private firms.

Jiang Zemin, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, stressed in his speech on July 1, 2001, that the CPC must represent the requirement to develop advanced productive forces.

He made it clear that businessmen from the non-State sector are among the builders of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and those who had met the conditions for join the Party should be admitted to.

The 18 new faces were elected through recommendation and voting procedures strictly according to the Party rules, with the involvement of more than three million Party members in some 159,000 grass-roots Party branches.

The whole selection program started in early January and ended in April.

Observers say that the participation of the new delegates will bring "fresh blood" and more energy to the CPC congress in Guangdong, which is expected to improve the democratic development in China.

Among the 880 delegates, cadres from government departments and the State-owned sector, as well as workers and farmers still make up the majority.

The congress will elect the new CPC Guangdong provincial committee and discipline inspection committee, as well as the province's delegates to the 16th National Congress of the CPC to be held later this year.

( May 21, 2002)