Of the 24 vice chairpersons of the 10th National Committee of the CPPCC, 13 or 54.2 percent of the total are new faces. Of the 299 members of the Standing Committee of the top advisory body, 175 or 58.5 percent are newly elected.

The new leadership is younger as the average age of its chairman and vice chairpersons is down 3.5 years from that in the previous term. The average age of the Standing Committee members is down 2.2 years to 61.9 years old, with the youngest member only 37 years old.

The new leadership represents a wider range of areas, with the members coming from the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, central and local governments, non-Communist parties, the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, and other fields.

The eight non-Communist parties, which participate in and discuss political and government affairs, have 128 members in the Standing Committee of the 10th National Committee of the CPPCC, a figure higher than the previous term, which points to a political structure featuring multi-party cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the CPC.

Of the 18 ethnic minorities each with a population of more than one million, all have their representatives in the Standing Committee of the 10th National Committee of the CPPCC.

(Xinhua News Agency March 14, 2003)