(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-12-21 21:53

Minister of Science and Technology Wan Gang was elected chairman of the Central Committee of China Zhi Gong Dang (CZGD) Friday, marking the end of China's eight democratic parties leadership reshuffle.

Minister of Science and Technology Wan Gang.

The CZGD was the last one to close its national congress and elect the new leader.

Among the eight leaders, five are new faces and three have taken the second term.

"Those who were elected as leaders ten years ago all retired this time," said He Ruli, former chairwoman of the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang (RCCK), one of the five retired.

The new leaders are younger than their predecessors when they took office five years ago. All of them are below 70 and Wan, 55, is the youngest.

Several of the new leaders have served at senior government posts.

Wan, a Shanghai native, was appointed Minister of Science and Technology in April, when he was then vice chairman of the CZGD Central Committee. He is a renowned engineering scientist and had been the president of Shanghai's Tongji University before taking the minister office.

His appointment made him the first non-Communist party minister in China's State Council since the late 1970s, when China launched its economic reform and opening-up drive.

Chen Changzhi, new chairman of the China National Democratic Construction Association (CNDCA), are Vice Minister of Supervision while Yan Junqi, new chairwoman of the Central Committee of the China Association for Promoting Democracy (CAPD), had been the vice mayor of Shanghai, China's economic hub.

"I believe that more and more members of the democratic parties will serve in the government," said Sang Guowei, chairman of the Central Committee of the Chinese Peasants and Workers Democratic Party (CPWDP).

Sang is a pharmaceutical expert and had served as vice director of the State Food and Drug Administration between 1999 and 2003.

To meet the country's demand, the democratic parties shall work harder to find or foster good talents, he said.

"The new leaders are facing challenges on how to pass on the good traditions and lead the parties to play a better role as the participant, advisor and supervisor of the political affairs," said Wan.

Being the Science Minister, he said, "The most important thing I have to do is open to all proposals and opinions, including those from members of democratic parties."

According to the statement issued after the CZGD meeting, the new leadership are quite young with an average age of 55. Eight of the nine chairman and vice chairpersons are either from overseas Chinese families or have studied abroad.

The CZGD was founded in October 1925 in San Francisco, under the sponsorship of overseas Chinese societies. In May 1947, the party held its third congress in Hong Kong and reorganized into a new democratic party.

Its members are mainly from the middle and upper social strata of returned overseas Chinese and their relatives.

The CZGD has branches in 19 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government, with more than 28,000 members.