Explainer | What's CPPCC groups, or Jiebie?

The "CPPCC" refers to the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference

When the People's Republic of China was just founded in 1949, the CPPCC was mainly composed of parties, groups, regions, ethnic minorities, and religious groups, but with the development of society and economy, these groups were unable to meet the development requirement, and adjustments were necessary to make.

The term "group" first appeared during the 17th Standing Committee of the 6th CPPCC National Committee, the highest-level meeting of China's top advisory group, in March 1988, which replaced the previous "units" or Danwei. In March 2004, the amendment to the CPPCC constitution formalized the use of the term "groups" and replaced "units" at the second session of the 10th CPPCC National Committee.

Picture of a meeting session of the China Association for Science and Technology and the CPPCC Science and Technology Group in 2019

According to the CPPCC website, CPPCC is composed of representatives from the Communist Party of China (CPC), other political parties, public figures without party affiliation, people's organizations, and ethnic minority groups and all sectors of society, compatriots from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Macao Special Administrative Region and Taiwan, and returned overseas Chinese, as well as specially invited individuals. They are thus divided into a number of groups based on their party affiliation and area of focus.

Picture from the official website of CPPCC

The Fifth CPPCC National Committee abolished the 合作社界 group for cooperatives, a way to organize farming business during the era of the planned economy, and added the 体育界 Sports Group. The Sixth National Committee of the CPPCC added groups of "中华全国台湾同胞联谊会 All-China Taiwan Compatriots' Association" and "港澳同胞 Compatriots from Hong Kong and Macao".

The Seventh CPPCC National Committee had 31 groups, and increased to 32 after adding the "中国科学技术协会 China Association for Science and Technology" in the middle of the national meeting.

The Eighth CPPCC National Committee divided the "Compatriots from Hong Kong and Macao" group into "香港同胞 Compatriots from Hong Kong" and "澳门同胞 Compatriots from Macao", and added the "经济界 Economic" group.

The Ninth CPPCC National Committee made adjustments to the names of five groups at the CPPCC National Committee. For example, "对外友好团体 Friendship with Foreign Countries Troupe" was changed to "对外友好界 Friendship with Foreign Countries Group", "社会救济福利团体 Social Relief and Welfare Troupe" was rebranded as "社会福利界 Social Welfare Group", "少数民族 Ethnic Minority" to "少数民族界 Ethnic Minority Group", "香港同胞 Hong Kong compatriots" to "特邀香港人士 Specially-invited members from Hong Kong" and "澳门同胞 Macao compatriots" was changed to "特邀澳门人士 Specially-invited members from Macao".

The 10th National Committee of CPPCC renamed two groups. "农林界 Agriculture and Forestry Group" was changed to "农业界 Agriculture Group", and "社会福利界 Social Welfare Group" to "社会福利和社会保障界 Social Welfare and Social Security Group".

The 14th CPPCC National Committee, consisting of 2,172 members, has organized itself into 34 groups, and one new addition -- Environmental and Resource Group. Zhang Weichen, a researcher at the China Institute of Natural Resources Economics, believes that group adjustment will enhance the efficiency of generating focused recommendations and solving issues during meetings.

[Note: The post's contents and links will be periodically updated to reflect the latest information and developments over time.]

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