Senior Party official on relations between different groups

BEIJING, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- A senior official of the Communist Party of China (CPC) has called for correctly recognizing and handling relations among different political parties, ethnic groups, religions, classes, and Chinese at home and abroad.

He also called for strengthening the Party's leadership over the "United Front," a term used by the CPC to describe its policy of uniting political forces representing people of all circles.

Jia Qinglin, member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Central Committee Political Bureau and chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), China's top advisory body, made the call at Monday's national conference attended by heads of United Front departments of the CPC provincial committees.

In his speech, Jia recalled CPPCC's achievements since the 16th CPC Congress in 2002, saying, "the United Front has always upheld the patriotic and socialist banner," under the leadership of the CPC with Hu Jintao as the general secretary, and "provided powerful support to the building of an all-around prosperous society and the realization of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese Nation."

He called it the primary task for the United Front to study and implement the essence of the 17th Party Congress, which was convened last October.

According to the official, China must adhere to its multiparty system, unite people of different ethnic groups to strive for a common prosperity, let leaders and followers of different religions play a positive role in promoting economic and social development, and unite the people of the "new class", which refers to private business people and other groups, so as to "conglomerate new power for building an all-around prosperous society."

In his speech, Jia reiterated that the adherence to the Party's leadership is a fundamental guarantee for the prosperity of the cause of the United Front.

The meeting was presided over by Du Qinglin, the new head of the United Front Department of the CPC Central Committee.