The Second Session of the 11th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the country's top advisory body, started in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing Tuesday afternoon.

A total of 2,160 CPPCC National Committee members coming throughout the country attended the opening meeting. They will underline major concerns of the nation's development during the annual session scheduled to conclude on March 12.

Attendees sang the national anthem after the session started at about 3 p.m. for the first time in the history of China's annual "two sessions" of the political advisory body and the national legislature. Previously the national anthem was played at such occasions, with attendees standing and listening to it in silence.

Jia Qinglin, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), delivers a report on the work of the CPPCC National Committee's Standing Committee at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, March 3, 2009. The Second Session of the 11th CPPCC National Committee opens on Tuesday. (Xinhua/Liu Weibing)

CPPCC National Committee Chairman Jia Qinglin delivered a report on the work of the CPPCC National Committee's Standing Committee over the past year.

"The CPPCC (last year)...made important contributions to building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, accelerating socialist modernization and promoting the great cause of peaceful reunification of the motherland, and set this National Committee off to a sound start," Jia said.

Top Communist Party of China (CPC) and state leaders Hu Jintao, Wu Bangguo, Wen Jiabao, Li Changchun, Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, He Guoqiang and Zhou Yongkang were present at the opening meeting.

Founded in 1949, the CPPCC consists of elite members of the Chinese society who are willing to serve the think tank for the government and for the country's legislative and judicial organs.

As an open forum where the ruling CPC, non-Communist parties and people without party affiliation discuss state affairs freely and on an equal footing, the CPPCC has been the manifestation of China's socialist democracy.

(Xinhua News Agency March 3, 2009)