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China Zhi Gong Party

The China Zhi Gong Party (Chinese: 中国致公党; pinyin: Zhōngguó Zhìgōngdǎng; lit. 'Public Interest Party of China') is one of the eight minor political parties in the People's Republic of China under the direction of the Chinese Communist Party. It is the sixth-ranking minor party in China.

The party is a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), a principal organization in the CCP's united front strategy. Some scholars have described the Zhi Gong Party as "gathering non-party voices to support the party".

History

The China Zhi Gong Party derives from the overseas Hung Society organization "Hung Society Zhigong Hall" or "Chee Kung Tong", based in San Francisco, United States. This organization was one of the key supporters of Sun Yat-sen in his revolutionary efforts to overthrow the Qing dynasty.

The party was founded in October 1925 in San Francisco, and was led by Chen Jiongming and Tang Jiyao, two ex-Kuomintang warlords that went into opposition. Their first platform was federalism and multi-party democracy. The party moved its headquarters to the then-British colony of Hong Kong in 1926. After the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931 it began engaging in anti-Japanese propaganda and boycotts. The party was nearly wiped out during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong. The party turned to the left during its third party congress in 1947.

On 21 September 1949, just before the proclamation of the People's Republic of China, representatives of the CZGP attended the First Plenary Session of the CPPCC at the invitation of the CCP. They participated in drawing up the Common Program and electing the Central People's Government. As part of the CCP's reorganization of the minor aligned parties, the CZGP was designated as the party of returned overseas Chinese, their relatives, and noted figures and scholars who have overseas ties.

The Zhi Gong Party is sometimes used as an intermediary for contacts with certain foreign interests. For example, when a delegation of Paraguayan politicians visited Beijing in 2001 and met Li Peng (despite Paraguay having diplomatic relations not with PRC but with ROC in Taiwan), it was invited not by the PRC government or the CCP, but by the Zhi Gong Party.

In April 2007, Wan Gang, Deputy Chair of the Zhi Gong Party Central Committee, was appointed Ministry of Science and Technology. This was the first non-CCP ministerial appointment in China in 35 years.

Organization

As of November 2022, the party has around 69 thousand members. It also has organizations in 21 province-level administrative divisions throughout China.

The party publishes the newspapers China Development and China Zhi Gong.