17th National Congress of The Communist Party of China - Delegates

Delegates

2,213 delegates were elected as delegates to the Congress through a series of staggered elections in which one level of the party elects delegates to the next higher party congress. An additional 57 veteran (mostly retired) communist leaders were appointed directly as delegates. This system has the effect that the party leadership through the Organization Department of the Communist Party of China can control elections and block the election of anyone it finds unacceptable.

The great majority of these are cadres, but about 30% are model workers, and there are about 20 private businesspeople. The number of candidates shortlisted by local Central Committees was 15% more than the number of delegates required, allowing local Party Congress members some degree of choice in the election. State media claimed this was "an improvement over past practices" (5% more in 1997 and 10% more in 2002), but noted heavy supervision of the election process by national Party authorities. In addition, elected delegates had to be approved by the 17th Delegate Status Inspection Committee, and the national Central Committee reserved the right to "select some veteran Party members who have quit their leading posts to attend the upcoming Party congress as specially-invited delegates".

Two prominent delegates are known to have died since the election finished in April 2007, Major-General Wang Shaojun, and former Vice-Premier Huang Ju.