国内英语新闻:Nobel laureate, former NBA player elected nat'l political advisors

BEIJING, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- Mo Yan, the 2012 Nobel Laureate in Literature, and Yao Ming, a former NBA star with the Houston Rockets, have been listed among China's national political advisors.

The Standing Committee of the 11th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee, China's top political advisory body, adopted a member list for the 12th CPPCC National Committee on Friday.

In addition to Mo and Yao, movie star Jackie Chan is also on the list of 2,237 CPPCC National Committee members.

The decision was based on a proposal formulated by the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee.

The proposal list included people from all walks of life in China, including officials, military officers, members of non-Communist parties, as well as representatives from economic, political, cultural, social and environmental fields, according to Ling Jihua, head of the United Front Work Department of the CPC Central Committee.

Representatives from religious circles and ethnic minority groups are also included in the final list, Ling said.

Of the 2,237 members on the final list, 893 are CPC members.

People from ethnic minority groups hold 258 seats, and 399 female members have made the list.

Members of the 12th CPPCC National Committee will attend the first session of the 12th National People's Congress, the national legislature, to hear and discuss the government work report, among other reports. The event will open on March 5.

According to a decision adopted at Friday's meeting, a new chairman of the national advisory body will be elected at the first annual session of the 12th National Committee of the CPPCC, which is scheduled to open on March 3.

Jia Qinglin is the current chairman of the CPPCC National Committee.