Law practitioners are playing a bigger role in China's political life as more are becoming legislators and political advisors.

While the first lawyer was elected deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC), the top legislature, in 1988, China has now 519 lawyers as deputies to the People's Congress of various levels, and 2,845 as members of various levels of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), a political advisory body, said Yu Ning, head of the All-China Lawyers Association (ACLA).

The lawyers are participating in politics and contributing to the construction of socialist democratic politics, Yu told the ongoing ACLA Congress on Sunday.

With their own professional knowledge in laws and rich experience in practice, lawyers should naturally be involved in the legislation process, said Han Deyun, who is both a lawyer and an NPC deputy, adding that lawyers often take the most seats in parliaments of developed countries.

When the lawyer system was restored in the country in 1979, lawyers were still considered as government employees and they were numbered in hundreds. In 1993, under the approval of the State Council, they became professionals providing legal service, and the sector has since flourished.

China has now some 140,000 lawyers in practice.

(Xinhua News Agency October 26, 2008)