Profile: Yu Zhengsheng: A frank, devoted friend

BEIJING, March 11 (Xinhua) -- "If you have any questions, bring them up. If you have any problems or any worries, tell us. Only by being frank can we become devoted friends."

Yu Zhengsheng spoke these words from the heart when listening to the opinions of members of the fifth session of the eighth Hubei Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in 2002. Yu was then the secretary of the Hubei provincial committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

Eleven years later, on March 11, 2013, Yu was elected chairman of the 12th National Committee of the CPPCC, becoming the new leader of China's most extensive patriotic united front organization. He is the eighth chairman of the CPPCC National Committee, after Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping, Deng Yingchao, Li Xiannian, Li Ruihuan and Jia Qinglin.