The People's Political Consultative Conference (全国代表大会 in pinyin: quan2 guo2 dai4 biao3 da4 hui4, literal meaning: "Pan-nation Delegate Conference"), abbreviated PPCC or CPPCC to include "Chinese", is an advisory body in the People's Republic of China. The organization consists of both Party members and non-party, who discuss Chinese communism's principles, and occasionally, create new government organizations. (More info on activities needed here) The members are chosen by the Communist Party of China, but are from a somewhat broader range of people than people normally chosen for government office.
A less common translation is National Congresses. This translation is discouraged, as it causes confusion with the National People's Congress.
The Conferences dated prior to the existence of People's Republic of China and served as the de-facto legislature of the PRC until the Constitution of 1954 when this function was transferred to the National People's Congress.
Since then, the PPCC has not been formally included in the PRC Constitution. However, its role and powers are somewhat analogous to an advisory legislative upper house and there have been occasional proposals to formalize this role in the PRC Constitution.
Since the establishment of PRC, the Conferences have occurred approximately every five years and since 1956, they have always taken place in the capital, Beijing. Each Conference lasted for five to ten days.
Each Conference's name is abbreviated in Chinese as the number of the Conference, followed by character da (大), short for dahui (大会 "conference"). For example, the sixteenth Conference is shiliu Da (十六大 "sixteenth da").
The Conferences up to today are: