Party ticket used to be a babe magnet, says billionaire Liang Wengen

Mainland billionaire Liang Wengen says he wanted to join the Communist Party more than two decades ago because membership gave a young man a better chance of finding a wife - especially a pretty one.

Now a delegate to the party's 18th national congress, the 56-year-old founder of China's largest construction machinery maker, Sany Group, said party members were considered to be better people with more ambition and motivation in those days and thus enjoyed more social respect.

Though fewer people share such logic today, many private businessmen, once banned from joining the party, pursue selection as a congress delegate in the hope of making their voices heard in the Central Committee.

The ongoing 18th party congress has 27 delegates from the private sector, compared with 17 five years ago and seven at the 16th congress a decade ago. Before that congress, private business owners were barred from the party.

Despite the change, private businessmen account for only about 1 per cent of the 2,268 delegates to this year's congress, even though the private sector accounted for 60 per cent of the mainland's gross domestic product last year. That's up from 30 per cent in 2002 and 50 per cent in 2007.

"I hope the percentage of private entrepreneurs gets bigger, but to have this today is already not easy," Liang said. "Ten years ago we were not even allowed to join the party."