China held a grand gathering at the Great Hall of the People on Sunday to mark the 140th birth anniversary of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the forerunner of China's democratic revolution.

General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Hu Jintao delivered a speech at the gathering, which was presided over by Jia Qinglin, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

Top CPC and state officials Wu Bangguo, Wen Jiabao, Zeng Qinghong, Wu Guanzheng, Li Changchun and Luo Gan also attended the conference.

The meeting gathered about 3,000 people including CPC, government and military officials, non-Communist personages, Dr. Sun's relatives and other people from all walks of life.

Dr. Sun is known across the country as a "great revolutionist and statesman" who fought against feudalism and imperialist aggression and for the independence and freedom of the Chinese people.

He was born in 1866 in Xiangshan County (now Zhongshan City) in south China's Guangdong Province and died of illness in Beijing (then called Beiping) on March 12, 1925.

(Xinhua News Agency November 12, 2006)