in march 1997, more than fifty impp members from mongolia, germany, japan, canada and the united states attended the first congress of the inner mongolian people’s party, which meets every four years, and acts as a decision making body. xi haiming was elected as chairman, bache was elected vice chairman, and oyunbilig was elected as general secretary. additionally, at the congressional meeting the constitution was passed, membership criteria agreed upon, flag design finalized and, an “open letter to the people of inner mongolia” was issued and distributed.