BEIJING, CHINA - China has appointed the first migrant worker to hold a place in its national parliament, state media reported, calling the promotion a step forward for the millions of struggling workers from the countryside.

Hu Xiaoyan, from the southwest province of Sichuan, has worked for five years in a factory in Guangdong province, the southern export region where many thousands of factories employ around 20 million people drawn from poor rural regions.

She was chosen by the Guangdong legislature to become a deputy to the National People's Congress, Xinhua news agency reported late on Monday.

The carefully vetted members are mostly members of the ruling Communist Party, and challenges to Party policy in the legislature are rare and have never succeeded in defeating bills.

Xinhua held up Ms Hu as a demonstration of the government's commitment to improving the lot of migrant workers, who often endure poor pay, harsh conditions and long stretches away from their families.

'The election helps give migrant workers a voice", lawyer Shi Famao told Xinhua.

Membership of the National People's Congress turns over every five years and past sessions have included deputies who once worked as migrant workers, but Xinhua claimed Ms Hu, 34, was the first of her kind.

She told the news agency that her priority would be improving the schooling of migrants' children, who often stay in home villages while their parents work away.

Now a deputy workshop head in a ceramics factory, Ms Hu has two children of her own.