CPC membership slows as quality grows
Print Edition
THE Communist Party of China, the world’s largest political party, witnessed a slower membership growth rate last year as it began to enlist new members in a more “prudent” and “balanced” manner.
It had 86.69 million members at the end of 2013, up 1.8 percent year on year, according to figures from the Organization Department of the Party’s Central Committee.
The growth rate was 1.3 percentage points down from the previous year, according to a department statement issued on the eve of today’s 93rd anniversary of the Party’s founding.
Last year, 2.41 million people joined the Party, 825,000 fewer than in 2012. The net increase was 1.56 million. It was the first annual drop in newly enlisted members in the past decade.
The Party enlisted 2.42 million new members in 2004 and the number continued to grow in the following years until it reached 3.23 million in 2012.
“The drop in new members results from the Party’s initiative to adjust its size and structure with the aim to improve quality and optimize structure,” said Xin Ming, a professor with the Central Committee’s Party School.
The Party published detailed rules for recruitment in late May, requiring all localities and organizations to enlist new members in a “prudent” and “balanced” manner.
The rules stipulate that efforts should be made to keep the Party’s overall size in check, and improve its structure and quality.
“It is absolutely not the case for a political party that the more people the better,” Xin said. “The CPC is a vanguard organization, so it must be strict in its recruitment to select the best and secure the exemplary and vanguard role of Party members.”
At its birth in 1921, the Party had about 50 members. This grew to nearly 4.5 million when the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949.
The number of the Party’s grassroots organizations grew last year with their presence in private companies and social organizations further expanding, according to yesterday’s statement.
The Party had more than 4.3 million grassroots Party organs across the country by the end of 2013, up 2.4 percent from a year earlier.
Party organs have been set up in nearly 1.63 million private companies, accounting for 58.4 percent of the national total, up 4.1 percentage points from the previous year.
More women members
About 110,500, or 42 percent, of the country’s social organizations had established Party organs by the end of 2013, up 6.8 percentage points year on year.
In addition, more frontline workers, women, people from ethnic minority groups, as well as younger and more higher-educated individuals joined the Party, the statement said.
Of the total membership, 24.3 percent are women, up 0.5 percentage points and 5.95 million, or 6.9 percent, are from ethnic minority groups, up 0.1 percentage points.
The Party has 22.38 million members who are 35 years old or younger and 36.07 million have degrees from higher education institutions, up 0.2 and 1.6 percentage points respectively.
Xin believes a political party must allow flow of its members to ensure vitality.
“The CPC should apply strict control over membership while improving quality of existing members by enabling the unqualified to drop out.”
“Some people’s discontent toward the CPC might only stem from an unqualified Party member around them,” Xin said. “So finding ways out for unqualified members is necessary and must be dealt with earnestly.”
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