Several students take part in an induction ceremony for the CCP at a Beijing museum. (CreativeCommons License)

“Being a Party member is a sign that you are an excellent student, a capable individual, and a socially savvy person. Employers always want to hire a Party member over a non-Party job applicant,” explained Jiang Weili, a sophomore law major at Peking University (PKU) who recently applied for Party membership. Typically, student Party members apply because they hope for a career in government. Because the Party admissions process is complicated and selective, membership is an indicator of accomplishment.

While Party recruitment practices vary, the admissions process at PKU begins when students are contacted by the dang zhibu, a local PKU chapter of the Party. The students are then invited to the chu ji, the Junior Party School, for a semester of training and education. After graduating from the chu ji, students take an exam to enter the Senior Party School and higher level training program.  In the meantime, the applicants submit formal letters of application. The Party branch committee then begins to assess each candidate’s ideology, character, leadership, and loyalty.

“The most important thing,” Jiang said, “is to attract attention from the Party by writing essays on political correctness and loyalty, by building strong relationships with the Party members, basically by showing how selfless and devoted you are to the Party.” She also explained that application letters focusing on the “soul-searching process” and “epiphanies” experienced during training are generally successful. When the screening process culminates, the committee decides whether to grant probationary membership to an applicant. After approximately a year of probation, the student can finally become a full member. Through this complicated and focused screening the Party branch makes sure members are qualified, enthusiastic, and ideologically sound.

These two years of ideological screening are crucial for the Party to ensure new members follow hierarchical structure and doctrines faithfully. “Although it is a problem that more people seek personal gains by joining the Party, I believe that we can bring about changes within them and they can learn how to become better Party members,” said Han Yi, a Secretary General of the PKU chapter of the CCP whose responsibilities include recruiting and training new members. According to Han, the foremost criterion by which recruiters consider applicants is commitment to Party ideals. “A Party member should never doubt what the Party pursues,” she said. “The Party’s highest dream is to realize socialism with Chinese characteristics so that everyone prospers and makes progress.”

Asking Party members whether their country should strive for greater political freedom elicits sensitive responses. “I do not think it is time to discuss political liberation or reform when the nation is going under such change,” said Zhang Gwang, a junior at PKU who recently became a Party member. “What China needs now is political stability that can support its economic growth. Besides politics, China already has a lot of problems such as growing inequality or environment.” He continued, “China is different from other Western countries. China has a large population and a long history of strong central government. We would make gradual, step-by-step changes with our own pace according to our needs. We don’t have to follow what the West calls democracy.”

Democracy is a goal that seems beyond the horizon. For example,  Zhang, Han, and Jiang all requested to remain anonymous even though they insisted that they faced no restrictions on their freedom of speech.

The ideals of Party loyalty and nationalistic devotion are still very much alive today, nearly half a century after the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Including young people in the Party will continue to strengthen the country’s communist foundations, preventing reform and maintaining the status quo.

Editor’s Note: To maintain their anonymity, the names of interviewees have been changed.

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