Party members hit 98m after Congress

The Communist Party of China's membership rose to 98.04 million at the end of last year, as more people applied for membership after the Party convened its 20th National Congress last year, the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee said on Friday.

Apart from the increasing attractiveness of CPC membership, the composition of Party membership has also improved with higher levels of education and steady growth in the proportion of female members and those from ethnic groups other than Han.

The number of Party members increased by nearly 1.33 million, or 1.4 percent, from 2021, according to figures released by the department ahead of the 102nd anniversary of the CPC on July 1.

"More talented people from various walks of life actively applied to join the Party after the 20th CPC National Congress was successfully convened in October," the department said.

Nearly 2.45 million people joined the Party last year, and there were about 20.96 million applications to join the Party as of the end of last year, the data showed.

Of those who joined the Party last year, 45.5 percent were women, 10.5 percent were from ethnic groups other than Han, and 81.2 percent were age 35 or younger, while 51.4 percent had a college degree or above, the report showed.

According to the organization department, to ensure the vitality of the Party, since the 18th CPC National Congress efforts have been made to actively admit young people into the Party. Each year over the past 10 years, about 80 percent of newly recruited Party members are age 35 or below, according to the department.

The Party has tempered itself through revolution and grown stronger with even greater vitality over the course of a century of endeavor, particularly in the past decade of the new era, the department said.

The Party's organizational system has been further strengthened, and the foundation of the Party's governance has been constantly reinforced, the department added.

The Party had nearly 5.07 million primary-level organizations as of the end of 2022, with a yearly growth rate of 2.6 percent, according to the report.

Of the total Party membership, 29.3 million were women, accounting for 29.9 percent. Party members from ethnic groups other than Han accounted for 7.6 percent, and those with a college degree or above accounted for 54.7 percent, figures from the report showed.

Li Ganjie, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and head of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, has recently stressed the importance of the Party's organizational work in the country's development.

More efforts will be made to strengthen the Party's theoretical innovation, optimize the selection and training of Party cadres, and the construction of Party member teams, he said at the national conference on organizational work held in Beijing on Wednesday and Thursday.

zhangyi1@chinadaily.com.cn