The 20-year-old, who is studying at a university in the eastern Jiangsu province, applied to join China’s ruling Communist Party on July 1, the organisation’s 102nd anniversary.
In June, the Central Organisation Department released the latest numbers of party members. It showed only half the applicants were endorsed as “activists”, a status which allows them to sit in party cell study sessions and activities. The formal party membership will only come a year later – if the party group is satisfied about his performance during the probation period.
The party’s tightening of its political screening process for new applications and disciplinary supervision of younger cadres, plus the disruption of COVID-19, were among the key contributors to the lower recruitment number, according to observers and party officials in charge of recruitment. Xie said the Communist Party was “in no hurry” to cross the 100 million-member mark, as it had already achieved a critical mass to cover every aspect of China. Instead, the party was having “a clearer focus on quality” as it faced struggles with internal and external pressures.
“All party organs were called in to control the spread of the pandemic, including the organisation department. It caused some delay in approval of applications because some party committees could not meet due to social distancing measures,” the source said. In fact, the number of applications to join the party has remained high. Official numbers show that nearly 21 million people submitted applications in 2022, around 300,000 more than the previous year.