China’s ruling Communist Party has tightened the screening process for new applicants and stepped up oversight of young cadres, a party source said on Friday as the organisation revealed a surprising drop in the number of members aged under 30.
The Central Organisation Department, the party’s top personnel office, said the total number of party members aged under 30 dropped to 12.43 million last year – a fall of 189,000 or 1.5 per cent – from 2021.
Overall, the party still had a net increase of 1.3 million members, a 1.4 per cent growth, pushing total membership past 98 million last year. But the total growth was much slower than the 3.4 million, or 3.7 per cent, increase seen in 2021.
Party data also showed a total 2.5 million members were recruited in 2022, a big slowdown compared to 2021’s 4.4 million, despite rising applications. But the number is higher than the 2.3 million and 2.1 million recruitments in 2019 and 2018 respectively.
Nearly 21 million people submitted applications to join the party but were waiting for approval, nearly 300,000 more than the previous year.
An official source familiar with the tally said the party’s tightening of its political screening process for new applications and disciplinary supervision of younger cadres were key contributors to the lower recruitment number.
“There is no shortage of new applications, but we want quality people. We need to weed out those who appreciate Western values, indulge in extravagance, avoid tough duties, or have doubts with the party’s directions,” the source said.
“The case files from the anti-corruption agency shows many corrupt officials had wrong motives when they joined the party.”
The screening and nurturing of young cadres has been one of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s key priorities. In his keynote speech to the party’s disciplinary apparatus in January, he told anti-corruption watchdogs to “strengthen the education, management and supervision of young cadres” and ensure they “fasten the first button in their political career right”.
The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) – China’s top anti-corruption agency – has also announced a series of high-profile crackdowns on corrupt young cadres, including the case of a person accused of accepting bribes and spending 3 million yuan (US$413,000) on online gaming.
The source said the new recruitment numbers for 2021 were exceptionally high because many 2020 recruitments were counted in 2021 numbers because of delays caused by the pandemic.
“The Covid-19 controls affected the tallying from 2020 as all party organs were called in to control the spread of pandemic,” the source said.
“We did not issue a separate data set for 2020 numbers because of the disruption. Many 2020 numbers were later compiled into 2021 numbers. That is why we saw a big spike in 2021.”
But the party has seen growth in its female demographic and members from ethnic minority groups. The number of female members increased by 871,000 in 2022, reaching a total of 29 million, accounting for almost 30 per cent of the membership. There are 7.45 million party members from ethnic minority groups, an increase of 16,000 and accounting for 7.6 per cent of membership.
The ruling party of the world’s second-biggest economy is also becoming more educated with 53.65 million party members – 54.7 per cent of the membership base – having a college degree or above, an increase of 2.2 million on 2021 figures.
The data was released a day before the party celebrates the 102nd anniversary of its founding on July 1.
Xi, who is also the party’s general secretary, extended festive greetings to party members across the country on Thursday.
In his remarks, which were read out at the national conference on the party’s personnel work held on Wednesday and Thursday, Xi urged greater effort to build “a contingent of competent key officials for governance” who are capable of shouldering the mission of national rejuvenation.
He also ordered the personnel apparatus to move faster to build “global hubs for talent and innovation”. (SCMP)