Since taking control of the country, the CCP has led China from being an isolated, economic backwater to one of the most powerful economies in history – one that many believe will soon surpass the United States.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is a monolith. With 92 million members, it competes with India’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as the largest political party in the world. But unlike the BJP, the CCP rules with impunity.
The CCP has evolved from breaking with the Soviet Union for not being sufficiently communist to being a market-oriented party with a nationalist bent. Founded in Shanghai in 1921, the CCP fought a horrific civil war with the ruling Kuomintang – with that war being interrupted by the bloodier Second Sino-Japanese War. The communists were victorious in 1949 and took control of the country under the leadership of Chairman Mao Zedong.
Since taking control of the country, the CCP has led China from being an isolated, economic backwater to one of the most powerful economies in history – one that many believe will soon surpass the United States.
The CCP has come under scrutiny from American policymakers in recent years. As tensions have risen between the US and China, the Trump administration has instituted a travel ban on CCP members.
Despite the tensions, the desire to join the party is still high. Under Xi Jinping, party membership has declined, not because of declining interest but because Xi has sought to solidify loyalty to the party. Being that China is a one-party state, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) acts essentially as a CCP oligarchy and joining the party has immense benefits.
Understanding who can join the CCP is crucial to understanding the anatomy of Chinese power.
The motivation to join
Motivations for joining the CCP have evolved as China has evolved. Under Mao, joining the CCP was an act of ideological solidarity with the communist cause.
That motivation declined after Mao died and the meaning of communism in China became more ambiguous. As the Chinese economy moved further away from Maoism, fewer members joined the party. By the 1990s, membership was opened to businesspeople and the motivations for joining usually centered on career advancement.
Being a member of the CCP does not mean that one necessarily aspires for a career in government: only around 9% of party members serve in the government. The rest are in business, medicine, teaching, agriculture, or a variety of other occupations. Many of the members are still students who joined after years of public service or retirees. Job applicants often display party membership on their resume and being a party member can help promote workers up the management chain.
Employers are typically keen on hiring party members to strengthen relations between their business and the CCP. Outside the world of career advancement and ideology, some see CCP membership as an insurance policy against penalization and a safeguard to keep from falling victim to the punishments given out to nonparty members.
How to join
For Americans, joining a political party can be as easy as providing an email address. Unlike membership in an American political party, where membership often entails nothing more than receiving a series of fundraising emails, joining the CCP is not only about being in a group of like-minded politicos, but being in an organization that controls the second-most powerful economy on the plant – and this organization is particularly selective with who enters the club. Admission into the CCP has been compared to getting into an Ivy League school.
Membership to the CCP is only open to Chinese citizens. The process for joining requires that the citizen apply to their most immediate CCP branch. Schools and businesses, including foreign-owned companies, often host party branches. An application includes an applicant’s testament to why he/she wants to join and an Augustinian-like confession of how he/she has fallen short of party standards.
If an application is approved, the candidate is then required to attend a series of classes on the history and ideology of the party. After completion of the required coursework, the applicant must then pass a thorough exam. Potential recruits only have two chances to pass – if they fail a second time, their prospects for joining the party are finished.
Upon passing the exam, the candidate must stand before a review board as the final stage of the process. Only if they are recommended by the board will a candidate become a member of the CCP.
Looking ahead
What differentiates the CCP from its Soviet predecessors is that the CCP is not rigid. The party has learned from the mistakes of other one-party states and has no intention of falling into the ash-heap of history.
This has made the CCP a formidable force that cannot be dismissed as a coalition of ideologues who will fall victim to the laws of economics. The CCP has made it clear that they are here to stay and will do whatever is necessary to do so.
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