Pledge to purge 'unqualified' members of China's Communist Party
Xi Jinping signals that quality, not quantity, is preferred in recruitment of personnel
Communist Party chief Xi Jinping chaired a Politburo meeting on the cultivation of new party members yesterday, vowing to control the size of the party and purge "unqualified members" in a timely manner.
A statement issued by the meeting, reported by CCTV, said some party organs were not strict when enlisting members and the quality of new recruits needed to be looked at. Meanwhile, some party members were corrupt and not disciplined.
"Such problems have affected the party's vigour and vitality and its prestigious image among the public," it said.
Yesterday's meeting recognised the significance of upholding the "advanced and pure nature" of the party and vowed to optimise its membership structure and keep the party at a proper size with good quality members.
"The overall number of party members should be controlled, and the membership structure and quality should be optimised in order to let them play their role," the statement said.
Efforts should be made to "absorb advanced and outstanding personnel in our party" so as to build a force of "moderate scale, reasonable structure, sound quality, strict discipline and outstanding work style", the statement said.
Special attention would be paid to recruiting young workers, farmers and intellectuals to "optimise the party member structure".
However, recruitment from the private sector, allowed since the rule of former party general secretary Jiang Zemin , was not mentioned.
"Unqualified party members will be handled in a timely manner and the management of floating party members, those who do not work or live in places where their membership is registered and cannot regularly attend party activities, should be strengthened," the statement said.
Professor Ma Guoxian , a political affairs analyst and director at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics' Public Policy Research Centre, said the statement showed a swift change of party management style from focusing on quantity to quality.
"But it is not the first time an administration has talked about building a clean party and the problem is not what you say, but how you realise it," Ma said.
