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Guo Rui

China’s ruling Communist Party has grown bigger and more educated, expanding to a record 96.71 million members by the end of last year, according to official statistics.
The total amounted to a 3.7 per cent increase over the year, the organisation department of the Communist Party Central Committee said on Thursday, the eve of the party’s anniversary.
The party has been trying to curb its membership growth since Xi Jinping took power in 2012 and demanded a shift in party building towards optimising structure, increasing quality and controlling numbers.
There is tighter scrutiny of new recruits and the growth rate has been reined in.


But last year, when the party celebrated its 100th anniversary, the volume of new recruits jumped 80 per cent to 4.38 million, growth the department attributed to the centenary.
“The 100th anniversary of the founding of the party was solemnly celebrated last year and its youthful vigour fully demonstrated, which attracted enthusiasts from various industries and fields applying to join the party in large numbers,” the department said.
The party has been pushing for a younger and more educated membership since the 1980s.
Now more than 51.46 million, or 53.2 per cent, of party members hold a college degree or associate degree or above – 1.3 percentage points higher than last year and 13.2 percentage points higher than in 2012.
And as of 2021, more than 35 per cent of the party’s members were under 40, with student party members accounting for 3.16 per cent of the total.
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While the population as a whole is ageing, the trend is not reflected among party members.
The absolute number of party members aged 61 or older is increasing, but their share of the overall party membership is falling. In 2021, about 28.1 per cent of party members were at least 61 years old compared with 28.9 per cent in 2019.
“Since 2012, the party has focused on national rejuvenation and the succession of party members [and] actively promoted recruitment among young people,” Qi Jiabin, a senior official from the organisation department, said on Thursday.
“Every year, about 4 million new members apply to join the party, and over 80 per cent of new party members every year are aged 35 or below.”
Qi said that during the Covid-19 pandemic, many medical workers born in the 1990s and 2000s expressed a strong desire to join on the front lines. He said more than 8,200 outstanding members had pledged to join the party at their workplaces.


Wang Jianxin, a senior official from the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, said the party had strengthened the fight against corruption in sectors closely related to people’s daily lives.
From late 2017 until April this year, the party has punished 456,000 members in its fight against corruption in areas such as education, health, pensions, social security, environmental protection, production safety and food and drug safety, according to officials.
The latest statistics show the percentage of blue-collar and agriculture workers – the party’s early core membership – continued to shrink with 33.6 per cent of members coming from those sectors.
In recent years, the proportion has hovered around one-third of the total number and the organisation department said these sectors still accounted for a big portion of the party.
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Gender inequality persists in Chinese politics, and is reflected among party members. Women make up 49 per cent of China’s 1.4 billion population but less than one-third of the party’s members.
However, the number of female party members rose from 27.45 million in mid-2021 to 28.43 million by the end of 2021.
The number of party members from ethnic minority groups continues to rise, increasing by 150,000 in six months, although the percentage sits at 7.5 per cent.
The growth coincided with the enforcement of President Xi Jinping’s vision of “forging a sense of common community of the Chinese nation”, which calls for greater integration by ethnic minority groups to put the interests of the Chinese nation first.


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Total membership stood at a record 96.71 million at the end of last year, a 3.7 per cent increase from 2020
Less than a third are female and the blue-collar and agriculture segment is falling



Less than a third are female and the blue-collar and agriculture segment is falling.


Communist Party politics

China’s Communist Party nears 97 million, with more younger and educated members

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} Total membership stood at a record 96.71 million at the end of last year, a 3.7 per cent increase from 2020 Less than a third are female and the blue-collar and agriculture segment is falling

Total membership stood at a record 96.71 million at the end of last year, a 3.7 per cent increase from 2020

Less than a third are female and the blue-collar and agriculture segment is falling