China’s Communist Party reaches 98 million members but youth membership falls
- 2022 figures show women made up around 30 per cent of the party and there are just under 7.5 million members from ethnic minority groups
- ‘We need to weed out those who appreciate Western values, indulge in extravagance, avoid tough duties, or have doubts with the party’s directions’: source
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.
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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.”