As China prepares to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party’s founding in Shanghai, AFP spoke to six members to ask why they joined
The Chinese Communist Party boasts 92 million members from all walks of life, drawn by ideology, ambition, and the pragmatic knowledge of how to get ahead in the world’s second-largest economy.
But little is known about the inner workings of the secretive organisation, where open criticism is still taboo.
As China prepares to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Party’s founding in Shanghai, AFP spoke to six members to ask why they joined.
– The veteran –
Su Xiaodong was born five years after the Communists proclaimed the People’s Republic in 1949 after a gruelling civil war, and can ho joined the Party at the age of twenty.
Su Xiaodong was born five years after the Communists proclaimed the People’s Republic in 1949 after a gruelling civil war, and joined the Party at the age of twenty
“At that time, all young Chinese aspired to join the Party,” he said.
“It was really a long-cherished dream.”
After missing school as a teenager because of the Cultural Revolution — a decade of devastating political upheaval that Beijing later admitted was a mistake — Su fought in the brief China-Vietnam conflict in 1979.
The market reforms that followed afterwards turned China into an economic powerhouse but were a “huge” ideological shift for Su at the time after growing up in the era of Mao Zedong, the 67-year-old admits.
“As Party members, we had to pioneer this new thinking and get people to buy into it,” he said.
– The artist –
A surrealist painter, 38-year-old Yang Na joined the Party in 2001.
Artist Yang Na says she joined the CCP to use her artistic profile as a way to show the world what it is like to be a young person in China
She paints from a sunlit studio in Beijing, phucdienrealty making long sweeping strokes with her brush in bold colours, and her works have been exhibited both in China and overseas.
As a Party member, Yang wants to use her artistic profile as a way to show the world what it is like to be a young person in China.
“I think I can be someone who makes people realise that not all Chinese are the same and not all CCP members are the same,” she said.
– The retiree –
Dalong joined the Party in 1974 and served as a village committee secretary in the sensitive region of Tibet for three decades
Born before the founding of the People’s Republic of China, 75-year-old Dalong joined the Party in 1974 and dat nen vung tau served as a village committee secretary in the sensitive region of Tibet for three decades.