Opinion | The CPC growing in appeal with nation's youth
By Augustus K. Yeung
INTRODUCTION
One Chinese ancient sage said, "There is no power greater than that of enculturation, or education; and no bliss that's better than the absence of calamity."
China's one-party system has been under strict Western scrutiny – until recently when the two US dominant political parties, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party begin to rock the nation's boat; this is a "calamity". It is now a burning issue, although half a dozen other domestic challenges have been swept under the carpet.
Mr. Donald Trump, the former US president, has unprecedentedly challenged the American electoral system, threatening to unparallelly disobey the election results recognized by the Electoral College's ruling that Joe Biden is the lawful leader of the nation.
Naturally, this American unparallel and unprecedent experience has provoked the debate of superiority of party systems.
The intellectual community's consensus: After one hundred years of operation, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has survived the test of time.
Comparatively speaking, the Chinese one-party system may have come as a "bliss".
Currently, the CPC is Demonstrating Vitality and Vigor, with Clear Vision and Mission
The Communist Party of China is showing signs of strong vitality and vigor, with millions of outstanding young people joining its organizations each year to carry forward its cause, a senior Party official said on Thursday, one day ahead of the 101st anniversary of the Party's founding.
Since its 18th National Congress in 2012, the Party has attached great importance to recruiting new blood to join its continuous struggle for realizing the nation's revitalization, said Qi Jiabin, a member of the Ministerial Board of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee.
About 4 million people have applied to join the Party each year since 2012, and more than 80 percent of the people recruited by the Party have been aged 35 or below, he said.
The total number of Party members surpassed 96.71 million as of the end of last year, 3.7 percent higher than a year earlier, and 15.9 percent more than the figure in late 2012, according to a report issued by Qi's organization department on Wednesday.
More than 4.38 million people joined the Party last year when the Party marked its centenary, 1.96 million more than the previous year, figures from the report showed.
Qi said that through theoretical training and visits to revolutionary education bases, young people have been guided to learn about the Party's innovative theory, understand the Party's original mission and deepen their passion for it. Party organizations have paid great attention to recruiting young people among the nation's workers, farmers, students and new employment groups, as well as high-level talent, Qi said.
For Self-improvement, the Party Vowed to Relentlessly Root Out Corruption
"In the fight against COVID-19, many young medical workers born in the 1990s and after 2000 have expressed their desire to join the Party while working on the front lines," Qi said.
In terms of self-improvement, the Party vowed to take the initiative in meeting new situations and challenges in the fight against corruption, even though it has seen achievements against graft over the past decade.
From the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012 to the end of April, about 4.71 million people were investigated for suspected disciplinary and legal infractions, said Wang Jianxin, an official from the Central Commission of the CPC and the National Supervisory Commission.
Some 74,000 people have also voluntarily turned themselves in to discipline inspection and supervision commissions nationwide since the 19th CPC Nation Congress in 2017, Wang said.
"Those who committed violations were strictly held accountable and harshly punished, no matter who they were and how high the positions they held. We've fulfilled our promise that fighting corruption is by no means an empty gesture," he added.
In the past 10 ten years, efforts in anti-graft work have been strengthened with "zero-tolerance" and through various means, he said, adding that a relatively complete system of intra-Party rules and a legal system against corruption have been formed, with all Party members and public officers placed under supervision. (Source: China Daily)
CONCLUSION
As a significant number of young people every year on the rise since 2012, a healthy trend has been established. This continuous up-trend is an endorsement of the CPC amid challenges that include COVID-19 and its variants that have led to lockdowns nationwide and institutional intra-party corruption, which has been taken seriously by the Party.
As President Xi Jinping has emphatically said the CPC's only enemy is itself: the issue of corruption is pervasive and perennial; naturally, it warrants continuous self-improvement, and identification of new ways and means of coping with challenges that arise in the course of time.
Recruiting new members is one way of enriching the CPC, and Party education is another; however, dominant foreign languages such English, French and German have been neglected.
Language training is one way of upgrading and refining party elites as dominant languages are aspects of culture that would enable the nation's Party officials not only to be able to communicate with foreigners but establish rapport, it is a way of intelligence development.
Lee Kuan Yew and many of the world's foremost statesmen have mastered one foreign language.
Another Chinese leader on the rise in the Western world is diplomat Qin Gang, the nation's new generation of ambassador to the United States of America, whose English language skill is far more proficient than the professors of Tsinghua or Peking University.
In fact, China has recently promised to recruit and employ advanced English teachers from the Philippines, which is a big step in the right direction. This suggestion is worth taking into consideration for the purposes of popularizing the nation’s talent training.
The author is a freelance writer; formerly Adjunct Lecturer, taught MBA Philosophy of Management, and International Strategy, and online columnist of 3-D Corner (HKU SPACE), University of Hong Kong.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
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