How to get kicked out of China’s Communist Party
Officials are trying to expel slackers and the superstitious
China’s Communist Party has over 99m members. So it is no surprise that some are not up to scratch. The corrupt, criminal or disloyal are handled by the party’s fearsome internal-investigation arm, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. It has punished thousands of officials in recent years. But that still leaves another kind of troublesome member: those who have not broken any laws, but just aren’t very good communists.
In late August officials published regulations for dealing with them, too. The aim is to reform or expel people who show a “lack of revolutionary spirit”. Some of the rules were already on the books, but enforcement had been lax. It will get tighter so the party can further its “self-revolution”, an official explained to state media, using a buzzword for the purging of weaker members.
Those who do not pay their party fees are a target. Every month members are supposed to give up a small portion of their wages. The party does not need the money; it is simply an act of loyalty. Cadres are urged to take inspiration from Zhu De, a revolutionary hero who, on his deathbed, gave his life savings to the party rather than his daughter. Few members are so devout. Some fail to pay any fees at all. The regulations say that not doing so for six consecutive months is grounds for expulsion.
Religious members are seen as another problem. Newbies must swear that they are atheist. But many still harbour beliefs in the supernatural. In one notorious case, from 2018, a member in the province of Gansu hired a Taoist priest to bring luck to the construction of a nuclear power plant. According to the regulations, religious folk should be given a chance to renounce their beliefs—and kicked out if they do not.
The main goal of the regulations seems to be to root out slackers. “Passive and lazy” members should be shown the door, say the rules. Some members appear to be skipping the fun activities organised by local party cells, such as study sessions focused on Xi Jinping’s speeches. Others are not completing tasks assigned to them by officials.
This is of great concern to Mr Xi. The party chief often complains about his subordinates’ poor work ethic. But the root of the problem is not laziness, says Alfred Wu of the National University of Singapore. It is that under Mr Xi, members who mess up are punished harshly. Many therefore believe that it is better to keep their heads down than to show any initiative. Stricter enforcement of the rules is unlikely to encourage them.■
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