Communist Party Poopers

[Randy W]

An interesting article about Communist Party membership, from the Global Times

 

Party poopers

Although the Party's constitution does not say that members must not follow a religion, it stipulates that a member must firmly believe in dialectical materialism. Such a belief would appear to obviously contradict any religious belief and that is why Party members are implicitly atheists, said Zhu Weiqun, vice director at the United Front Work Department of the Party's Central Committee.

Many of the country's 85 million Party members might have believed their political identities, once obtained, were for life.

Some experts regarded reporting of the move against the Taoist fortune teller as a sign of a new purification movement in the organization, expelling unqualified members.

Similar reported cases across the nation suggest a campaign has already started.

 

. . .

 

"The Party pays much attention to building a healthy party," Su Wei, a professor of the Party School of the CPC's Chongqing Committee, told the Global Times. "It plans to design an exit mechanism for Party members in an effort to purify."

 

. . .

 

To judge whether a member is qualified, local Party organizations hold meetings attended by people in and outside the Party to discuss whether a member is behaving in accordance with the Party constitution.

If he or she fails to obtain enough support, the membership should be reconsidered, Su said. But calling a Party member "unqualified" and expelling him or her can be a touchy issue.

As the ruling party, the CPC usually holds the power to promote officials. Being removed from the Party is fatal to a civil servant's career, meaning he or she might never again be promoted.

 

. . .

 

Jiang and his colleagues settled on 10 standards to gauge Party membership behavior that included the spreading of discontent against the Party, not submitting membership dues for six months, violating family planning policy and refusing to support parents.

 

. . .

 

According to the constitution, members must believe in Communism and sacrifice to achieve it. It also orders members not to seek personal privileges.

. . .

"I submitted my application because the identity of a Party member might afford me more promotion opportunities if I become a civil servant in the future," a college student at the Capital University of Economics and Business in Beijing told the Global Times. adding that many of her friends held similar opinions when applying.