Guangming Daily carried a commentary about the new guidelines the General Office of the Chinese Communist Party recently published. The guidelines are to be used in growing Communist Party membership. The commentary stated that, for the first time, the guidelines clearly raised the requirement to “control the quantity; optimize Party structure; improve quality and the ability to carry out tasks…” According to the commentary, the guidelines call for control of the quality of the Party members to the point where, if necessary, any unqualified members will be dismissed, if necessary. The commentary stated that the Party’s organization department and its research institute often question why the Soviet Union established itself with 200,000 party members; sustained its growth with 2 million party members, but collapsed when it had 20 million members.
According to the statistics from the Organization Department, by the end of 2012, the total number of members of the Chinese Communist Party had reached 85 million, making it the Party with the largest number of members in the world. However, according to the commentary, “how to maintain the advanced spirit of the Party members and guarantee that each member truly believes in the Communist ideology” has become a new challenge for the Party.”
Source: Guangming Daily, June 13, 2014
http://dangjian.gmw.cn/2014-06/13/content_11601891.htm