Wenzhou, a coastal city in Southeast China, is to openly hire 25 Party secretaries to be posted in local private companies, according to the city’s Party organization department. The secretaries, paid by the private businesses, will organize and expand the Party branches inside the companies. Ever since the fourth session of the 17th Congress of the CCP in 2009, nationwide private enterprises have been required to set up local Party organizations as part of the regime’s efforts to build up the Party. Usually the secretaries are appointed by superior Party cadres; Wenzhou’s move is an innovation because it is integrating the political process with the market mechanism. 

Over 6 million Chinese government employees have attended various political training sessions over the past five years. Intensive orientation training of these “civil servants” includes indoctrination in Party tradition, loyalty pledges, and military boot camp. It is rumored that the training has been effective in improving the political awareness of these trainees and their thinking is now in line with the directives of the Communist Party. In recent years, topics such as social unrest and State security have been added to this on-the-job training. Government employees have also taken training overseas. Such training has been institutionalized and without the training, the employee cannot be promoted.

Source: Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of China, May 17, 2010                   http://www.mohrss.gov.cn/Desktop.aspx?path=mohrss/mohrss/InfoView&gid=792b0119-2f0e-41ed-b168-6a64a362378a&tid=Cms_Info

On May 12, the State Administration for Religious Affairs held a video/audio conference on implementing the “Regulations on Religious Affairs.” 1700 religious affairs officials from all provinces participated in the conference. The Administration decided to complete the “Religious Practitioner Registration Practice” in three years, so that it can systematically and dynamically manage them over the Internet. It will also implement the “Financial Supervision and Management Practice for Religious Activities and Sites” in three years. For the remainder of 2010 and early 2011, local officials will start trial implementations.

Source: People’s Daily, May 14, 2010
http://politics.people.com.cn/GB/1027/11601559.html