According to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Organization Department, at the end of 2017, CCP membership reached 89.5 million, 117,000 more than the year before. The number of the Party’s grassroots organizations increased to 4.6 million, 53,000 higher than the year 2016.

It is said that the CCP has been exerting quantity control so that the annual growth rate of the membership fell by 1.5 percent. In 2017, about 2 million people became new CCP members. Among them, about 1 million or 50.8 percent are working “at the front line of production and work,” 860,000 or 43.4 percent hold a college degree or above, and 1.6 million or 81.4 percent are under 35 years old.

Among the existing 89.5 million CCP members, 43.3 million or 48.3 percent hold a college degree or above, 23.9 million or 26.7 percent are female, and 6.5 million or 7.3 percent are from ethnic minorities.

The grassroots CCP organizations continue to expand across every corner of the country. 99.7 percent of government organizations have CCP organizations installed in them and the proportion among non-governmental institutions is 95.2 percent. About 92.8 percent of the state-owned enterprises and 73.1 percent of the non-public enterprises are covered by CCP branches.

Source: Xinhua News Agency, June 30, 2018
http://www.xinhuanet.com/politics/2018-06/30/c_1123059502.htm

On June 25, Hong Kong Oriental Daily News published a commentary report that was titled, “Beijing Assisted Pyongyang to Resist the Peaceful Transformation.” Below is a translation of the commentary.

Following the Trump-Kim summit in Singapore, Kim Jong Un made his third visit to China in less than 100 days. During his meeting with Kim Jong Un, Xi Jinping delivered the following three commitments: No matter how the international and regional situations change, the firm position of the Chinese government and the Party to engage in the development of China-DPRK relations will not change; the Chinese people’s friendship with the Korean people will not change; and China’s support for socialist North Korea will not change. Among the three “no change” commitments, the first two are relatively vague but the last one, “China’s support for socialist North Korea will not change,” carries more substance. It means that, on the issue of the reunification of South Korea and North Korea that may take place in the future, Beijing will be on the side of socialist North Korea. This is in response to the fact that, when the U.S. and South Korea have tried to denuclearize in the Korean Peninsula and achieve permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula, some people have always wanted to use force or “peaceful transformation” to get rid of the Pyongyang regime. The U.S. and South Korea have always wanted Pyongyang to repeat how West Germany reunited with East Germany.

This is the biggest concern for the Kim family. For more than 20 years, Pyongyang has been desperately trying to develop nuclear weapons with the purpose of just protecting the regime’s lifeblood. For this reason, they will not hesitate to fight a nuclear war. Now that Pyongyang has nuclear weapons, it uses its military power to protect its regime while warning Uncle Sam not to act irrationally. Going forward, Pyongyang should be particularly on guard against the “sugar cannonballs” that the U.S. and South Korea have launched when dealing with peace issues. In this regard, the former Soviet Union and the European Socialist camp suffered painful lessons. China, on the other hand, has had very rich political, economic, military, cultural, and diplomatic experiences and opposing methods. Therefore Kim Jong-un should seriously learn and consult with China.

As for Beijing, it ought to understand Kim Jong-un’s concerns fully and should try to dispel his worries. Only in this way can Pyongyang “put aside burdens and move forward with lightness.” Then it can deal with the U.S., Japan, and South Korea to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula and secure a peaceful environment for a long time to come.

This kind of situation is in line with China’s strategic interests and will help China win more time and space for peaceful development before it can come back to counter the U.S..

Source: Oriental Daily News, June 25, 2018
http://hk.on.cc/hk/bkn/cnt/commentary/20180625/bkn-20180625000424038-0625_00832_001_cn.html

Xinhua reported that the Central Foreign Affairs Working Conference was held in Beijing on June 22 and 23. It established the guiding position of “Xi Jinping’s diplomatic thoughts on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics in a New Era,” which provided a new direction for diplomatic work. During his speech, Xi summarized China’s achievements in foreign diplomatic relations over the past five years and proposed ten diplomatic thoughts. They included “safeguarding the authority of the Central Administration and strengthening the Party’s uniform leadership in diplomatic work” and “China should actively participate in leading the reform of the global governance system and create a more comprehensive global partnership network.” According to Xinhua, the participants included seven members of the Party Standing Committee, Vice Chairmen Wang Qishan, the members of the entire Politburo, the Secretariat of the party, and the highest ranking leaders of the following: the National People’s Congress, the State Councilor, the Central Publicity Department, the Central Foreign Liaison Department, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the National Development Committee, the leaders of the reform commission, the Ministry of Commerce, and the Joint Chiefs of the Central Military Commission.

The Duowei News article quoted reports from The Nikkei, a Japanese newspaper, which reported that the participants at the conference were not allowed to take notes and the discussions were not fully disclosed. According to Nikkei, Xi told the participants that “we shouldn’t feel lost in the chaotic international climate” and that “China needs to understand our position and role in the changing world and scientifically set foreign policy guidelines.”

An Epoch Times report commented that the conference was held just as the U.S. is changing its China policy, a possible Trade War will take place between China and the U.S. and the Western world has started to guard against China’s infiltration. It is unusual for Beijing to hold such a high level conference on Foreign Diplomacy work. The intent of this meeting was to set the direction for foreign diplomatic work, which must be consistent with the Central Administration and ensure a unified coordination of action among the different departments.

Source:
1. Xinhua, June 24, 2018
http://www.xinhuanet.com/politics/2018-06/24/c_1123026158.htm
2. Duowei, June 25, 2018
http://news.dwnews.com/global/news/2018-06-25/60066517.html
3. Epoch Times, June 24, 2018
http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/18/6/24/n10509002.htm