Friday, May 22, 2009

The Chinese Communist Party: why does its membership keep growing?




The Guardian has a feature on the interesting question of why the membership of the Chinese Communist Party continues to grow. The appeal of Marxist-Leninist-Maoist thought would not appear obvious in 21st century China, and the party would appear to be a long way from its roots in peasant uprisings and the "Long March". But its continued growth continues to pose a challenge for those assuming that democratisation must at some point follow China's transition to a market economy.

Outwardly, the party remains rigidly ideological; members are drilled in Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, the Three Represents and current president Hu Jintao's Scientific Development Outlook. Hu has, in fact, stepped up political education – perhaps because of an evident disconnect: to many, what the party really stands for is personal advancement, social stability and national unity.


For more read here. Information on the Communist Party of China can be found here.

1 comment:

Mikhail Silverwood said...

The Chinese Communist Party has absolutely nothing to do with Marxism or Leninism.
If you're going to repeat this misinformation, you'll be letting in the floodgates for all sorts of Stalinist propoganda.
We need to be able to see China, and the CCP, for what they actually are. The Chinese Revolution was a nationalist revolution, when Mao led his followers to destroy the 'old order' of Confucianism. Mao then copied Stalinist Russia in politics and economy and began to set up a totalitarian regime.
This has nothing to do with Marxism, as Marxism orthodoxy is completely opposed to everything that Stalin and Mao did.