CPC membership tops 91 million

The membership of the 99-year-old Communist Party of China has exceeded 91 million, the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee announced Tuesday.

The CPC had 91.91 million members, with 4.68 million primary-level Party organizations as of the end of last year, the department said in a report ahead of the founding anniversary of the CPC on July 1.

The membership and Party organizations increased by 1.32 million and 71,000 from 2018 respectively, data from the report showed.

In less than 100 years, the CPC has seen its membership grow from more than 50 when it was founded in 1921, and 4.49 million in 1949 when New China was founded, to more than 91 million.

Statistics showed that the number of Party members increased steadily. The growth rate was 1.5 percent last year, 0.3 percentage points higher than that of the previous year.

Last year, the CPC recruited nearly 2.34 million new members, 289,000 more than 2018.

The number of Party members among industrial workers, young farmers, highly educated groups, and non-public economic and social organizations increased significantly last year, according to the report.

The structure of Party membership has been continuously improved, statistics showed.

The CPC saw steady growth in the proportion of female members and those from ethnic minority groups.

As of the end of last year, it had nearly 25.6 million female members, accounting for 27.9 percent of the total membership, compared with merely 11.9 percent in 1949. Meanwhile, the proportion of members from ethnic minority groups has grown from 2.5 percent to 7.4 percent.

More than one-third of Party members were 40 or younger, and the age structure of the Party has improved.

Workers and peasants remain the majority, or 34.8 percent, of the CPC, data from the report shows.

More than 50 percent held junior college degrees or above, according to the report.

The report said education and training for Party members were improved last year. The number of Party members who received training last year increased by 24.3 percent from the previous year.

The regular activities of the Party organization became more strict and regulated, it said.

Primary-level Party organizations were strengthened, and their establishment became more scientific and standardized, according to the report.

Primary-level Party organizations in rural areas have played a greater role in poverty alleviation, and 240,000 Party members from higher level units have been appointed Party secretaries of poverty-stricken villages or where Party organizations were weak and loose.

Editor: John Li