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Current and former Chinese Communist Party members explain their motivations for joining - ABC News

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Current and former Chinese Communist Party members explain their motivations for joiningShareOn the morning news broke that Washington was considering a travel ban on Chinese Communist Party members last week, Wang Yao's ears pricked up.The 34-year-old Chinese national, who is also a devout Christian, gazed out of her apartment window in Melbourne.The news evoked her memories of being expelled from the party and imprisoned for illegal possession of state secrets in 2015."It's positive news," Ms Wang said of the reported sanctions, adding it would make people think twice before joining the party."At least it poses a risk to the internal stability of the party."Ten years ago, Ms Wang joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). She was working at a public hospital in the south-western city of Guiyang and as an officer at its party member activity office, which monitored members including doctors and hospital executives.The CCP boasts some 92 million members, who not only walk the halls of power in Beijing, but also supervise China's schools and run the country's major companies.Chinese Government officials and staff make up a relatively small number of the CCP base. The overwhelming majority are often ordinary citizens whose job prospects depend on party membership. They include industrial workers, professionals, academics, university students and business people, who have no input in Beijing's policy making or upper echelons of Government.So what's it like to belong to the world's second-largest political party, and what could be the fall out of a travel ban on millions of Chinese people and their families? Every primary, high school and university student in China has to study a compulsory subject called "ideology and politics", which teaches students about Marxism and socialism with Chinese characteristics.A decade ago, Ms Wang's postgraduate study on the impact of that subject on the CCP's popularity with the younger generation gained her membership to the party. It was around the same time she became a Christian."You have to prove yourself by being selected as a young pioneer in primary school, then become a member of the Youth League in high school, before you become eligible for joining the party," Ms Wang said."You were taught those memberships were privileges, which identified you as the most outstanding ones among your peers."Ms Wang believes her CCP membership was a significant advantage that secured her a job in a renowned regional hospital. Her role was to organise political education, publishing propaganda stories and overseeing the CCP members' activities."A CCP membership is significant for your promotion. You can be a great doctor but you can't become a manager without joining the party," she said.At the hospital, like in nearly all major Chinese institutions, companies and organisations, a parallel leadership system was in place, where a CCP branch operates alongside an executive chain of command.Both are influential, but the balance of power can shift depending on the goal of the organisation — whether its focus is on making money or driving the CCP's aims.Earlier this month, celebrations took place across China to mark the 99th anniversary of the founding of the CCP, with the party's mouthpiece The People's Daily saying the party gained more than 1.3 million new members in 2019.Some CCP members in Australia told the ABC they joined the party because Chinese recruiters prioritised party members for job offers and promotions. Their membership signalled they were "advanced" individuals who could add value to an organisation due to their leadership skills and obedience. "Many of us joined the CCP for a good career, because universities and state-owned companies are the party's property," said Alex — not his real name — a CCP member who is currently studying in Melbourne.He spoke to the ABC on the condition of anonymity for fear of persecution.Alex said there was also a darker element to his decision, citing the Cultural Revolution beginning in 1966 — a decade-long upheaval where intellectuals and people who had ties with the West and the former government were purged. "My father suggested I should join the CCP, in case there will be a restoration of the Cultural Revolution — only CCP members could survive," he said."If you ask your friend whether they love the party, they would think you were crazy," Alex said, as the CCP's omnipresence made such a question ridiculous, almost like asking: "Do you love air?"He added that an honest friend would say they love the perks of being a party member more than the political ideology. Frank Pieke, a professor of modern China studies at Leiden University, told the ABC that Chinese people were generally more attracted to the material benefit from being a CCP member, rather than its political spirit."Being a CCP member in China is usually simply an honour, recognition and a possible advantage in one's life and career rather than being a loyal tool of the party or the regime," Professor Pieke said."However … CCP membership in principle does imply party discipline."Ms Wang would never forget the day she saw a confidential document that identified four Christian colleagues from her hospital who were members of the Living Stone Church. It suggested their activities needed to be supervised and monitored by the party branch she worked for.In the moment where her political and religious beliefs "collided", Ms Wang took a picture of the document on her mobile phone and sent the secretive message to an acquaintance from the same church on WeChat.Four days later, she was charged over the illegal possession of state secrets and arrested. She was ultimately sentenced to 18 months in prison.She didn't discuss her experience behind bars. In August last year, she left China, seeking political asylum in Australia. "The CCP cannot tolerate other religions that teach the Chinese people democracy and equality," Ms Wang said."It's like a political religion, every part of the system is integrated into all aspects of Chinese people's lives, telling us the CCP's rule is the advent of the saviour."Government figures show as of December last year, there were 4.6 million grassroots party branches — similar to the one in Ms Wang's hospital — established in China, operating in parallel to the regular administrative systems in schools, institutions and some private companies.Ms Wang explained that grassroots party branches are similar to cell groups that contribute to a church. Just as a pastor delivers the word of God, the CCP's General Secretary delivers the word of President Xi Jinping. Professor Pieke said he agreed with the analogy of the CCP as "the God of a communist religion"."The construction of a communist civil religion is part of a long-term reorientation of the basis of the CCP rule that draws on an eclectic range of sources and ideas, both Chinese and Western," Professor Pieke said, adding the "unique contribution of a communist civil religion" normalised the party's rule and made it unquestionable."If successful, the communist civil religion might in the long term excuse the party from even having an ideology or ultimate mission at all. "The party will then no longer have to be believed. It will simply be believed in."Ryan Manuel, a former China analyst for the Australian Government and managing director of Official China, a research initiative that downloads and translates Chinese official documents, echoed Professor Pieke's concept, adding the large membership base didn't necessarily reflect a widespread faith in the political system."You can have mandatory religion sessions in schools every week but that doesn't mean that the church is influential," Dr Manuel said. "But we do know that it is ubiquitous: the party is a presence in your life, always."The news of the potential CCP travel ban, initially published by the New York Times, reported the Trump administration was considering sanctions against all party members and their families, amid escalating tensions between China and the United States.Relations between China and the US have reached their lowest point in decades as the world's two largest economies disputed over the coronavirus crisis and its national security law for Hong Kong, along with the trade tensions and accusations of human rights abuses in Xinjiang.The proposal, which Chinese media and observers considered similar to sweeping travel bans on nationals from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen, would impact a large swathe of Chinese society. China's Foreign Ministry did not respond to the ABC's questions for this article, but spokesperson Hua Chunying told reporters last Friday that any US travel ban on CCP members would be "pathetic", noting that no US official had clarified whether the reports of the possible ban were correct."As the strongest power, what impression does it want to leave to the world except for hurling sanctions?" Ms Hua said.If implemented, the ban could cut off economic contributions from hundreds of thousands of international students, millions of tourists and many green-card holders who spent tens of billions of dollars in the US last year. The move could also further intensify the diplomatic impasse, with the relationship already under strain after two years of the China-US trade war.According to an unnamed source in the New York Times report, US officials across multiple agencies were considering blocking Communist Party members' children from attending American universities.Alex remembered his first visit to the US opened his eyes to understanding freedom and democracy. He worried that the ban could potentially block young Chinese people from experiencing the differences between democratic and authoritarian powers."In my first visit to the US, I found the differences ... I began doubting the education that I received in the past," he said.Dr Manuel and Professor Pieke thought the ban could potentially prevent almost all person-to-person contact between the two nations and make many Chinese citizens in the US rethink whether they should stay there."The ban potentially targets hundreds of millions of individual Chinese instead of companies, organisations, elites or officials," Professor Pieke said. "From a foreign government's point of view, there is an argument that party members visiting or living abroad should be treated differently from non-party members."However, including their family members is patently wrong and discriminating."While Dr Manuel and Professor Pieke thought the move could effectively block CCP members from travelling to the US, Ms Wang said she disagreed due to many people's CCP membership being unidentifiable. "How can you identify if someone is a CCP member? That's almost impossible," Ms Wang said."But a travel ban's presence can create a strong deterrent effect at least."24 Jul 202024 Jul 2020Fri 24 Jul 2020 at 7:33pm, 25 Jul 202025 Jul 2020Sat 25 Jul 2020 at 2:43amMore on:

Current and former Chinese Communist Party members explain their motivations for joiningShareOn the morning news broke that Washington was considering a travel ban on Chinese Communist Party members last week, Wang Yao's ears pricked up.The 34-year-old Chinese national, who is also a devout Christian, gazed out of her apartment window in Melbourne.The news evoked her memories of being expelled from the party and imprisoned for illegal possession of state secrets in 2015."It's positive news," Ms Wang said of the reported sanctions, adding it would make people think twice before joining the...

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