China's Communist Party members exceed 80 million

The number of Communist Party of China (CPC) members has exceeded 80 million, a senior CPC official said Friday.

The CPC had 80.269 million members by the end of last year, Wang Qinfeng, deputy head of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, said at a press conference.The Party grew from only about 50 members at its birth to nearly 4.5 million when the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949.Last year, 3.075 million people joined the CPC, the world's largest political Party -- a net increase of 2.274 million taking into account members who died or left the party.The two leading groups in new members were college students and people at the frontline of production or work, such as industrial workers, farmers, herders, and migrant workers, both accounting for more than 40 percent of total new Party members.The CPC received 21.017 million membership applications last year, a year-on-year increase of 861,000.Of the Party's members, 18.03 million were women and 5.338 million were from ethnic minority groups in 2010, accounting for 22.5 percent and 6.6 percent of the total respectively, according to Wang.In terms of occupation, the group of farmers, herders and fishers, numbering 24.427 million, was the largest, while 6.989 million Party members were workers, he said.Another 6.812 million members worked in Party and state agencies, and 18.413 million were managerial staff and professional technicians working in enterprises and non-profitable organizations, and 2.539 million were students, according to Wang.

As the Communist Party of China (CPC) prepares to celebrate the 90th anniversary of its founding, the party is making extra efforts to ensure that its officials are living up to the standards first established by the party's founders back in 1921.

Source : Xinhua