The Chinese Communist Party celebrated its 80th anniversary in August 2001. President Jiang used the occasion to announce that capitalists are now welcome to join the Communist Party as the Party needs to represent not just the working class, but all classes. Traditionally the Party was made up mainly of workers and farmers - these groups now account for 49.1% of membership with the remainder public servants, managers, students and professionals. Many of its members have, in the 20 years since China opened up and started its economic reforms, become very rich as well. This is a remarkable turnaround - capitalists and intellectuals had always been regarded as opponents, class enemies and the lowest of the low. Thomas Friedman, New York Times columnist described it thus:
A communist party with capitalists in it is like a vegetarian restaurant that serves steaks or a nudist colony with bikinis: it's a contradiction so fundamental that it strips the original meaning." (Age Newspaper 27 August, 2001)
President Jiang's announcement reveals that the Party cannot survive without attracting the most dynamic and talented part of the Chinese population - the business class; these people are also "builders of socialism with Chinese characteristics" (South China Morning Post 31 August, 2001). These days, the students and entrepreneurs are the ones who have benefited from China's opening to the outside world; the peasants and workers are suffering from high unemployment and soon to be faced with increased competition from WTO membership.
President Jiang's theory, called The Three Represents, states that the Party must represent the vanguard of the economic, technological and cultural forces and to embrace intellectuals and entrepreneurs giving them the same status as workers. As the private sector continues to expand, the CCP fears that it may become irrelevant if it continues to block access to business people.
Students in China are also joining the Party in increasing numbers. Party membership offers privileges and a fast track career, they believe. The percentage of applications from students has risen from less than one per cent to 3.83 per cent in the last decade and of 14 million pending applications, 70 per cent are from people under age 35. The younger generation also sees party membership as a useful tool to establish business ties. The Party now has 64.5 million members - 5.2 per cent of the population, of which 17 per cent are women.
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