print | close What Makes a Good Communist Party Member?

• Introduction
• Primary Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao
• Primary Source: How to be a Good Communist
• Primary Source: Letter to the Editor on the Criteria for Communist Youth League Membership
• Discussion Questions

Introduction

The Constitution of China states that only under the guidance of the Chinese Communist party will China develop and become strong. Only a small percentage of the population is believed to possess the qualifications to be party members and thus play a guiding role in China's development. Being in the Communist Youth League is the first step to becoming a full member of the party, and many young people in China have worked hard to become members of this organization, so that they will have a better chance to get into the party when they are older.

In 1978, Deng Xiaoping began efforts to reform China and called on people to boost their incomes through involvement in economic activities on the side, saying that making money is not all bad. The motto "To Get Rich is Glorious" became popular because getting rich would help raise a person's standard of living, contribute to the overall development of China, and provide the population with greater incentives to work hard. Deng argued that if people had the freedom to produce what they wanted and to sell their surpluses, China would develop faster and more efficiently. It was not clear, however, how Deng's reforms could be reconciled with the ideological basis of "being a good party member."  Keep this problem in mind as you read the following essays.

Quotations from Chairman Mao on Being a Communist in China

At no time and in no circumstances should a Communist place his personal interests first; he should subordinate them to the interests of the nation and of the masses. Hence, selfishness, slacking, corruption, seeking the limelight, and so on, are most contemptible, while selflessness, working with all one's energy, whole-hearted devotion to public duty, and quiet hard work will command respect.
— "The Role of the Chinese Communist Party in the National War," October 1938.

Communists should set an example in being practical as well as far-sighted. For only by being practical can they fulfill the appointed tasks, and only far-sightedness can prevent them from losing their bearings in the march forward.
— "The Role of the Chinese Communist Party in the National War," October 1938.

Communists should be the most far-sighted, the most self-sacrificing, the most resolute, and the least prejudiced in sizing up situations, and should rely on the majority of the masses and win their support.
— "The Tasks of the Chinese Communist Party in the Period of Resistance to Japan," May 3, 1937.

Taken from: The Little Red Book: Quotations From Chairman Mao. Beijing Foreign Languages Press, 1972.

How to be a Good Communist, by Liu Shaoqi

A good Communist Party member is one who combines the great and lofty ideals of Communism with practical work and the spirit of searching for the truth from concrete facts.

What is the most fundamental and common duty of us Communist Party members? As everybody knows, it is to establish Communism, to transform the present world into a Communist world. Is a Communist world good or not? We all know that it is very good. In such a world there will be no exploiters, oppressors, landlords, capitalists, imperialists, or fascists. There will be no oppressed and exploited people, no darkness, ignorance, backwardness, etc. In such a society all human beings will become unselfish and intelligent Communists with a high level of culture and technique. The spirit of mutual assistance and mutual love will prevail among mankind. There will be no such irrational things as mutual deception, mutual antagonism, mutual slaughter and war, etc. Such a society will, of course, be the best, the most beautiful, and the most advanced society in the history of mankind. Who will say that such a society is not good?

At all times and on all questions, a Communist Party member should take into account the interests of the Party as a whole, and place the Party's interests above his personal problems and interests. It is the highest principle of our Party members that the Party's interests are supreme.

A Communist Party member should possess all the greatest and noblest virtues of mankind. He should also possess the strict and clear-cut standpoint of the Party and of the proletariat (that is, Party spirit and class character). Our ethics are great precisely because they are the ethics of Communism and of the proletariat. Such ethics are not built upon the backward basis of safeguarding the interest of individuals or a small number of exploiters. They are built, on the contrary, upon the progressive basis of the interests of the proletariat, of the ultimate emancipation of mankind as a whole, of saving the world from destruction and of building a happy and beautiful Communist world.

Letter to the Editor: How Should the Criteria for Admission to the Communist Youth League Be Administered After Installation of the Production Responsibility System?

Comrade Editor:

Since the production responsibility system was installed in the countryside, we have been at a loss how to administer the criterion for recruiting new members of the Communist Youth League. To determine whether or not a youth meets the standard of a League member, our previous practice was to find out whether or not he devoted himself to the interests of the public, loved the collective, and did his share for the construction of a socialist new countryside. Now production is contracted out to individual households. With the overall contracting system being implemented, the young people are confined to the small world of a family or a household, calculating how to increase the family income and earn a greater bonus for overfulfillment of production quotas. In this way, how can we examine and determine whether a youth has a high degree of political awareness and possesses the collectivist spirit of devoting himself to the interests of the public?

Please give us an answer.

Yours,

Wang Baochang et al., Sichuan
August 26, 1981

Response:

Comrades Wang Baochang and Others:

We must examine young people who apply for League membership strictly according to the League membership requirements set forth in the League constitution. The constitution of the Communist Youth League states in explicit terms that a League member must "implement the Party's general and specific policies, enthusiastically fulfill the tasks assigned by League organizations, and play an exemplary role in studies, labor, and work."

Right now, different forms of the production responsibility system are being implemented across the countryside; it is precisely the major policy the Party has adopted to regulate production relations. Quite a few young people who apply for League membership are in full support of the policy. They take the initiative in contracting production projects that call for more intensive labor and higher skill in an effort to wrest continuous high yields in the land they have contracted for. This embodies precisely the exemplary role they play in carrying out conscientiously the Party's general and specific policies. Whether a rural youth can wrest high yields, make more contributions, and provide the state and the collective with more agricultural and sideline products has now become a basic criterion for assessing his genuine love of the state, his concern for the collective, and whether or not he is doing his part for the socialist cause. To define without analysis the endeavor of doing a good job with the land one has contracted for as a move to "further one's own interest" is incorrect.

Implementing the different policies the Party adopts toward rural areas adds new content to the criterion a League organization should administer when recruiting new members. For example, whether or not a youth supports the line, the general and specific policies of the Party, and abides by the decrees, rules, and regulations issued by the state serves as a specific criterion for assessing his political awareness. Since implementation of the overall contracting system, for another example, investigation must be made to determine who works the hardest, who studies science and makes use of science, and who provides the state and the collective with more agricultural and sideline products. All this will serve as ironclad evidence. Compared with the previous practice of "everyone eating from the same big pot," don't things at present provide us more accuracy in administering the criterion of recruiting new League members?

Obviously, the situation has changed, but the requirements for a League member set forth in the League constitution remain the same. The problem is some comrades still judge candidates by old standards when recruiting them. In their eyes, going to work like a swarm of bees and allowing "everyone to eat from the same big pot" are precisely a wholehearted devotion to the interests of the public and a love for the collective, while spending more energy on the land one has contracted for is "calculated" to further one's own interests. In this way, they feel everything is out of step with their standard and most young people, it seems, do not measure up to League member requirements. Under the new circumstances, therefore, the basic condition for one to administer correctly the criterion of admitting new League members is to catch up rapidly with the changed situation in terms of one's way of thinking. Of course, this does not mean that we can willfully tamper with the League member requirements set forth in the League constitution and lower our demands on progressive youth. That, too, would also be incorrect.

Organization Department,
League Central Committee


"Shixing zerenzhihou, zenyang zhangwo rutuan biaozhun?'' Zhongguo qingnian [China Youth], No. 16 (August 26, 1981), p. 21. Translation from Chinese Education 18:1 (Spring 1985), pp. 10-12.

Reprinted with permission from John P. Burns and Stanley Rosen, eds. Policy Conflict in Post-Mao China (Armonk, NY: M E Sharpe) ©1986.

Discussion Questions

1. List some of the qualities Mao Zedong and Liu Shaoqi thought were important for Communist Party members to have.
   
2. In the "Letter to the Editor," written in the 1980s, the writer suggests that youth in China must now have new qualities to support new economic policies.  How do these qualities differ from those Mao Zedong and Liu Shaoqi promoted? What problems does this pose for admitting youth to the Communist Youth League and eventually to the Party?

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