CPC voting out members with poor conduct

The Communist Party of China (CPC) is coming up with ways to vote out members who have not infringed upon laws and Party regulations but whose conduct is nevertheless poor.

As the CPC approaches the 93rd anniversary of its founding on Tuesday, it is showing fresh resolve to ensure there are no bad apples among its membership of around 86 million.

Huang Genbao was deemed unqualified for CPC membership by a democratic vote in a village-level Party branch in Yichun City of east China's Jiangxi Province last year. The decision to eliminate him from the Party was endorsed earlier this month.

Though a CPC member for 40 years, Huang was unfamiliar with the process that gave him the chop. Anyone leaving the CPC normally does so voluntarily or after being expelled by the Party's disciplinary organs for breaching codes of conduct. Neither situation applied to Huang.

The public discontent toward him emerged after he joined his son in abusing inspectors checking an unauthorized construction built by the latter last year. Though Huang had committed no formal violation of discipline, the village CPC branch held that his behavior was not on par with a CPC member.

The village-level branch's resolve needed to be reviewed by the township and county-level CPC commission before taking effect.

Yichun was one of the first cities in China to explore means to vote out members. Between 2003 and the end of June, 114 CPC members like Huang were forced out. It has around 220,000 members in total.

"Democratic appraisal has proved its power in strengthening members' self-discipline, as there is no other effective penalty to awe Party members who have flaws," said an official with the Yichun municipal CPC committee's organization department on condition of anonymity.

The Yichun CPC commission has ruled that Party units should carry out democratic appraisals regularly to rid themselves of unqualified members.

The CPC Constitution stipulates that CPC members are the vanguard of the Chinese working class, people and nation.

But there are people who strive to join the Party in order to receive a push up the bureaucratic ladder or seek personal interest in other ways, said Chen Shenghua, a professor with the China Executive Leadership Academy, Jinggangshan (CELAJ), a Jiangxi-based CPC cadre training institution.

He said some Party members have become indifferent to the Party's vanguard role. Although they do not violate laws, their behavior does not follow general social morality and their work style has flaws.

Earlier this month, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee adopted new rules for enlisting new Party members, stipulating that efforts should be made to control the overall size of the Party and to improve the structure and quality of the Party.

The revamped rules give guidance to all localities and grassroots organizations to enlist new members in a "prudent" and "balanced" manner.

Xie Chuntao, a professor with the Party School of the Central Committee of the CPC, said unqualified members have infiltrated the Party. Both corrupt officials and those who are inactive should be weeded out.

Xie believes that a consensus has been reached within the Party that the quality of its members is more important than its size.