Pros and cons of party membership

As the leaders of the 73 million-strong Chinese Communist Party hold their five-yearly congress, the BBC's Jill McGivering assesses attitudes in Hubei Province to the big question: to join or not to join?

Communist Party membership can bring both benefits and problems

Official figures say membership of the Chinese Communist Party has grown by almost six and a half million since the last party congress five years ago.

About three-quarters of those new members are under 35.

But attitudes vary among young people, especially those who have been exposed to global ideas and influences.

In the bustling city of Wuhan, I had arranged to meet three students in a local cafe. I asked if they planned to join the party.

It is a sensitive subject. They all asked me not to use their names - and not even to say where they were studying.

The young woman in the group said she was already midway through an application process of tests and assessment which takes at least a year.

Membership of the party might help her in the future, she said, if she pursued a career in the public sector.

"If you try to join the government, if they have two equal candidates and one is a member of the Communist Party, they're more likely to choose you," she said.

"And if decisions are being made and you're a member of the party, you might be allowed to take part in the decision-making."

Joining trend

But her two friends said they definitely would not join.

One said he hoped to have a career in China's diplomatic service. But even if membership could give him an advantage in the selection process, he would not join for ideological reasons, he said.

Nowadays, you could tell that some people in the foreign ministry were not party members, he said. Membership did not give an absolute advantage - it came after other factors, like proficiency in foreign languages.

His parents, who were state sector employees, were both party members, he added. But they accepted his decision not to join, as long as he could still find a good job.

The third student in the group also said he would not join, because he hoped to have a career in business, possibly working with a foreign company in a Chinese-foreign joint venture.

If he wanted to travel to the West to work or study in the future, he said party membership might actually cause him problems in getting a visa.

The group agreed there was a trend at the moment for young people to join. It was well-known, they added, which of their friends and colleagues were applying.

"It's transparent," said one. "My room-mate is trying to join. I know the exact status of his application."

They spoke with surprising frankness. Others were more circumspect.

Model village

I drove out to a small village in rural Hubei, Yu Wan Tun, a picturesque collection of two-storey cement houses and older brick homes, set amongst wheat fields and rice paddy.

The village has about 1,600 people and has prospered through the last three decades of economic reform. This area has just been feted by the provincial authorities as a "model" county.

Yu Wan Tun village has only 26 party members

The farmers own their land nowadays - and have diversified, adding tea bushes and orange trees. They also have a collective fish venture.

The shared profits help to pay for community services, from the karaoke machine to the small library, clinic and primary school. Large boards, erected by the Communist Party, list the villagers' goals and achievements.

In the main community building, another board gives scores to every adult in the village, with a red mark if they have achieved excellence in key fields - from family planning and hard work to love of the collective.

The village leader is elected every three years. Li Xang Shwe, a Communist Party member, has held the post for the last 16 years.

Li Xang Shwe said villagers trusted the Communist Party

He said 26 people in the village are party members. Twenty-six in a population of 1,600 did not seem very many, I suggested.

He laughed. It was not easy to be accepted into the party, he said. Even those who were not members still believed that only the Communist Party is capable of making China a harmonious society.

It is not surprising that there is a gap in thinking between young urbanites with the chance to travel overseas and the villagers in Hubei's fields.

Perhaps the biggest surprise, though, is how confident some young people sound about their ability to be successful, even in government, without party affiliation.

This article is part of a week of special coverage on how China is ruled.