BEIJING: July 1, 2025, marks the 104th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC).
The CPC had more than 100.27 million members at the end of 2024, up by nearly 1.09 million from 2023, according to a report issued by the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee on Monday.
Besides a steadily expanded membership, the structure of the CPC has continued to improve, the report revealed.
About 57.79 million Party members, or 57.6 percent of the overall membership, held junior college degrees or above at the end of 2024, 1.4 percentage points higher than the level recorded at the end of the previous year, according to the report.
The report also showed that by the end of 2024, the CPC had nearly 31 million female members, accounting for 30.9 percent of its total membership, up 0.5 percentage points from 2023, and workers and farmers accounted for about 33 percent of all CPC members.
Common prosperity
The report to the 20th CPC National Congress emphasized that Chinese modernization is socialist modernization pursued under the leadership of the Communist Party of China.
“To fulfill our responsibility, we will rally and lead the whole Party and the people of all ethnic groups in China in making continued efforts to free up our minds, carry out reform and opening up, further release and develop the productive forces, work hard to resolve the difficulties the people face in both work and life, and unwaveringly pursue common prosperity,” Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, said while meeting with the press with the other newly elected members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the 18th CPC Central Committee in November 2012.
The sound development of the villages in Tianmu Town, Lin’an District in east China’s Hangzhou City, stands out as an example of how CPC members help boost rural revitalization.
Local authorities in Tianmu Town have given full play to the leading role of CPC members and introduced supportive policies to attract more talent to boost local economic development.
For example, in Yuexiang Village, there are at least 15 CPC members who relocated from big cities to the countryside to engage in agricultural work. Themselves “new farmers,” they have helped mobilize 120 local “new farmers” to actively participate in rural revitalization.
The village authorities have actively invited college graduates, who are also CPC members, to return to their hometowns by publicizing supportive policies and local development plans. At least 30 Party members with college degrees have returned to their homes in Tianmu Town to start businesses, and over 20 entrepreneurial projects have been implemented, with a total investment of over 50 million yuan (roughly $7 million), greatly boosting local economic development and improving locals’ incomes, the Hangzhou Daily reported.
Shared development
While CPC members are devoted to Chinese modernization, they have also made their efforts in China’s foreign aid endeavors. The foreign aid work is a glorious chapter in the 100-year history of the CPC, said Luo Zhaohui, former chairman of the China International Development Cooperation Agency, at a press conference in 2021.
As of September 2024, China had provided development assistance to over 160 countries, worked with more than 150 countries on building the Belt and Road Initiative, and collaborated with over 100 countries and international organizations, such as the UN, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
Since dispatching its first medical team to Algeria in 1963, China has sent over 30,000 medical personnel to 76 countries and regions worldwide, providing care to nearly 300 million patients. Recently, Chinese medical aid teams again touched people’s hearts when Zhang Junqiao, a Chinese doctor in Tanzania and also a CPC member, died while rescuing a drowning local woman.
Now the CPC is 104 years old, and the country it leads is walking on its own modernization drive. Starting in 2026, China will embark on the implementation of the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) for economic and social development.
The CPC Central Committee is currently organizing the drafting of proposals for this plan, and relevant departments are gearing up to solicit opinions and suggestions from officials, the general public, and experts and scholars through various channels in the near future.
The formulation and implementation of the 15th Five-Year Plan hold immense significance for fully realizing the strategic initiatives outlined at the 20th CPC National Congress and advancing Chinese modernization, Xi said.
