Young Chinese see a stronger CPC despite Trump's confrontation: Washington Post

CFP

The Communist Party of China has faced several challenges over the past year, but its response has helped solidify support within China especially among young people, according to a story in the Washington Post about the differences between how the Party is viewed by the Trump administration and how it's viewed domestically.

From unrest in Hong Kong to COVID-19 and, most recently, floods that have wreaked destruction across large parts of China, some are seeing the Party's efforts more positively, especially when they view it through what's happened in the US, wrote the story published on Tuesday.

"It's strange to think of the Communist Party of China as weaker, because all of us feel that our country and our Party have grown stronger in the face of this epidemic," said Xia Yuxin, a 22-year-old university student in Beijing, to the Washington Post.

"As an active applicant, I want to bear my responsibility to serve society and to learn from those model Party members at the frontline of flood prevention work," Zhou Ziyi, an 18-year-old studying at Hunan Industry Polytechnic who has volunteered to patrol the embankments, told local media.

Some 80 percent of recruits last year were younger than 35, according to official Party statistics.

In a confrontation that is no longer just economic but ideological, the Trump administration is taking aim at the CPC, the story noted.

Leading the charge is US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who used a speech at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum last month to blast the "Chinese Communist Party's designs for hegemony" and to lay out a strategy "to truly change Communist China," it underlined. 

Wang Wei, a professor at the Hunan provincial branch of the Communist Party School, said to the Washington Post that Pompeo's comments revealed the Trump administration's worry about China eclipsing the United States.

"This just shows that they fear a stronger CPC and a stronger China after we showed our might in the battle against the coronavirus epidemic," she said to the Post. 

As part of its efforts to confront China and the Party, the Trump administration is reportedly considering banning CPC members and their families from traveling to the United States.

The Party's membership stood at almost 92 million at the end of last year, according to the CPC Central Committee's Organization Department. That could mean some 270 million people — one-fifth of China's population — would face a US entry ban, while the total number of Party members has continued to grow, the story explained.