The Communist Party remains firmly in control of China, although a small number of members are wayward and corrupt, a senior party official said Thursday, providing a rare peek at the internal machinery of an organization with nearly 70 million members.
Li Jingtian, deputy head of the party’s secretive Organization Department, told reporters that a mass education campaign launched in January to spur discipline among members and ensure the party’s “advanced nature” was achieving noteworthy results.
Since the beginning of the year, millions of Chinese government workers have attended classes designed to strengthen party ideology, spur selfcriticism and encourage stability.
The back-to-school program, launched by President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao two years into their jobs, is designed to shore up the organization’s power base, stem abuses, improve the party’s public image and contain dissent.
