As the Trump administration evaluates the travel ban against members of the Chinese Communist Party and their families, it is considering cutting a wide section of Chinese society, 92 million people, which often challenges stereotypes, including people who walk. down the corridors of power. Beijing oversees China’s schools and runs large companies.
Banning them would change the topography of the relationship between the United States and China in the most prosaic way: it would cut off large numbers of regular Chinese who, in pre-coronavirus pandemic times, traveled to the United States by the millions to do business, see the sites, Shop at high-end department stores and study at some of the country’s most elite universities.
Blocking them out of the country would not only cut the economic infusion they bring, but would also plunge the relationship between the world’s two largest economies into a new phase of deeper isolation. Who are the members of the communist party? This is what we know.
Leaders, award winners, dissidents, and caregivers.
Some members of the Communist Party are the solid apparatuses of the communist stereotype; many are not. In the heady heights of political power in Beijing, members craft harsh repressions, deceptive propaganda, and radical surveillance designed to preserve the party’s autocratic rule over the country.
They control people they consider political troublesome and they control the Chinese government in Beijing. Rules apply that have led to the internment of more than a million members of minorities such as Uighurs in the west of the country.
However, voices of dissent have also come from the party. Dr. Li Wenliang, who sounded the online alarm about a mysterious virus that emerged in China and was questioned by police about his problems before Covid-19’s death, was a member of the party.
So is the Uighur economist Ilham Tohti, winner of the Sakharov Prize.
Recent statistics show that 12.3 million of them are 30 years old or younger, about half have university degrees and 27.9 percent are women. Many party members also offer childcare services, run schools, run tech companies, organize beach cleanups, act in blockbuster movies, and communicate with older Chinese citizens. Along with them, academics, scientists and businessmen (life lines for an economic relationship that has persisted despite sour ties) would also freeze.
For those who are not at the highest levels of power, party membership is often a way to boost one’s career by making the right connections. During the boom years, from the 1980s to early 2010, many Chinese joined the party to gain an edge in business, academia, and the arts.
A party born of a civil war.
Founded in 1921, the Communist Party has dominated politics in China since winning a civil war against the Nationalists of the Republic of China in 1949. Since then, it has gone through many evolutions, some dictated by practicality, others by little ones. power grabbing calculations.
In recent decades, the party appears to emerge as a stronghold of technocrats who exercise industrial policy and close ties to business to emphasize economic growth, even when harshly punishing those who defied its power.
Under Xi Jinping, the main leader of China, a party that 10 years ago was often jokingly called a business group disguised as Marxists that has reaffirmed its communist roots. Members must participate in high-theory study sessions, sometimes with the tracking power of apps to control their reading habits.
Mr. Xi has emphasized political loyalty over economic benefits, and a fierce anti-corruption crackdown has taken some of the shine off by joining. It has also made the selection process more rigorous: what was once a boring formality has become more difficult and selective. Applicants undergo an investigation and a battery of tests and interviews, before years of waiting for full membership.
A newer and brighter hammer and sickle
The power and symbols of the Communist Party of China are looming within business and other organizations, and shiny new hammer and sickle signs have appeared in community centers in towns and cities across the country.
Within the multiplicities of the party, there are books and playgrounds for children. But the surveillance is a fact, with officials carefully tracking local events and reporting to political rioters through databases.
Party committees, once ceremonial and dormant in private companies, have gained new powers. Many senior executives, such as Alibaba founder Jack Ma, are members. Abroad, the party structure has helped unite institutions that carry out influence campaigns to win support for China.
However, even though Mr. Xi has retrieved many ornaments from Mao, such as study sessions and surveillance, people still unite for professional advantages, not for stunning ideology. Tempted by the prospects for better jobs, many students enroll in college, long before they have a fully developed political perspective. Admission is often seen as a sign of excellence. At the southern Shenzhen technology hub in 2018, a sign encouraged entrepreneurs with a slogan that would stun the mind of the Orthodox Marxist: “Follow our party, start your business.”
Banning millions may be impossible
With party members forming a hugely bewildering part of society in China, some tell stories that the party lost its membership records. In trying to revive the party, Mr. Xi has persecuted thousands of members who have not paid dues for years.
If even Beijing has a hard time tracking the 92 million party members and their families, it’s unclear whether the United States can do a much better job if it decides to carry out its travel ban. Experts warned that the draft ban would be nearly impossible to implement on a large scale.
Still, the United States could establish new mechanisms by which the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security could more closely follow the party’s membership. Several Chinese citizens who recently traveled to the United States said they did not recall being asked about party affiliation. Although some State Department travel requests ask explicitly.
Any new rule would also be easier to apply to the most prominent Chinese political leaders and their families. The sons of the top leaders may have difficulty entering the United States if the order is signed. Mr. Xi’s daughter, Xi Mingze, for example, attended Harvard under a pseudonym several years ago.
However, if strictly enforced, the visa ban could make life difficult for many others. Academics and business people who regularly visit the United States may have to disclose their membership or risk breaking laws that punish forgery of visa applications.
A spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Hua Chunying, called the possible move by the Trump administration “very pathetic.”
“The United States, as the most powerful country, what remains? What kind of impression does the world want to leave? We hope that the United States will stop doing things that do not respect the basic norms of international relations. “
The threat from the United States alone could prevent many from coming to the United States and do more to push business conferences and other events that include Americans and Chinese to other countries, such as Canada.
Lin Qiqing contributed to the investigation.
