China | Not for the religious or lazy

How to get kicked out of China’s Communist Party

Officials are trying to expel slackers and the superstitious

Security guardsstand behind a glass dooe in The Great Hall of the People, Beijing
Don’t let the door hit you…Photograph: Getty Images
|BEIJING

China’s Communist Party has over 99m members. So it is no surprise that some are not up to scratch. The corrupt, criminal or disloyal are handled by the party’s fearsome internal-investigation arm, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. It has punished thousands of officials in recent years. But that still leaves another kind of troublesome member: those who have not broken any laws, but just aren’t very good communists.

Explore more

This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline “Not for slackers”

From the September 7th 2024 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

More from China

An installation that is part of an exhibition by Ai Weiwei, a Chinese artist, depicts his detention

An outrage that even China’s supine media has called out

Anger is growing over a form of detention linked to torture and deaths

Signage of the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP

Why foreign law firms are leaving China

A number of them are in motion to vacate


Electric vehicles in a factory car park in Chongqing, China

An initiative so feared that China has stopped saying its name

“Made in China 2025” has been a success, but at what cost?


A pay rise for government workers sparks anger and envy in China

The effort to improve morale has not had the intended effect

A big earthquake causes destruction in Tibet

Dozens are dead, thousands of buildings have been destroyed