Members of the Communist Party of China (CPC) totaled 66.355 million in June, 5.938 million more than in 1997, according to the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee.

The Party had 14.8 million members under the age of 35, accounting for 22.3 percent of all members. Meanwhile, numbers of female members and those from ethnic minority groups totaled 11.598 million and 4.146 million, respectively, or 17.5 and 6.2 percent of the total.

Workers, farmers, intellectuals, soldiers and officials constituted much of the Party. Statistics show that 52.5 percent of members had received high school education and above, while those who had attended college totaled 15.366 million, or 23.2 percent.

Some 11.892 million CPC members were recruited from 1997 to June this year, of whom 75.2 percent were under the age of 35. Newly recruited female members, those who received high school education and above, and those from ethnic minority groups accounted for 25.4, 78.6 and 7.8 percent of the new recruits respectively.

Meanwhile, the number of people applying for CPC membership continued to rise in the past five years. In 2001, the number of applicants totaled 14.447 million.

Some 124,000 disqualified members were dismissed from the Party over the past five years.

At the same time, 2,594 members received "National Work Model" awards and 4,350 were recognized in the May 1 Honors, two of China's top honors for high-performing workers, accounting for 88.1 and 85.8 percent respectively of those honored.

(China Daily September 2, 2002)