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A couple of nights ago, I had dinner with one of my students from China and his parents, both of whom are members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The father is a doctor and has to work 10 hours a day, during which he sees a hundred patients every day. Most of them are suffering from diabetes. At the end of his long day, the father is required (i.e., not optional) to log into the Party's Xuéxí / Xué Xi 学习 ("Learning / Learn Xi [Thought]") app — full name “Xuéxí / Xué Xi qiángguó 学习强国” ("Learning / Learn Xi [Thought]" to strengthen the nation"), which was launched in the early part of 2015.

The user of this app is presented with a large variety of topics and problems that he has to read about and then ponder a series of questions concerning the ones he has chosen. By the end of each session, he must get 30 points by answering lots of questions, and he must not make many wrong answers. If he does not achieve a score of 30 points in each session, he can get in serious trouble with the political bosses in the hospital (or other "unit" [dānwèi 单位]) where he works. Interacting with the Xuéxí / Xué Xi 学习 ("Learning / Learn Xi [thought]") app is tiring, time-consuming, and stressful. For my student's father and other Party members in the hospital where he works, it is mandatory.

I forget the exact figure, but the father must also regularly pay "dues / fees" to the CCP, and they amount to a not inconsiderable sum. I think he said that he paid around 600 RMB per month, which would be about $75 (the percentage exacted varies depending upon one's income; most people I know who are Party members pay 2% or thereabouts). This is above and beyond the Individual Income Tax (IIT) (gèrén suǒdéshuì 个人所得税) that he has to pay yearly.

The mother is also a CCP member, but in quite a different category. In her case, she does not have to log into the Xuéxí / Xué Xi 学习 ("Learning / Learn Xi [thought]") app every day, and she doesn't have to pay the steep Party dues / fees. I asked how she could escape from these onerous burdens. It turns out that it was the result of the economic restructuring and "reform" that took place during the mid-90s, when many of China's SOEs (State-Owned Enterprises [guóyǒu qǐyè 国有企业]) collapsed and were disbanded. The bigger wave in terms of the number of firms closed and workers fired was 93-98 under Zhu Rongji, when he was executive Vice Premier. After that, firms were mainly merged. Bill Hurst lays this out nicely in his book, The Chinese Worker after Socialism (Cambridge University Press, 2009).

The mother worked for one of the SOEs that were closed down, so when she lost her job there, she started her own small business in the same field. People in that category — former employees of SOEs — are second-class Party members, so don't have the privilege of being subjected to the Xuéxí / Xué Xi 学习 ("Learning / Learn Xi [thought]") app every day, nor do they have to pay Party fees / dues without fail.

It's not just Party members who are required to download and use the Xuéxí / Xué Xi 学习 ("Learning / Learn Xi [thought]") app. All citizens who wish to ingratiate themselves with the CCP are enjoined to do so (see here, here, here, here, here, and here).

I looked at the Xuéxí / Xué Xi 学习 ("Learning / Learn Xi [thought]") app in considerable detail and must say that it is devilishly demanding. The fact that all first-class CCP members are subjected to this daily brainwashing (many Chinese now use this term — xǐnăo 洗脑 [literally "wash brain"] — to describe what is going on in China today [teachers, students, and others are undergoing similar techniques of indoctrination]) constitutes a curious inversion of the term, which was originally popularized in the early 1950s by American and British analysts to explain why American POWs in the Korean War cooperated with their Chinese captors.

Reading

"The Dawn of the Little Red Phone", by David Bandurski , China Media Project (

[Thanks to Victor Shih]

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