CPC 101: Can Foreigners Join the Communist Party of China?

Can a foreigner join the Communist Party of China?

The answer is Yes!

The Communist Party of China has admitted members from the United States, Germany, India, Poland, Austria and Vietnam. Until 1956, the CPC made no clear provisions for foreigners joining the party.

It was not until the 8th National Congress of the CPC that it was first explicitly required that only Chinese citizens were eligible to join the Party. This means that in order to join the CPC, a foreigner needs to be a Chinese national in the first place.

The first Westerner to join the CPC was George Hatem, a doctor from New York State, USA. Known as Ma Haide in China, he came to Shanghai in 1933 and committed himself to fighting infectious diseases. Four years later, he joined the CPC in Yan’an, then the “Red Capital” of China.

In 1933, the Korean composer Jung Ryu Sung arrived in Nanjing, China. After years of education in music, he travelled to Yan’an with great enthusiasm and joined the CPC in 1939, and the Military Anthem of the People’s Liberation Army was one of his representative works.

Throughout the CPC’s history over the past century, many foreigners have chosen to join the Party in changing tide of the times. They share the same belief and followed the same pursuit despite their difference in nationality and profession.