This is the first installment of an ongoing series that will explore the current reforms of mass organizations in China.
In the first half of 2016, the phrase “Communist Youth League reform” often popped up in Chinese media. According to China’s constitution, the Communist Youth League (CYL) functions as both the Communist Party of China’s (CPC) “aide” and “reserve” —
the CYL helps the CPC mobilize Chinese youth, and is regarded as the talent pool of the party.This closeness between the two organizations has caused the CYL reform to attract a lot of attention, both within China and abroad.
But actually, targeting the CYL is only one part of a larger push on the part of the CPC to reform China’s numerous mass organizations. But what role do these party-led mass organizations play in Chinese politics, and why has the CPC taken such an interest in their reform?
Historically, Chinese society has been consolidated and organized by a centralized government with a solid grip on domestic policy. After the collapse of the Qing dynasty in the early 20th century, China was tasked with reforming the country into a modern state and society.
To organize its scattered agricultural societies, China needed to develop a strong system of government capable of leading the people, controlling an army, and reforming the country into a modern state. After a period of unrest where multiple factions vied for power, the CPC eventually rose up and declared themselves rulers in 1949.
The new government adopted three primary methods to consolidate and organize the masses: It consolidated pre-existing mass organizations, it built its own mass organizations, and it cooperated with other political parties.
The CPC recognizes several political parties that act as advisory bodies to the central government. After the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Congress was used to bring together the country’s various party-recognized mass organizations, like the Women’s Federation and the Communist Youth League, whose leaders would be sent to the People’s Congress to offer consultation on state matters. In this way, mass organizations form an important organ of the Chinese political system.
[node:field-quote:0]
Furthermore,these mass organizations were initially intended to act as institutional intermediaries between the central government and the people, tasked with representing the interests of the latter. But in recent years, the Communist Party has publicly recognized that this has not always been the case, thus acknowledging the need for reform.
Deng Xiaoping’s opening-up reforms in the 1980s caused the decline of the planned economy and local communist work units. Society began to diversify and became increasingly autonomous from the state. This reduced the reach of mass organizations, which had always relied on the Chinese political institutions to mobilize society. This shift was further accelerated by three factors.
First, since mass organizations had been absorbed into the state system, their modus operandi was bureaucratic and systematized. But both the system’s inability to exert influence over society and convoluted bureaucratic methods caused mass organizations to struggle to connect with their constituents.
Second, mass organizations have become increasingly attractive to rising elites in society who want to develop contacts within the political system. Because of the influence the organizations have on politics, the elites saw making connections in them as worthwhile endeavors, while the organizations viewed the elites as ways to increase their influence over society. This led to a sort of “aristocratification” of the organizations, thus further displacing them from the common person.
Finally, China has in recent years been undergoing rapid social and political change, and people now have higher expectations for social services. To keep pace with this change, mass organizations have begun to put on grand displays when interacting with society. The outer appearance of success has become more important than achievements.
Consequently, all of these factors have played into the inability of mass organizations in China to fulfill their intended roles within society. This means that the reform effort by current central party leadership will affect not only the mass organizations themselves, but also the CPC and China’s political development as well.
To be continued.
(Header image: Delegates arrive for the First Session of the 12th National People’s Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, March 10, 2013. Kim Kyung/Reuters)
czzheng021fudaneducn Broad Tones politics civil society population
As the representative bodies of government become further detached from the people, central leaders must rehabilitate public organizations. No 
