Quote Originally Posted by Pavel Zhang View Post
Not likely. Most Westerner underestimate CCP. I am a mainlander, and I'm sure that the operation of CCP is very different from western parties, it has Party branches everywhere. Each company/school/community has a Party branch with several party members. Besides, The communist party is not just some officials rule over people, it's part of our life. There are 2 low level organizations linked to CCP, such as:
the League Of Young Pioneers（少年先锋队, LYP, an elementary school version CCP）
the Communist Youth League(共青团，CYL, a highschool version CCP)
The LYP and CYL works like a student union, yet it's more political. To become a member of CCP, you first join the LYP in your elementary school, then "upgrade" to the CYL during your 14s -17s. Then you can eventually apply to join the communist party when you are more than 18 years old.
And the reality is, not all of us eventually join CCP, but most of us join LYP and CYL during our school ages. Which is to say, most chinese are part of communist party at certain times in their life. You can come across a CCP member in your college, office, neighborhood …… and you know them pretty well, because most of them are your acquaintances. It may sounds horrible, but strangely, it gives us a strong sense of community……which in our culture are often links to patriotic and a collective sense of honor. It's super effective in collective mobilization, such as cities lockdown duing the pandemic. But I have to say that this kind of ideology can be really dangerous when it become some sort of political fanaticism. For example, the cultural revolution.
So it's quite hard to start a revolution. To revolt against CCP is not just to fight agianst Xi JinPing, but may also including your friends and even family members. Chinese people like to greet each other saying "Hi! Comrade!", because they are once in the same party, just like in a same fanclub of an NBA team.
Besides their titles, what really separates them? I mean in my opinion, all of those people share a common concern no?