How CCP Membership Is Forced on Students in China from Elementary School to University

By a Dafa practitioner in Australia

(Clearwisdom.net)

The university students are the group that is most actively interested in joining the CCP (Chinese Communist Party). Most of the current university students were born in the 1980's. They don't know much about things that happened in the 80's and before. In addition to the control of information and the revisions of history by the CCP, the parents also avoid disclosing the true history. They don't want to think about their own memories of the past, and they don't want to make their children more aware of the past either. Life is much easier and more comfortable than it was in the past and they are not willing to risk losing it, thus they feel no need to mention the past. Students get their idea of the past mostly from textbooks in which the facts are greatly distorted, literary and art works, and media propaganda. At best, students can gain only a vague and superficial understanding. Certainly, they don't know much about the CCP and no one tells them about it.

The education they have gotten is completely based on the Communist Party culture, just as described by Master:

"The CCP has led the Chinese people to judge things, consider things, and act based on a mindset steeped in that Party's culture--a culture created with specific ends in mind. Having been through this ideological remolding, the Chinese people can no longer judge things, consider things, or act as do normal people. Under the influence of the Party's culture, whenever foreign countries are brought up, the basis of these people's thinking is "those capitalist countries that oppose the Communist Party." But the reality is, those countries are normal forms of society in the world. Whenever problems that exist in China are brought up, the basis of the Chinese people's thinking sees it in terms of "anti-China forces." The extent is such that if someone mentions the CCP there will be people who think he is referring to China itself. And when someone talks about "the Chinese nation," there will be people who conflate that concept with the CCP. And it goes even further: whenever a problem needs to be addressed, the first thought is about how to crush others, and the means include rule by force, attacks, launching political campaigns, suppression, denunciations, and the like."("We Are Not 'Getting Political'")

In addition, because they grew up during the economic reform period, they feel that life is getting continuously better. Also because, as Teacher said,

"...China's upper-middle class had to be a class of Party members. It had become the way of things in society." ("Turning the Wheel Towards the Human World")

They want to obtain more and better opportunities. If they become CCP members then they will become part of the elite. In other words, if one wants to gain profits, one must become a CCP member.

During my years in high school, because as a Dafa disciple I gave the outstanding student leadership honor to another student, the teachers and school administrators always felt sorry for me. Whoever is awarded the outstanding student leadership honor will have a much better opportunity to be admitted to a university. The teachers also thought that joining the CCP would increase my chance of being admitted to a university; therefore they constantly urged me to join. I rejected their suggestion several times, yet in the end I was not able to resist them and I submitted the application for membership. During the final interview we (three schoolmates, one teacher and myself) were asked to give our opinions about Falun Gong. On hearing this I sensed that the intention was not good and I sent forth righteous thoughts immediately. When I went into the room they asked: "Please tell us your opinion about Falun Gong." At first I was trying to avoid it and said, "I don't know much about that." They smiled and said, "How is it possible that you don't know? It's been in the media everyday." I said, "Because what I know is different from what the media says. Falun Gong teaches people to be good and talks about truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. What's wrong with that? Shouldn't a person be sincere, kind and tolerant? I think that all human beings should be like that regardless of whether they are Communist Party members or not." They still smiled and said, "Then you mean a Communist Party member should also follow 'Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance?'" "Yes." I said very firmly. Afterwards they let me out. During the conversation, the interviewers appeared to be fairly kind. I knew this was Master encouraging and protecting me.

On the way back, when I talked to the two other schoolmates about the truth of Falun Gong, they nodded and became thoughtful.

After I was back home, I talked to my mom about it and she said: "You should increase your sending forth righteous thoughts. You did the right thing, but later on you may need to pay attention to the way you do it, to clarify the truth with rationality and wisdom."

Later, my mom made a phone call to the county government to inquire about the situation and learned that those interviewers had been transferred to other jobs. After the person who took over the job reviewed the original conversation records, he yelled, "How could we recommend this kind of person! I must make note of this in her personal record..." Mom asked a friend of hers to speak with that person and prevent him from doing that. In the meantime, she also clarified the truth to her friend and the schoolteacher who was in charge of this issue.

In the end I was the only one who didn't get approved, and the teacher in charge told the other teachers and students, "It was because of her age that she was disqualified." (My age at that time could disqualify me. I had also been too young when I joined the Communist Youth League and the Young Pioneers. At that time, both were treated as rewards for outstanding students, and approval was the exception.)

When I was enrolled at the University, training classes (to assist one to gain admittance to the CCP) had been offered one after another. All of my roommates had joined the CCP. I clarified the truth to them as soon as I enrolled in school. Later, along with the progress of Master's Fa Rectification, I also let them read the Nine Commentaries; yet they still joined the CCP. I believed that it was because I didn't do well. I didn't demonstrate the Dafa disciple's greatness to them, and my own behavior lacked persuasive power.

Those who joined the CCP in high school have now become the leadership of the party organization. They are all very proud of it. When I see them I am very worried about them, and I feel that they are the ones I should clarify the truth to the most. This is especially so in the top-ranked university. There are quite a few there who became party members because of their outstanding records in high school.

In Mainland China, it was decreed that nearly "all the middle school students become Communist Youth League (CYL) members." The outstanding students, regardless of their ages, are deemed qualified or not qualified. They can be granted the exception to join the CYL in their freshman year. This is regarded as a type of reward. There is a sample of a completed CYL application form on the back of the literature textbook. At that time everybody followed that sample when they applied to join the Communist Youth League. (As I recall, because I didn't like my handwriting and also felt it was too much of a hassle, I had my father write the application for me to apply to the CYL, the CCP and to report my thoughts. I didn't even go through the applications. At that time I didn't even take the CCP training class when joining the CCP. The school leadership also told us that if the county government personnel asked whether you took the training class, you might just say you did.) After the second year nearly all school students became CYL members, except for the few extremely bad students or those with poor grades. At most there would be only 2 or 3 such students. By the third year, the teacher managed to make these non-member students members of the CYL, otherwise the teacher would have felt sorry for them. At that time, CYL membership became synonymous with the middle school graduate certificate.

I recall that when I took a conversational English class in July-Aug 2003, all the students in the class were either going to go abroad or already had been abroad. I clarified the truth to them. One boy who had gone to Singapore in his junior year asked, "Who here is not a League member?" (He had been living overseas, came back twice a year, and now is a university student in Australia.) Nobody said a word, and then he very proudly said, "I am not a League member." After I heard that, I admired him very much and felt it a shame to be a League member. But because I had not been studying the Fa well, I didn't think of withdrawing. Now Master has opened the most convenient door for us, and one can just go on the Internet to announce one's withdrawal. We really must appreciate our merciful, great Master!

Middle school students are highly influenced by their teachers. Most of the time they simply have to do everything according to what their teacher says. Moreover everybody did things this way and very few would think about why. Let's think about it: when we were middle school students, how many of us knew much about the wicked Party, knew much about the Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought, and hence would like to join the wicked Party through the CYL? Thus, one can imagine how much the population has been poisoned. I believe that during our truth clarification, we should mainly focus on the teachers and the school administrators. We should help them realize it is a serious issue to have children join the CYL. Teachers shouldn't encourage the students to join the CYL; rather they should let students know the truth so that they can have their own ideas and make their own decision about whether to join. If the environment that the teachers have created is very stern, the students will not be able to make their own, real decision even if they have their own ideas.

The environment in the elementary schools is actually very similar to that of the middle schools; that is, "all elementary students are members of Young Pioneers." Regarding the outstanding students, it also makes exceptions to allow them to join at the lower grades. By the 5^th grade, all students become a Young Pioneer. The formalization is even stronger in elementary schools. The pupils have to wear a red scarf when entering the school gate. There are "monitoring guards" (an effort taken on by student leaders) to conduct the check. If one did not wear it, one's name and class name would be recorded and the class score would be decreased. (The teacher's bonus is associated with the class score.) In middle school there were also checks of whether one wore the League Emblem, but that was very rare. These students, especially at the higher grades, actually didn't like to wear it, but did so reluctantly.

At this age students don't yet have their own ideas (even less so than older students) about the Young Pioneers. Whether you join the Young Pioneers is not your decision, and it doesn't matter whether you understand what the membership means. As long as you are a Mainland China elementary student, you must be a member of the Young Pioneers. This has already become common knowledge. In the middle schools, the same applies to the CYL.

We should clarify the truth to these teachers and school administrators because they have the responsibility to educate the children, and they are supposed to encourage a good future for the students.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2005/3/30/98401.html

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