[dmix]

I read in a book about China by New Yorker magazines China expert [1] and he said that up to a third of Chinese citizens are either party members, part of youth groups, or work directly for a CCP owned company.

So it’s not everyone but it’s a lot. The actual CCP membership itself is much lower though. It’s more like an octopus in their society.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Age-Ambition-Chasing-Fortune-Truth/dp...

[elcomet]

But I guess it's very different for people that have some power like CEOs. I doubt there is a CEO that is not in the CCP.

[em500]

The article mentioned that Tencent and Baidu CEOs are not CCP party members. It's not a big deal, one way or the other. Journalist and internet pundits simply like to play it up. Most of us don't understand much of the workings of the CCP, partly due to deliberate intransparency partly due to the language barrier. So it's fertile ground for all kinds of baseless speculation.

Even without language barrier, I think most of it is just the nature of politics and holding positions of power. It's not like many of us have a very good understanding of the inner workings of the higher cadres in the (D) and (R) parties, or of the leadership teams / boardrooms of large companies either.