> 7% of Chinas total population are members of the CCP. 7%. So at DeepSeek there's a good few handfuls of them.

If you want a government job, you need to be member of the party. That is no different then the old USSR system.

You end up with a overcount of "members" as people who ideology subscribe to the system, vs people who just become members for the better jobs. And yes, those people also get fired or leave government jobs (especially given the financial issues in the local governments the last few years because of the building crisis / lack of income).

So this type of throw towel over everybody to make a point is just a useless statistic.

The drivers for the stat don't matter. What matters is the reporting duties in the system and the stat.