BEIJING, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The Communist Party of China (CPC) recruited 11.85 million members from 2002 to 2006, an average of 2.37 million per year, according to the organization department of the CPC Central Committee Monday.

    "Departments all over the country made significant achievements in recruiting Party members from workers, farmers, intellectuals, soldiers and cadres in the last five years," said Wang Zigui, assistant head of the China Executive Leadership Academy in Yan'an, Shaanxi Province.

    Statistics from Shandong University showed that 91.9 percent of undergraduates had applied for Party membership, of whom 13.5 percent were admitted. Meanwhile, 40 percent of graduates were admitted.

    The CPC had launched recruitment drives in "new social strata", said Wang.

    Figures from the organization department indicate that 2.86 million employees or employers of private enterprises and 810,000 self-employed people had been recruited by the end of 2006.

    About 178,000 grassroots Party committees had been established in non- state companies by 2006, up by 79.8 percent from 2002.

    "Recruitment and the establishment of Party committees in private enterprises will help broaden and consolidate the Party's ruling foundation and be new source for long-term development," said Prof. Liu Pingqing, an expert on the non-public economy at the Beijing Institute of Technology.

    The CPC also started to establish a migrant member network both in urban and rural areas to improve the management of "migrant" Party members.

    The CPC has more than 70 million Party members. Most government-related organizations have Party branches.

    However, members who moved overseas or worked in private companies have difficulty maintaining connections with the Party.

    Under the CPC Constitution, members must belong to a branch and participate in the Party's regular activities. Members who fail to participate for six consecutive months or fail to pay membership fees without good reasons can be deemed to have voluntarily abandoned their membership.

    Party committees have set up 8,031 hotlines to provide assistance to migrant Party members. "They can connect with the Party at any time, no matter where they are," said Wang Zigui.