Forget WeChat. Say goodbye to ByteDance. The Communist Party is top dog in the Chinese App Store now. A study app named Xuexi Qiangguo was released by the Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Jan. 1. Since the third character, 强, can be used as either a verb or an adjective, the name can be read either as “Study the Great Country” or “Study Makes the Country Great.” So far, it has racked up more than 17 million downloads in the Huawei App Store and is the number one app in the Apple App Store.
This isn’t a spontaneous demonstration of enthusiasm. According to official announcements and documents, employees of the government and state-owned enterprises, particularly party members, have been “encouraged” to download and use the app. Study and quizzes of dogma have always been part of life for China’s party members—but the app puts their dedication on display for everybody to see via publicly available leaderboards. As the app’s slogan says, quoting Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping, “Dream starts from study, career starts from practice.”
This isn’t a spontaneous demonstration of enthusiasm. According to official announcements and documents, employees of the government and state-owned enterprises, particularly party members, have been “encouraged” to download and use the app. Study and quizzes of dogma have always been part of life for China’s party members—but the app puts their dedication on display for everybody to see via publicly available leaderboards. As the app’s slogan says, quoting Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping, “Dream starts from study, career starts from practice.”
