China’s ruling communist party has ordered its members to celebrate a different kind of birthday every year – the day they joined the party. “For ordinary people there is only one birthday. For Chinese communist party members, there are two … In addition to the day one was born, another special day is one’s ‘political birthday’,” the central commission for discipline inspection, the party’s disciplinary watchdog, said in a notice on Tuesday.
“A birthday serves to remind one to respect and value life. A political birthday is for remembering love and devotion for the party.” After issuing guidelines to all departments and regions in March to focus on “political rituals” such as political birthdays, the commission outlined how cadres should mark the occasion.
