Travel Diary

Young Communist Dreams of a Job in Corporate China

After enduring a rigorous, yearlong application process, Wu Qiong, 22, was admitted as a member of the Chinese Communist Party. The selection committee responsible for Wu’s university, the Beijing-based China Institute of Defense, Science and Technology, deemed her “morally righteous, loyal to the Communist Party, and a sharp thinker.” Wu was appointed to head the Women's Department of the student union before graduating in 2007. Though she is still a member of the Communist Party, Wu says that politics bore her and she wants to work for a foreign company someday.