Editing Openai/693af22c-95ec-8008-9486-f714a282fa64 (section)

=== After the founding of the PRC in 1949, the CCP embarked on a rapid expansion of membership to solidify control over newly nationalized industries and urban workplaces. By 1951: ===
* Workers were the most politically prized constituency, seen as the “leading class” of the socialist revolution.
* Recruitment campaigns targeted young workers with minimal education but strong political enthusiasm, particularly those active in trade unions, production emulation campaigns, or political study groups (学习小组).
* The Party prioritized class origin over educational attainment. A youth from a poor or worker family background—especially one known to be “simple, loyal, and politically earnest”—could be admitted earlier than the normal age range.
* The Korean War (1950–53) heightened the emphasis on ideological loyalty: factories, mines, and transport units launched “Support the Front, Support Production” campaigns, during which politically reliable workers were urgently needed as rank-and-file organizers.
* For many seventeen- or eighteen-year-olds, joining the Party was both an honor and a transformative identity shift: it elevated them within the factory hierarchy and opened pathways into the cadre system.

Thus Captain Du’s early admission at seventeen, despite only an elementary education, aligns closely with documented 1951 recruitment patterns among politically reliable urban workers.