Huayi Brothers' CPC members take part in a Party building activity in March in Beijing. Photo: Courtesy of Huayi Brothers

Building-up of the Communist Party of China (CPC) has gradually taken a firm foothold in China's economic development over recent years, not only in the state-owned sector but also in the private sector.

Huayi Brothers Media Corp, a Beijing-based major Chinese film studio, announced that it had established a Party committee in the firm. Being the first private film maker in China to do so, the move is expected to shore up the business' social prestige and help it resonate better with the people. 

Some say that the company, sitting at the top of the Chinese entertainment industry with a comprehensive industrial chain, should have set up its Party branch earlier to keep up with China's mainstream construction.

Founded in 1994, Huayi has 1,933 staff, of whom 115 are CPC members, according to a note the company sent to the Global Times on Thursday.

Among the CPC members, more than 85 percent were born in the 1980s and 1990s.

Huayi Chairman Wang Zhongjun said at the Party committee's launch on July 8 that the company will further integrate the Party's core socialist values and the mission of film production into the development to the company.

Party building will be engaged in the entire process of film production, said Cao He, the Party secretary, who is the former head of Huayi's public relations department.

Huayi announced last year that it would create one or two films over the next three years - about the history of the CPC, traditional culture, the Belt and Road Initiative and youth growth, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

Su Wei, a professor at the Party School of the Communist Party of China Chongqing Municipal Committee, told the Global Times over the weekend that a Party branch plays the role of the private firm's political core, which can not only lead the firm's positive development but can also help adjust its direction and strategy when it is guiding business operations.

"In this sense, Party building represents more significance for a private cultural and film company like Huayi Brothers," according to Su.

In fact, Huayi has made preparations to set up a Party organization since the beginning of last year, a PR representative of the company told the Global Times over the weekend.

The high-profile Party committee launch event followed Huayi's recent setback on The Eight Hundred, a war epic it produced that was withdrawn from the opening ceremony of the 22nd Shanghai International Film Festival in June.

The film was scheduled to be released on July 5 in China.

Huayi reported a loss of 1.09 billion yuan ($162.43 million) in 2018, according to its annual financial report released in April, which came after a net profit of 828.28 million yuan in 2017.

More and more popular culture and entertainment companies have rapidly built their own Party branches since the end of last year.

Bilibili or B-station, a Chinese video-sharing site that focuses on anime, comics, games and subcultures popular among Chinese youth, set up its Party committee on June 27 ahead of the founding anniversary of the CPC on July 1.

The website has produced a series of animations and videos that respond to current social themes while appealing to the youth, who tend to express their patriotism in the "screen bullet" - a real-time commenting feature on the site, domestic news site sina.com.cn reported.

Shanghai-based mobile content aggregator Qutoutiao launched its three-year (2019-21) Party building plan in early July to embrace the 70th anniversary of the founding of China in October this year, as well as the 100th anniversary of the CPC's founding in 2021, media reports said.

The company established its Party committee in May with about 200 CPC members among its 1,000 staff in Shanghai. 

"The overall leadership of the Party should be strengthened to cover more areas, especially the entertainment industry, to abide by the Party's instructions and guidances in real term," Su noted.

Tech firms enter

Data from the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee showed that as of the end of June, there are more than 1.58 million non-state-run enterprises that have built up their Party branches.

Chinese tech giants including Alibaba, Tencent, Xiaomi and Meituan-Dianping have all set up their own Party organizations.

Beijing Lianhuo Information Service Co, which is affiliated with the cryptocurrency exchange platform Huobi Group, was the first firm in the cryptocurrency sector to establish a Party branch last year. 

"Thus far we have 21 registered CPC members in our Beijing office," Chen Qian, a representative of the Party branch told the Global Times over the weekend, noting there were only a few CPC members when the branch was set up.

"There are some employees who are CPC members but don't have their Party membership registration here. As the branch becomes more appealing, more employees would like to transfer their membership registration to the branch," said Chen.

For a high-tech company, joining the Party can enhance innovation in research and development and strengthen team solidarity, which is beneficial for the firm's long-term sustainable development, according to Chen.

Chen noted that "more employees, especially young CPC members, are interested in Party-building work. We want this group of employees to play a model role in leading the whole team to carry on and meet challenges ahead."

Shen, who is one of the first batch of Party members in Lianhuo, told the Global Times that Party-building activities have enlightened his career and daily life. "As a Party member, I have strong self-awareness that I need to be disciplined and strict with myself and play a model role," Shen said.

"Besides this, I like to communicate with my colleagues about what big events are happening in the country," he said, noting it is important to practice solidarity in thought.

 Shen is planning to organize an outdoor activity which is focused on the "left-behind" children in the suburbs of Beijing. 

"Those children usually lack love and communication with the outside world, and we want to bring them some daily goods to express our sympathy," he noted.

The 98-year-old CPC had 90.59 million members with 4.61 million Party branches as of the end of 2018, according to a report released at the end of June by the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee.

Membership increased by 1.03 million compared with the number in 2017, while Party organizations increased by 39,000, data from the report showed.

According to Su, some private firms or foreign-invested companies usually feel suspicious or see internal Party building as unnecessary, but it has been proven that the Party plays a key role for a firm's sustainable development. 

"When the role is fully played, firms often find themselves dependent on such an organization and don't want to be left behind."