ABSTRACT
The Communist Party of China is the architect of modern Chinese society; it is the backbone of the society, a centralized and effective instrument for governing. The Party expects its cadres to internalize its values, ethics, and goals when they join. As in religious conversion, Party members are supposed to remold their innermost beings and to subordinate themselves to the interests of the party—even to the point of self-immolation. The "state of grace" achieved by a Party member secure in his faith is similar to the internal peace and self-confidence of a born-again Christian. The Communist Ethic motivates Party cadres to work hard to create the Party's utopia on earth. Since the doctrine of the Chinese Communist party has historically been susceptible to so many sudden and abrupt changes, China's party cadres are under even more psychological stress than early European Calvinists.
