China eyes gig workers and influencers as delegates for Communist Party congress

For the first time, delivery couriers, ride-hailing drivers and influencers could become delegates to the Communist Party’s five-yearly national congress, as Beijing seeks to keep the group close to the official ideology.

Guidelines on selecting delegates for the meeting, to be held in the second half of next year, were issued on Saturday. The 21st party congress is expected to bring together 2,360 delegates, according to Xinhua. They will vote to elect more than 300 full and alternate members of the Central Committee from a vetted slate of candidates.

The delegates should come from various fields, including business, science and technology, national defence, political and legal affairs, education, publicity, culture, public health, sports, social governance and “new employment groups”, the party’s Organisation Department told Xinhua on Sunday.