I appreciate your reply. Are there any privately religious CCP members, if that's allowed? How does it work? But if the moral stick of "representation" is to be applied (something that I would associate with the agenda of the West) then perhaps one should apply it to other countries too. One could ask Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Pakistan, or indeed UK, Germany, France, USA, the same. Or, if one wishes to apply another form, one could ask how many women have made it to the Standing Committee, or the likelihood of a woman becoming GS. Food for thought for all.
People of various religions and ethnic groups are represented by the Chinese People's Consultative Committee (CPPCC), which acts almost like the House of Lords in the UK or the Senate in the US. It is managed by the CPC's United Front Department, and it is the political organ which the CPC manages relations and gains feedback/insight from non-party members/organs. Each province, including the two Special Administrative Regions, have CPPCC delegations. The delegates meet twice a year, and their feedback forms the backbone from which the National People's Congress (acts like the House of Representatives and the House of Commons) and Central Committee (the decision making body below the Politburo) legislate national policy.
You don't have to be a party member to be a CPPCC delegate. Much like other political bodies across the world, the CPPCC has various sub-committees, one of them being the Ethnic and Religious Affairs Committee.
To illustrate my point, I was born and raised in a conservative Christian family in Hong Kong. With that said our family are extremely pro-establishment, even before the Handover took place. There are many of our Christian family friends who also share our sentiment, in fact one of them is part of Hong Kong's delegation to the CPPCC. When the rioting in Hong Kong kicked off a couple years ago, a pastor was taken in by the authorities on suspicion that he was working with foreign intelligence apparatus. This family friend of us, who sat on the CPPCC's Liaison with Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and Overseas Chinese Committee, reported back and vouched for this particular pastor. Apparently his insight this was fed back to the Central Committee's Leading Group on Hong Kong and Macau Affairs. Not only was this pastor cleared of his allegations, the CPC sent a research group to Hong Kong to conduct more thorough due diligence on the Christian community, as well as how the party might better work with various religious bodies in the Special Administrative Regions.
Another example - my dad's old boss converted to Christianity while my dad worked for him, and he currently sits on the Standing Committee of Shanghai's CPPCC.
As for female representation in CPC policy making bodies, it is vital to factor in the PRC's history, and in particular women's access to a further education that would otherwise place them in opportunities to pursue business or political careers. The Cultural Revolution largely hindered opportunities for education (regardless of gender) that opens the doors for further business/political opportunities, and there is also the norm of women running for office that the country is only just getting over the past decade or so. At the end of the day, leaders are picked by competency and not on gender. You need to give time for the political system to catch up to modern norms, so that we have competent female politicians that rise to elite political positions in the Politburo or the Standing Committee. Regardless of gender, it takes a politician decades to overcome the hurdles just to be an Alternate Member on the Central Committee, let alone manage a province or govern a country. Nobody rises to the top without going through the grind. That's what keeps a liberal radical like AOC or a Margaret Thatcher wannabe in Liz Truss from elite politics.
Food for thought - leaders of the sixth and seventh generation that will be entering the 20th Party Congress later this year were born during the Cultural Revolution. They will be the first batch of leaders that got to experience a "proper" undisturbed education.
