The Party group at Mary Kay, a direct-sales cosmetics retailer from the United States, holds a meeting to welcome new Party members at the company's headquarters in Shanghai. China Daily

Multinational companies in China are attaching greater importance to Party building because a deeper understanding of the Communist Party of China's latest policies can facilitate sustained growth in the domestic market.

West Nanjing Road subdistrict in central Shanghai, which is home to a large number of regional headquarters of leading multinationals, has witnessed the development of Party organizations.

According to Jiang Chunhai, deputy secretary of the Party working committee in the subdistrict, the committee is responsible for the operation of 93 Party organizations in multinational companies, including eight general branches, 51 independent branches and 34 united branches. In total, these Party organizations oversee 1,587 Party members in 289 multinational companies.

The China headquarters of Mary Kay, a direct-sales cosmetics retailer from the United States, are in the subdistrict, and the company is one of the best examples of significant progress in Party building.

Since the Party building project began in 2007, the number of Party members working for Mary Kay in China has risen to 111 from just six.

There are 58 members in the Shanghai headquarters and 53 at a branch in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province, accounting for 10 percent of the employees at the branch.

"'Go Give', which is the core value of Mary Kay, accords with the Party's values－to give without requesting anything in return. That was how I convinced my boss to set up a Party branch in Mary Kay," said An Congzhen, secretary of the company's Party group.

Core values

That core value has seen Party members carry out a number of Party building activities to aid underprivileged people, including providing classes for students in rural areas, looking after seniors in local nursing houses and organizing charitable activities in local communities, according to An.

In the decade since Party building began at the company, many measures have been adopted to facilitate related activities.

When the Party branch was established at the company in 2007, the six CPC members held meetings in a corridor to exchange their opinions about the latest government regulations and policies.

However, the company set up a 100-square-meter Party building activity room earlier this year, partly as a result of the rising number of Party members it employs. The company also allows members to hold Party building activities during breaks at work. "Our employees are always under quite a heavy workload. We have to make the best of their time, for example during the lunch break, to hold Party building activities," An said.

"One of the latest activities is the study of the theoretical and practical issues related to Party building, which has received a positive response from our Party members," he added.

Feng Yu, 38, a product quality manager at the company, said the Party building activities advocate many virtues and also provide a platform for each member to understand and realize their life values.

"Each of us works to a tight schedule, but we are always willing to take part in the activities, most of which are held in our spare time, because they are helpful to our careers and personal lives," he said.

However, it wasn't easy to make Party building a feature of Mary Kay's operations.