within the Chinese Communist party, which anyone can join and participate in to elect local officials
This is definitely not the case anymore. Realistically speaking, it was never as simple as "anyone can join." Today, most people will go through a lengthy process to just be denied membership.
Guess who you can thank for this...
From the "source" (the Japanese one, not the broken link at the bottom):
It's an analysis of the current copyright law in Japan. It does not mean that they won't update the law eventually. What a terrible article.