An effort by the Chinese Communist party to revive the term “comrade” has raised eyebrows among the country’s gay community, which has embraced the revolutionary greeting.

President Xi Jinping is trying to restore discipline in a sprawling, 88m-member party after years in which cadres chased economic growth and personal gain. This month the party sought to bolster its credentials as a classless revolutionary organisation by ordering members to greet each other as “comrade” and eliminate the growing importance attached to rank and titles.

In corporate offices, and particularly within the party, the trend towards using titles — and the obsequious fawning that accompanies them — has galled purists. A document entitled Norms of political life within the party under current conditions came out this month after a meeting at which Mr Xi was designated the “core” of the party. “To uphold the democratic and equal relations between comrades within the party, [party members] must call each other comrades,” it read.