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DecAt the critical moment of comprehensively deepening reform and completing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects, the Sixth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee has carried out monographic studies on the deployment of comprehensively strengthening Party disciplines and passed upon deliberation the Several Norms on Intra-Party Political Life under the New Situation (the Norms for short) and the Regulations on Intra-Party Supervision of the CPC (the Regulations for short), which, together with important addresses delivered by General Secretary Xi Jinping at the Plenary Session, focus on the theme of comprehensively strengthening Party disciplines, profoundly elaborate the significance, urgency, basic contents and practice requirements of strengthening and regulating intra-Party political life and intensifying intra-Party supervision from strategic perspectives, contain a major deployment for the same under the new situation, fully reflecting the Party’s determination and ability to conduct self-purification, self-improvement, self-renovation and self-enhancement, representing new development of the theory of comprehensively strengthening Party disciplines and new progress in the practice, and having far-reaching historical influence and practical significance in better engaging in great struggles with many new historical characteristics, promoting a great new Party building program and boosting the great cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
New development of historical experience in comprehensively strengthening Party disciplines
The Communist Party of China (CPC) is a great, glorious and correct party, but it does not mean that the CPC never made any mistakes in the magnificent historical development process over the past 90 years since it was founded; instead, the CPC has the courage and ability to conduct self-renovation and self-correction. To make intra-Party political life solemn and intra-Party supervision strict is not only the Party’s fine tradition and valuable experience, but also an important weapon with which the Party has successfully dealt with challenges and won victories one after another.
To make intra-Party political life solemn and intra-Party supervision strict is a fine tradition to which the Party has long stuck. Since its foundation, the Party has been stressing the basic attribute of a Marxism political party and that efforts should be made to make intra-Party political life solemn and intra-Party supervision strict, and has formed a complete set of basic norms in practice. Early in the Party programme drafted at the First National Congress of the CPC, ideas and requirements of intra-Party political life and intra-Party supervision were proposed. The Gutian Congress Resolution clearly put forward that “…to politicize and scientize the thinking of Party members and intra-Party political life.” The 8th CPC National Congress stipulated that any Party member and Party organization must be supervised. In particular, the Several Norms on Intra-Party Political Life prepared in 1980 plays a vital role in strengthening and regulating intra-Party political life. The preparation and promulgation of the Norms could be considered to provide strong system guarantee for re-establishment and implementation of the Party’s ideological line of seeking truth from facts and open up the new situation where all Party members are united to advance the reform and opening-up and engage in the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics. The Sixth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee emphasized strengthening and regulating intra-Party political life and intensifying intra-Party supervision, representing inheritance and promotion of the Party’s fine tradition of strengthening self-construction, and new development and replenishment of historical experience in comprehensively strengthening Party disciplines.
To make intra-Party political life solemn and intra-Party supervision strict is a weapon with which the Party has successfully achieved steady development and growth. Through 95 years of arduous struggles, the CPC has developed from a small party with more than 50 members at the time when it was founded to the world’s largest political party with more than 88 million members today, from small to large and weak to strong, and has created a rare miracle in the world, behind which an important weapon is to make intra-Party political life solemn and intra-Party supervision strict. This is also a valuable conclusion drawn from positive and negative historical experience. After the Great Revolution and before Zunyi Meeting, “patriarchy “and other problems occurred in intra-Party political life, with the supreme power in the Party lacking supervision, wrong political and military lines occupying the leading position and thus the cause of the Party and revolution suffering serious loss. Through the Zunyi Meeting held in 1935, normal intra-Party political life resumed and after a heated argument and discussion, correct opinions of Comrade Mao Zedong et al. were finally recognized and practiced, resulting in a turn in the fate of the Party and the Red Army. After New China was founded, with gradual development of personality cult, intra-Party democracy was greatly undermined and intra-Party political life became seriously abnormal, leading to the Great Cultural Revolution, a global and long-lasting grave mistake of “Leftism”. In order to bring intra-Party political life onto the right track and have the power supervised, the central authority formally approved the Several Norms on Intra-Party Political Life. History has proven that as long as intra-Party political life is normal and healthy with strict and powerful intra-Party supervision, the Party will be clean and upright, united and solidary, and full of vitality while the course of the Party will boom; and vice versa.
New solutions to the issue of the times of comprehensively strengthening Party disciplines
Whether the CPC can jump out of the historical cycle in case of long-term one-party rule remains a significant test and issue of the times in the face of the Party, and a worldwide challenge, to which the only answer is to comprehensively strengthen Party disciplines, constantly enhance self-construction and improve the capability of self-purification, self-improvement, self-renovation and self-enhancement. As required by General Secretary Xi Jinping, “We have to focus on the Party’s self-construction with greater determination and courage and ensure that the Party always keeps in the front rank of the times in the historical course of profoundly changing world situation, always serves as the backbone of the people in the historical course of dealing with various risks and tests at home and abroad, and always becomes the firm core of leadership in the historical course of developing socialism with Chinese characteristics.”
To make intra-Party political life solemn and intra-Party supervision strict is an important part of comprehensively strengthening Party disciplines, which is a distinctive theme of Party construction carried out by the Party Central Committee since the 18th National Congress of the CPC. Under new circumstances, the Party not only shoulders the historical mission of uniting and leading the people across China to comprehensively build a moderately prosperous society, promoting socialist modernization and realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, but also faces four tests including the test of ruling, the test of reform and opening-up, the test of market economy and the test of external environment, and four risks such as the risk of spiritual laches, the risk of deficient capacity, the risk of being isolated from the masses and the risk of being negative and corruptive. In order to promote comprehensively strengthening Party disciplines, efforts should be made to have regard for characteristics of the times and find correct breakthrough points. The Sixth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee pointed out that to make intra-Party political life solemn was the foundation of comprehensively strengthening Party disciplines and the Party’s self-governance should start with intra-Party political life while strict governance of the Party should start with solemn intra-Party political life. Intra-Party supervision is not only an important part of Party construction, but also an important guarantee for comprehensively strengthening Party disciplines. Only in case of solemn intra-Party political life and proper management and supervision of Party organizations and members can comprehensively strengthening Party disciplines be truly implemented and become normal. The Norms and the Regulations have improved successful practices in making intra-Party political life solemn and intensifying intra-Party supervision, and included the same in the form of intra-Party rules and regulations, not only fully reflecting the distinctive attitude and steadfast determination of comprehensively strengthening Party disciplines, but also accurately grasping the key to comprehensively strengthening Party disciplines under the new situation.
To make intra-Party political life solemn and intra-Party supervision strict is an important grasp on comprehensively strengthening Party disciplines. For some time, the phenomenon of non-solemn intra-Party political life and non-strict intra-Party supervision is comparatively common, with prominent tendency of vulgarization and casualness, and some Party organizations behave poorly in dealing with the relationship with Party members to the extent that they neglect ideal and belief education for Party members and cadres, ignore daily management, show poor performance of democratic centralism, fail to carry out personnel choice and employment in accordance with relevant regulations, challenge “the authority of disciplines” with “goody-goody doctrine (seeking good relations with all and sundry at the expense of principle)” and “accountability and responsibility” with bureaucratism, muddle along, fear risks and actions, exert loose control over the Party and ineffectively perform “the two responsibilities (Party committees take main responsibility and discipline inspection committees take supervising responsibility for construction of the Party conduct and of an honest and clean government)”. Some Party members show weak “Four Consciousness” in dealing with the relationship with Party organizations and believe that “organizations are reliable” and “organizations owe to them”, show serious liberalism and individualism, place personal gains over principles and individuality over the Party, do whatever double-dealers do, and “behave differently in front of superiors and inferiors; act differently from what they say; appear differently in front of others and alone”. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the Party Central Committee led by Comrade Xi Jinping has given priority to making intra-Party political life solemn and intra-Party supervision strict among the tasks of comprehensively strengthening Party disciplines, stuck to keeping construction of Party ideology and governance of the Party through system in parallel and made obvious achievements. However, in no case can comprehensively strengthening Party disciplines and solving problems of the times in long-term one-party rule be achieved in a day, so persevering efforts should be made to focus on making intra-Party political life solemn and intensifying intra-Party supervision, allowing it to be an important grasp on comprehensively strengthening Party disciplines.
New deployment for the great project of comprehensively strengthening Party disciplines
Strengthening and regulating intra-Party political life and intensifying intra-Party supervision have to be scientifically designed and advanced as a whole. The Several Norms on Intra-Party Political Life under the New Situation and the Regulations on Intra-Party Supervision of the CPC approved by the Sixth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee not only inherit and carry forward the Party’s fine traditions and basic norms developed in long-term practice, but also raise new requirements for making intra-Party political life solemn and intra-Party supervision strict, make new deployments and form practical scientific thinking and system arrangements based on new circumstances and tasks.
Firstly, the Party Constitution should be regarded as fundamental document to abide by. The Party Constitution is the fundamental charter of the Party, so it must be the fundamental basis of making intra-Party political life solemn and intra-Party supervision strict. The Party Constitution provides fundamental and global guidance for intra-Party political life and intra-Party supervision, and a distinctive feature of the preparation of the Norms and revision of the Regulations is that the Party Constitution is taken as the fundamental basis, respect, implementation and safeguard of the Party Constitution are highlighted, and efforts are made to detail relevant requirements in the Party Constitution and systematize important documents and relevant provisions studied and enacted by the Party Central Committee based on the Party Constitution since the reform and opening-up, especially in recent years, so as to make intra-Party political life and intra-Party supervision institutionalized, normalized and procedural.
Secondly, the Norms and the Regulations should be regarded as basic standards. The Norms and the Regulations approved by the Sixth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee have stuck to problem orientation, adhered to overall planning and coordination, focused on weak links of intra-Party political life and intra-party supervision, strengthened top-level design and systematic planning, and facilitated solution to problems such as vulgar, casual and dull intra-Party political life, unsound system, insufficient coverage, unclear responsibility and poor execution of intra-Party supervision by centering on theoretical, thinking and system construction systems as well as power, responsibility and accountability design systems. The Norms contains specific provisions on basic requirements for intra-Party political life in 12 respects, each of which is vital and indispensable and the key to intra-Party political life. The Regulations focuses on giving play to the institutional advantage of supervision and contains clear standards for responsibilities of four categories of supervision subjects and corresponding supervision systems.
Thirdly, leaders and cadres should be regarded as the key objects. To make intra-Party political life solemn and intra-Party supervision strict is a requirement applicable to all Party members, with leading organizations and cadres at all levels being priorities and senior cadres, especially members of the central leadership, being top priorities. General Secretary Xi Jinping has repeatedly emphasized that if leaders and cadres, especially senior cadres, are well governed to set a good example for all Party members, a lot of things will go well. The Norms and the Regulations approved by the Sixth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee have highlighted leading organizations and cadres at all levels, especially senior cadres, posed special requirements on them and contained special provisions applicable to them alone, so as to guide and urge them to be self-disciplined consciously and set a good example, which surely will have strong demonstrative effects on all Party members and society at large. Xi has also emphasized that senior cadres should soberly understand the special significance of their posts to the Party and the country, and cadres at higher positions must set stricter requirements on them according to standards given by the Party, have a firm belief in Party and strict Party disciplines, show permanent loyalty to the Party and never betray the Party.
In order to learn and implement the spirit of the Sixth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, execute the Norms and the Regulations, and comprehensively strengthen Party disciplines, Party committees of colleges and universities should practically attach importance to system construction, well implement the principal accountability system under the leadership of Party committees, firmly grasp the socialist school-running direction and the requirements of the Party’s and national education policy for morality education, enhance and improve Party building work in colleges and universities. First of all, efforts should be made to focus on the construction of school-level leadership. Members of the leadership should be strict with themselves according to standards for socialist politicians and educators, and do so in the practice of school running and management; second, attention should be paid to educating and arming young students with new ideas, thinking and strategies of the Party for governing a state, nurturing constructors and successors of the great cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics; besides, practical measures should be taken to care about and foster the backbone team of the young and middle-aged, set strict political requirements, offer assistance and support in work, care about their life and establish a platform for them to start an undertaking; furthermore, efforts should be made to practically strengthen the construction of grassroots Party organizations, focus on the construction of Party branches of teachers and students and strive to obtain new experience in Party building work in colleges and universities in the new period.
The Renmin University of China is the first new formal university founded by the Party and has developed with school-running characteristics of “the cradle for builders of the Republic, a higher education hub for humanities and social sciences and the highland for studies and teaching of Marxist theory” in long-term practice. Implementing the spirit of the Sixth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, we are responsible to earnestly sum up and study new theoretical and practical developments in respect of Party building since the 18th National Congress of the CPC and make contributions to the great project of Party building in the new period.
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