Socialism with Chinese Characteristics Enters a New Era

Chapter XV: Unswervingly Promoting Comprehensive and Strict Party Management

The key to adhering to and developing the great cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics lies in the party, and the key lies in administering the party strictly in an all-round way. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core has started from the beginning of style building, firmly grasped political construction, which is the fundamental construction of the Party, and promoted the comprehensive and strict management of the Party with firm determination, tenacious will and unprecedented intensity, promoted the right style and discipline, and fought corruption and punishment, opening up a new situation in the new great project of Party building. Adhering to the strict management of the party in an all-round way is always on the road, having the courage to carry out self-revolution, constantly enhancing the party’s political leadership, ideological leadership, mass organization and social appeal, and always maintaining the party’s vigorous vitality and strong combat effectiveness, which has become a clear symbol and goal requirement for promoting party building in the new era. Section 1: Comprehensively and strictly administering the party is always on the way Strictly administering the party in an all-round way has been a distinct theme of party building since the 18th CPC National Congress. Comrade Xi Jinping has repeatedly stressed that the Communist Party of China is the core of leadership in our cause, and iron must be hardened by itself. In the new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics, to accomplish the great cause, the party must have a new atmosphere and new achievements, must lead the party in an all-round strict management to a deeper depth with perseverance that will always be on the road, unswervingly uphold and improve the party’s leadership, and unswervingly build the party into a stronger and more powerful party.

1. The strategic choice of comprehensively administering the party strictly

The fact that the party should manage the party and administer the party strictly is a consistent requirement and fundamental guideline for party building. The key to waging the great struggle with many new historical characteristics, advancing the great cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation lies in constantly advancing the new great project of party building. Compared with the development situation at home and abroad, compared with the missions and tasks undertaken, there is still a considerable gap between the party’s leadership level and ruling level, the state of party organization building, and the quality, ability, and work style of party members and cadres. In particular, for a period of time, the problem of lax and soft management of the party in some localities and departments was very prominent, and negative and corrupt phenomena were breeding and spreading. Some people ignore the party’s political discipline and political rules, and for the sake of their so-called career and influence, some engage in cronyism and exclusion of dissidents, some engage in gangs and gangs, some engage in anonymous false accusations and rumors, some engage in buying people’s hearts and minds and pulling votes, some engage in sealing official wishes and celebrating each other’s crowns, some engage in acting on their own and acting in a negative way, and some engage in making big mistakes and making vain criticism of the central authorities. 1 Comrade Xi Jinping clearly pointed out that “only when the party manages the party can it manage the party well, and only by administering the party strictly can it cure the party well.”2

On October 8, 2014, Comrade Xi Jinping put forward for the first time the major proposition of “comprehensively promoting strict party management” at the summary meeting of the party’s mass line education practice activities. In December 2014, during his investigation in Jiangsu, he further pointed out that it is necessary to coordinate and promote the comprehensive construction of a moderately prosperous society, comprehensively deepen reform, comprehensively govern the country according to law, and comprehensively administer the party strictly, so as to promote reform, opening up and socialist modernization to a new level. The Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core put forward the idea of “comprehensively administering the party strictly” and incorporated the comprehensive strict management of the party into the “four comprehensive” strategic layout. A new plan for managing the party and ruling the party in the new era was given.

Comrade Xi Jinping has always attached great importance to how to comprehensively and strictly administer the party and made a series of important expositions. At the Second Plenary Session of the 19th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection,

Comrade Xi Jinping has profoundly grasped the important experience of comprehensively administering the party strictly since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and summarized the adherence to the “six unifications”, that is: adhere to the unity of ideological party building and system party management, adhere to the unity of mission guidance and problem orientation, adhere to the unity of grasping the “key minority” and managing the “overwhelming majority”, adhere to the unity of exercising power and assuming responsibility, adhere to the unity of strict management and concern and trust, and adhere to the unity of supervision within the party and the supervision of the masses. At the Third Plenary Session of the 19th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, Comrade Xi Jinping summed up the scientific law of strictly managing the party and ruling the party with the “five musts” from the practice of reform and opening up over the past 40 years, that is: we must resolutely safeguard the authority of the Party Central Committee and centralized and unified leadership to ensure that the whole party is in step and acts in unison; We must persist in administering the country before administering the party, and we must be strict in administering the party to ensure that the party becomes the mainstay of the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics; we must persist in taking the people as the center and ensure that the party is built for the public and the government is for the people; We must adhere to the style of reform and innovation and arduous struggle to ensure that the party always walks in the forefront of the times; We must resolutely struggle against negative and corrupt phenomena and ensure that the party always maintains its upright and honest political character. These understandings of laws and new experiences are hard-won and precious, and need to be upheld and deepened for a long time to become an important principle of party building in the new era. The core of comprehensively administering the party strictly is to strengthen the party’s leadership. Comrade Xi Jinping pointed out: “In order to unite and lead the people to carry out great struggles, advance great causes, and realize great dreams, the Party must unswervingly adhere to and improve the Party’s leadership and unswervingly build the Party into a stronger and more powerful party.” 1 If the Party’s leadership is weakened, or even abandoned, the Party’s political status will be lost, the nature of socialism with Chinese characteristics will change, and the great achievements made by the Chinese people in their continuous struggle will be destroyed. To strengthen the party’s leadership, it is necessary to strictly manage the party and administer the party. Administering the party strictly in an all-round way is an inevitable requirement for strengthening the party’s leadership and is also an inevitable choice for strengthening the party’s leadership. The foundation for comprehensively administering the party strictly lies in comprehensiveness. Comrade Xi Jinping once pointed out that the so-called comprehensive means to manage the whole party and the whole party, covering all fields, aspects and departments of party building. Obviously, administering the party strictly in an all-round way requires that all aspects of party building be strict, that the content has no dead ends, runs through the entire process, involves all subjects, all aspects, and all departments, and relies on the whole party, manages the whole party, and governs the whole party.

The focus of comprehensively administering the party strictly is to grasp the “key minority.” “If a person does not lead the way, he will not obey, and if he does not be first, he will not believe. Comrade Xi Jinping pointed out that “the key to strictly administering the party is to grasp the ‘key minority’ of leading cadres and strictly manage leading cadres at all levels.”1 The Sixth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee stressed: “To strengthen party building, we must do a good job in leading cadres, especially senior cadres, and the key is to do a good job in the composition of the Central Committee, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee, and the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee.” Only by firmly grasping the “key minority” and paying attention to giving play to their “head geese effect” can we achieve remarkable results in comprehensively administering the party strictly.

The key to running the party strictly in an all-round way lies in strictness. The so-called strictness means that the real management is really strict, the dare to manage the strict, and the long-term management is strict. Comrade Xi Jinping stressed that there is no “Danshu iron ticket” for impunity in the party, and there is no “iron hat king”, and “serious inner-party political life is the basis for comprehensively and strictly administering the party.” To manage the party, the party must first manage its inner-party political life; to administer the party strictly, it must first start from the party’s inner-party political life.” 2 At the same time, it is necessary to grasp ideological strictness and replenish the “calcium” of spirit; grasp discipline strictly, and put discipline in the forefront; grasp the strict management of officials and adhere to the standards for good cadres in the new era; grasp the strict work style and persist in the building of work style always on the road; grasp the anti- corruption strictness and punish corruption with a zero-tolerance attitude; grasp the system of strict management of the party, and regard the building of the party’s internal laws and regulations system with the party constitution as the fundamental observance as a major strategic task that has a bearing on the party’s long-term ruling power.

The key to administering the party strictly in an all-round way lies in administering the party. The so-called governance means that from the party Central Committee to the provincial, municipal, and county party committees, from the central ministries and commissions, the party leading groups (party committees) of state organs and departments, to grass-roots party branches, they must shoulder the main responsibility; party committee secretaries must regard doing a good job in party building as a matter within their scope and must shoulder their duties; discipline inspection commissions at all levels must shoulder the responsibility of supervision, dare to stare at black faces, and dare to enforce discipline and accountability. In the past, we also talked about administering the party strictly, but the biggest reason why it did not work well and achieved little results in many places was that the main body of responsibility for managing the party and the party was not clear, the accountability was ineffective, and the accountability was not strict. To administer the party strictly in an all-round way means to be determined to solve this difficult problem, grasp the “bull’s nose” of the main responsibility of administering the party and the party, so that all the requirements for administering the party and the party will become mandatory requirements, and the habit and consciousness of administering the party strictly will be formed through long-term meritorious service.