Socialism with Chinese Characteristics Enters a New Era

Section 3: Courageous to self-revolution

The courage to self-revolution is the most distinctive character of the Communist Party of China and the greatest advantage of the Party.

Comrade Xi Jinping pointed out: “The greatness of the Communist Party of China does not lie in not making mistakes, but in never hiding from medical treatment, daring to face problems head-on, daring to self-revolution, and having a strong ability to repair itself.“1 The Party can lead the people in a great social revolution and can also carry out a great self-revolution.

1. The courage to self-revolution is the most distinctive character of the Party

Upholding self-revolution is an inevitable requirement of the nature of a Marxist political party. In order to maintain its advanced nature and purity and realize its lofty mission, a Marxist political party must unswervingly solve its own problems and build and temper itself with the spirit of courageous self-revolution. The fundamental mission and lofty ideal of a Marxist political party is to realize communism. Realizing such lofty missions and ideals is the most majestic and magnificent undertaking in the history of human society, as well as the most arduous and complex task. This means the continuous transformation of the objective world and the subjective world, the continuous change of productive forces and production relations, the economic base and superstructure, and the continuous opening up of a new history and new era of human society, and its internal logical premise is to carry out the most resolute and thorough revolution. This is why Lenin, in his evaluation of Marxism, emphasized the profound truth that it is “critical and revolutionary in nature.” In the revolution carried out by the Marxist party, the self-revolution bears the brunt of the revolution, and it is necessary to fight against all problems that weaken the advanced nature and undermine the purity, so as to cure the disease and heal the wounds, and promote the turbidity. Marx also said that the proletarian revolution differs from other revolutions in that it criticizes itself and grows by criticizing itself.

Self-revolution has always run through the struggle of the Communist Party of China in the past 100 years. A history of the Party is a history of the Party’s courage to revolutionize itself. In the early days of the founding of the party, the resolute struggle against the “left” adventurous mistakes existing in the party before the Long March, against the errors of “left” dogmatism during the Long March, and against Zhang Guochuan’s separatist behavior was a self-revolution; the resolute struggle against subjectivism, sectarianism, and the eight strands of the party existing in the party through rectification during the Yan’an period was a self-revolution; the struggle against corruption, anti-waste, and waste carried out after the founding of New China was a self-revolution; Anti- bureaucracy and the like are also self-revolution.

It is precisely in the continuous self-revolution that the Party has turned crises into security and turned crises into opportunities, constantly growing from small to large and from weak to strong, leading the Chinese people from victory to victory. Reform is another self-revolution of the Party. This revolution has profoundly changed Chinese society, the Chinese nation, and the Communist Party of China itself. From taking class struggle as the keynote to taking economic construction as the center, from being closed and semi-closed to opening up to the outside world in an all-round way, and from a planned economy to a socialist market economy, the reform and opening up over the past 40 years and more have fully embodied the party’s self-revolution in the process of socialist construction of some ideologies, behavioral habits, and institutional mechanisms that do not meet the requirements of modernization. It was precisely such a profound self-revolution that the Party began the great journey of leading the Chinese people to build socialism with Chinese characteristics. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core has started by strictly managing the Party and ruling the Party, and has opened a knife to the stubborn and stubborn diseases in the Party with the political courage of the blade inward, which has more clearly embodied the Party’s firm determination, strong will and consistent revolutionary spirit to dare to self-revolution. It is precisely by relying on the courage of self-revolution and the spirit of strong men breaking their wrists that the party has constantly cracked the curse of “historical cycle rate” and achieved another “phoenix nirvana”, has achieved a strong improvement in its own combat effectiveness, realized the strong cohesion of the party’s heart, the army’s heart, and the people’s heart, constantly created a new situation in managing the party and the party, and successfully opened up a new realm of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

The courage of self-revolution is an important way for the CPC to adhere to the problem-oriented approach to promote the development of the cause, demonstrating its fearless revolutionary courage. Comrade Xi Jinping pointed out that under the circumstances of profound changes in the conditions of the world, the country, and the party, “whether there is a strong spirit of self-revolution, whether there is a strong characteristic of self-purification, and whether it can persistently fight against its own problems and mistakes has become a key factor determining the success or failure of the party.”1 In order to rejuvenate and strengthen the party, we must build and temper ourselves with the spirit of courageous self-revolution. On the one hand, the decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way, the comprehensive construction of a modern socialist country, and the realization of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation have put forward unprecedented new challenges and new requirements for the party. On the other hand, the “four major tests” and “four dangers” have existed for a long time, and the party can only face the problems head-on and eliminate all viruses that erode the healthy body of the party. Only by ensuring that the Party has vigorous vitality and strong combat effectiveness can we provide a strong guarantee for the development of the cause of the Party and the country.

2. the essence of courageous self-revolution

Revolution, in its original sense, is to reform the old and innovate, to keep the right and to bring out the new, and its value direction is to improve, to the new, and to the good. Self-revolution means that this revolution is the subject’s conscious, spontaneous, and automatic behavior towards itself. The self-revolution of the Communist Party of China is, in a nutshell, not forgetting its original mission, keeping in mind its purpose of serving the people, insisting on proceeding from reality in everything, and achieving self-purification, self-improvement, self-innovation and self- improvement through self-vigilance, self-denial, self-reflection and self-transcendence. The noble pursuit of upholding truth and correcting mistakes. History always follows a tortuous path, smooth sailing is ideal, and zigzagging forward is the norm. The development of world history shows that the greatness of a political party does not depend on riding lightly and striding forward in good times, but on whether it can go against the trend in adversity, whether it can be reborn in desperate situations, whether it can correct chaos after mistakes, and whether it can resolutely rise up after setbacks. In the past hundred years, the Communist Party of China has had the glory of triumphant performance, but also the trough of mistakes and setbacks, and even stood on the precipice of life and death for a time. However, at critical junctures in history, the Party has always been able to turn the tide and turn dangers into dangers because it dares to uphold the truth, correct mistakes, and always maintain the courage to revolutionize itself and start all over again; it always has a strong ability to correct mistakes and repair itself. Comrade Mao Zedong pointed out in his article “Serving the People”: “Because we serve the people, if we have shortcomings, we are not afraid of criticism and pointing them out.”1 “As long as we uphold the good for the interests of the people and correct the wrong for the interests of the people, our team will surely prosper.2 The Communist Party of China is open-minded and open-minded, and has always adopted a materialist attitude towards the mistakes made by the Party in its understanding and practice. As Comrade Xi Jinping pointed out: “Our party has always maintained the spirit of self-revolution, maintained the courage to admit and correct mistakes, picked up a scalpel again and again to eliminate its own diseases, and solved its own problems again and again by itself.“3

Inward, selfless and fearless political courage. Self-revolution means “revolutionizing” one’s own life and “using a knife” on one’s own existing problems; it means introspecting oneself, denying oneself, abandoning oneself, and surpassing oneself. However, the blade inward and self-revolution is not a metaphysical view of negation, but a dialectical view of negation: that is, the purpose of self-revolution is not to overthrow oneself and completely deny oneself, not to change course and change the banner, but to ensure that the Party always becomes a strong leadership core for the great cause and that the socialist system with Chinese characteristics is more mature and more stereotyped. A mature and powerful Marxist political party has both the determination to uphold itself and the courage to renew itself; the self-confidence to be beautiful and the consciousness to expose the shortcomings and ugliness; and the courage to “change other people’s lives” and the courage to “change one’s own life.” The party’s self-revolution is arduous work; it breaks the barriers of interests, and it is more difficult to touch interests than to touch the soul; it is the malpractice of the system that is eliminated and the cancer of corruption removed, so it is a very difficult revolution. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the party has fought many “tigers,” slapped “flies,” and opposed the “four winds” for a long time, which has exceeded the expectations of the Chinese people and surprised outsiders. Such a self-revolution could not have been achieved without the courage to break the cauldron and sacrifice others, and without the courage to scrape bones to cure poison and break the wrists of strong men.

The historical responsibility of all-round and whole-process change. All political parties that carry out revolution have more or less taken some self-revolutionary actions, but the breadth and intensity of self-revolution determine the realm that different political parties can achieve. The self-revolution of the Communist Party of China is an all-round revolution and a revolution of the whole process, and it has the characteristics of active planning, conscious initiation, and independent control, including both revolution to itself and the cause it promotes, and is the unity of advancing the party’s cause and strengthening self-construction. It is precisely on the basis of a sober understanding of “whether China’s problems are going to occur or within the Communist Party” that the Party’s revolution for itself is not only a kind of soberness, a consciousness, and a kind of responsibility, but also a practical action of managing the party and administering the party, and it is the unity of knowledge and action. Such a revolution emphasizes self-supervision and self-repair, but does not exclude external supervision such as mass supervision, social supervision, and public opinion supervision; it is the result of the joint efforts of all quarters and the unity of self-discipline and other disciplines. Such a revolution, covering all aspects and fields of party building, is to make ideology and theory full of creativity, to make the organizational system more mobilizing, to make the style and image more affinity, to make the institutional system more mature and formalized, and to make the fight against corruption and clean government more symptomatic and cure. There is no end to such revolutions; as far as specific stages and goals are concerned, the revolution has already succeeded; in terms of a larger scope and a longer historical period, the revolution has not yet succeeded, and comrades still need to make efforts. China Aerospace Studies Institute 401 Translation published Fall 2023Basic Issues of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era Of course, self-revolution has different historical tasks in different historical stages, embodies different phased characteristics, and is the unity of stages and processes.” Reform the old and innovate, keep the right and produce new practical actions. Social life is practical and changing in nature, dialectics is critical and revolutionary in nature, and self-revolution embodies the practical character and critical spirit of Marxism. The party’s self-revolution is a will, a spirit, a pursuit, and a courage, but in the final analysis it is an action, a practical action that breaks through stereotypes and opens up and innovates. The Party has always had the courage to open up a new situation in its undertakings with practical actions of self-renewal. During the revolutionary years, the Party led the Chinese people to create a “revolutionary world miracle,” and the fundamental reason was that we did not follow the old path of the Western democratic revolution and did not copy the path of the “October Revolution” in Russia, but embarked on a new democratic revolutionary road of encircling the cities in the countryside and seizing political power by force; during the construction era, the CPC led the Chinese people to create a “world miracle of development.” The fundamental thing lies in the fact that we have not simply continued the master version of China’s history and culture, simply applied the template envisaged by the classic writers of Marxism, did not copy the model of socialist practice in other countries, did not copy the experience of foreign modernization development, but embarked on a path of socialism with Chinese characteristics. The successful opening up of the road of the new democratic revolution and the road of socialism with Chinese characteristics is a true portrayal of the party’s spirit of self- revolution and a great achievement of the practice of self-revolution.