Zhang Qingli: Consolidating the Strength of Philosophical and Social Sciences Through the Spirit of the Central Eight-Point Regulation
The extensive implementation of study and education for the thorough implementation of the Eight-Point Regulations of the Central Committee across the entire Party is a key lever for consolidating and deepening the achievements of the thematic education and Party discipline study and education initiatives. It is a strategic deployment to advance the comprehensive and strict governance of the Party in depth and to forge elite teams; moreover, it constitutes an important guarantee to consolidate the strength for advancement and to safeguard the steady and long-term progress of Chinese-path modernization. For several days, the social science circles in Shandong Province have taken the study and implementation of the spirit of the Eight-Point Regulations as an important political task, deeply studying and practicing General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important expositions on strengthening the Party's work style construction. They have fortified the foundation of faith through "study," pinpointed the essence of problems through "inspection," and demonstrated the efficacy of responsibility through "rectification." As the study and education continue to deepen and take root, the Shandong social science circles are consolidating the strength for advancement with an excellent work style, injecting vigorous momentum into the development of philosophy and social sciences and the construction of a leading nation in higher education.
Promoting the Deep and Substantive Development of Study and Education
The Shandong social science circles convened specialized meetings at the earliest opportunity, engaging in high-level planning and deployment, and constructing a work pattern of "Party committee coordination, leadership taking the lead, and full participation" to ensure responsibilities are pressed home and directions are clear. The Shandong Provincial Federation of Social Science Associations (Shandong Provincial Federation of Social Sciences) launched a reading class and a collective study session for the Theory Study Center Group of the Party Leadership Group. Jiang Chuanzheng, leader of the Discipline Inspection and Supervision Group dispatched by the Shandong Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Oversight to the Provincial Party Committee’s Propaganda Department, focused on the theme of "Taking the spirit of the Eight-Point Regulations as a guide to promote the normalization and long-term effectiveness of work style construction." He systematically interpreted the connotation and practical requirements of the Eight-Point Regulations and profoundly elucidated the far-reaching considerations of the Party Central Committee’s deployment of this study and education.
On March 19, Shandong University held a meeting of the Leading Group for Party Building Work, which deliberated and passed the Implementation Plan of the CPC Shandong University Committee on Carrying Out Study and Education for the Thorough Implementation of the Eight-Point Regulations. A specialized work team was established to integrate study and education with the implementation of the Outline of the Plan for Building a Leading Nation in Education (2024–2035) and to research and deploy the university-wide study and education work. At the reading class for the university leadership team and the meeting of the Theory Study Center Group of the Party Committee, members of the leadership team took turns leading the study of the Excerpted Expositions of Xi Jinping on Strengthening the Party's Work Style Construction and shared their thoughts based on the study and their respective areas of oversight.
The Shandong Academy of Social Sciences (SASS) [1] held an enlarged meeting of the Party Committee and a meeting of the Leading Group for Party Building Work. The meeting deliberated and passed the Implementation Plan of the CPC Shandong Academy of Social Sciences Committee on the Study and Education for the Thorough Implementation of the Eight-Point Regulations. The meeting pointed out that it is necessary to effectively unify thinking and action with the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important speeches and the decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee, and to resolutely uphold the "Two Establishments" and the "Two Upholds" through practical actions.
Ocean University of China held a reading class for the study and education of the thorough implementation of the Eight-Point Regulations. Members of the university leadership team deeply studied and grasped the Excerpted Expositions of Xi Jinping on Strengthening the Party's Work Style Construction, the Eight-Point Regulations, and their detailed implementation rules through individual self-study, centralized study by the Theory Study Center Group of the Party Committee, and watching warning education films. Zhang Junfeng, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and President of the university, emphasized that the leadership team must practically enhance their political, ideological, and behavioral consciousness in carrying out the study and education from a political and global perspective.
Shandong Normal University deliberated and passed the Work Arrangements for Shandong Normal University to Carry Out Study and Education for the Thorough Implementation of the Eight-Point Regulations. It emphasized highlighting ideological guidance and prioritizing study, profoundly grasping the major significance of the study and education, and ensuring that study led by the leadership team, full-coverage study by Party branches, and individual self-study by members are carried out to ensure the education enters the mind and heart and achieves practical results. Leading cadres must take the lead in being strict, comprehensively digging deep and inspecting problems, and handling problem rectification with the "spirit of driving nails" [2].
Xing Guang, Secretary of the Party Committee of Qufu Normal University, emphasized at the meeting of the Standing Committee of the University Party Committee and the Leading Group for Party Building and Comprehensively and Strictly Governing the Party that Party organizations at all levels must shoulder their political responsibility and treat the study and education as an important political task. It is necessary to strengthen organizational leadership, press home responsibilities, and ensure that principal responsible comrades shoulder the heavy burden of being the "first person responsible," meticulously planning and organizing implementation. One must resolutely resist formalism, discard the mentality of just "going through the motions" or "getting by," and strictly prevent the "two skins" phenomenon [3]. Importance should be placed on publicity and guidance to ensure the study and education are carried out in a powerful and orderly manner, securing tangible results.
Enhancing the Effectiveness of Ideological Education Through Multiple Forms
Through reading classes, specialized Party lectures, and "linked study and joint construction" [4], the Shandong social science circles have pushed Party members and cadres to study deeply and research meticulously, building an ideological defense line for work style construction. This ensures that theoretical study has depth, ideological baptism has vigor, and the tempering of Party spirit has intensity.
Ocean University of China focused on "studying thought, strengthening work style, shouldering the mission, and scaling new heights," integrating "strictness" and "practicality" throughout the study and education. It persisted in an integrated promotion of "study, inspection, and rectification," coordinating study and discussion, problem identification, concentrated remediation, and "open-door education." The university also held a collective lesson preparation meeting for the study and education of the Eight-Point Regulations and established a specialized theoretical propagation team to actively conduct lectures for secondary units, interpreting the spirit of the Eight-Point Regulations from theoretical, historical, and practical dimensions.
Shandong University held a specialized report meeting for the leadership reading class on the Eight-Point Regulations, inviting Feng Jianmei, Director of the Yan'an Spirit Research Center of the Teaching and Research Department of the China Yan'an Executive Academy, to give a report. The report systematically elucidated the lineage of the CPC’s spirit of self-revolution and the formation mechanism of excellent work style construction. Nearly 30,000 teachers and student Party members across the university attended this "major class on work style construction" through a combination of online and offline methods.
The "Starlight" propagation team of teachers and the "Spark" propagation team of graduate students from the School of Marxism at the China University of Petroleum (East China) organized nearly 20 lectures for teachers, students, and the public. Centering on "Profoundly Understanding the Internal Spirit and Practical Requirements of Comprehensively and Strictly Governing the Party in the New Era," "The Eight-Point Regulations and the Party's Trend of Rectifying Style in the New Era," and "Persistently Implementing the Eight-Point Regulations to Promote the Normalization and Long-term Effectiveness of Work Style Construction," they provided a comprehensive interpretation of the historical origin, background of the times, core connotation, and practical requirements of the Eight-Point Regulations.
Shandong University of Finance and Economics actively created a dense atmosphere for study and education, producing a publicity display titled "Establishing Credibility and Radiating New Vitality; Working Cleanly and Creating New Great Undertakings," which attracted widespread attention. The Party Committee of Ludong University constructed a "Four-Fold Integration" study mechanism: combining centralized reading with individual self-study, online guidance with offline discussion, positive guidance with negative warning, and deepening study with promoting development. By holding reading classes and organizing collective viewings of warning education films, they used cases as mirrors to deepen warning education, ensuring Party members and cadres "know awe, maintain caution, and keep the bottom line."
In recent days, various universities and research institutions in Shandong have also organized Party members and cadres to visit the Shandong Provincial Clean Government Education Center. There, they revisited the Party admission oath and recalled their original aspiration, further strengthening their ideals, convictions, and awareness of discipline and rules.
Transforming Study and Education into Momentum for Career Development
The vast number of Party members and cadres in the Shandong social science circles have persisted in a problem-oriented approach, combining study and education with rectification and implementation, empowering high-quality development with new achievements in work style construction.
What should be studied in the "Eight-Point Regulations Study and Education"? What should be inspected? What should be rectified? Every question must be addressed with practical results. Members of the Shandong University Theory Study Center Group agreed that efforts must be made to study thoroughly, seeking inspiration, ideas, methods, and answers from Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. Efforts must be made in deep inspection to ensure the inspection is forceful, using discipline inspection, inspection tours, supervision, and investigation to list problems and find their root causes. Efforts must be made in genuine rectification, combining "immediate rectification" with "long-term establishment."
Yantai University proposed at its Leading Group for Party Building Work meeting that it must persist in ideological guidance, deeply studying the Eight-Point Regulations and their implementation rules; persist in benchmarking to identify problems; and promote governance through rectification, integrating the construction of Party style, teacher ethics, and campus atmosphere. It also emphasized "open-door education," seeking suggestions from teachers and students to solve their "urgent, difficult, and anxious" [5] problems.
The Party members and cadres in the social science circles are both members of the Party organization and researchers or educators. At Shandong Normal University, representatives emphasized integrating the spirit of the Eight-Point Regulations into professional codes for teachers and organic integration with the "spirit of the educator."
At the 2025 meeting on comprehensively and strictly governing the Party at Ocean University of China, Zhang Junfeng emphasized that 2025 is a key year for building a leading nation in education and for the university’s "Double First-Class" construction. He stressed the need to forge an excellent work style to consolidate a good political ecosystem.
Liu Weimin, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group of the Shandong Provincial Federation of Social Science Associations, proposed that an excellent work style is a solid guarantee for the high-quality development of social science work. It is necessary to rectify the style of study and writing, connecting study and education with Xi Jinping’s expositions on philosophy and social sciences. He urged social science experts to root themselves in the "fields of China," focus on "Chinese practice," and "study real problems and truly study problems," promoting the production of high-quality results that answer the "questions of the times." Efforts should also be made to strengthen the systematic and academic research of the Party's innovative theories, pushing the interpretation of Xi Jinping Thought on Party Building to new heights.