Yi Gang and Bao Hongqiong: Promoting the Deep and Substantive Implementation of the Spirit of the Central Eight-Point Regulations Through "Four Modes of Thinking" [1]
General Secretary Xi Jinping has emphasized that proceeding from the optimization of work style to advance comprehensively and strictly governing the Party is an important experience in the Party’s self-revolution during the New Era. Currently, the entire nation is engaged in a vigorous campaign to deeply implement and study the spirit of the Central Eight-Point Regulations. We must adhere to the "four modes of thinking" as our focal points to promote the continuous deepening and substantiation of the spirit of the Eight-Point Regulations, ensuring that the Party’s work style construction reaches a new level.
Adhere to Strategic Thinking to Calibrate Direction and Maintain Political Resolve
Strategic thinking requires us to focus on the big picture, view problems with a long-term perspective, and firmly grasp the essence of work style construction. Comprehensively and strictly governing the Party in the New Era began with the breakthrough of the Eight-Point Regulations; the Party Central Committee took the lead by setting an example [1], correcting the "Four Winds" with the "nail-driving" spirit [2], and opening a brand-new chapter in comprehensively and strictly governing the Party. This reflects both the Communist Party of China's far-sighted strategic considerations in overseeing the overall situation and its ability to "see the big through the small" and "discern significant trends from minute signs" [3]. From the perspective of strategic layout, "once the single pawn of the Eight-Point Regulations is placed, the entire chessboard of work style construction comes alive" [4]. Facts demonstrate that the spirit of the Eight-Point Regulations has not only standardized the codes of conduct for Party members and cadres and reshaped the internal political ecosystem, but has also won the heartfelt support of the masses through a new atmosphere in work style construction.
Beyond doubt, only by planning and advancing work style construction from the overarching strategic situation can we integrate history, reality, and the future, ensuring that work style construction continues to move forward in the correct direction. First, we must strengthen top-level design. Integrate work style construction into the overall layout of Party building, advancing it in coordination with political, ideological, organizational, and disciplinary construction. Treat work style construction as an essential component of Party building, closely aligning it with other aspects of Party building to form a holistic advancement pattern. Second, we must reinforce the implementation of responsibility. Principal leading comrades of Party and government organs must fulfill their duties as the "person with primary responsibility," personally overseeing, taking the lead, and setting benchmarks to exert the "lead goose effect" [5]. Pressure must be transmitted through every level, forming a working pattern where each level oversees the one below and every level ensures implementation. Third, we must focus on the transformation of results. By improving work styles and increasing the efficiency of government services, we should concentrate forces on resolving a batch of practical matters concerning people’s livelihoods, allowing the masses to tangibly feel the new changes and atmosphere brought about by work style construction.
Adhere to Dialectical Thinking to Resolve Difficulties and Focus on Comprehensive Coordination
Dialectical thinking requires us to view problems from a connected and developmental perspective, grasping the laws of objective development within the unity of opposites. In implementing the spirit of the Central Eight-Point Regulations, we must both recognize achievements and face problems squarely; we must treat both the symptoms and the root causes. We must unswervingly adhere to the "strict" keynote, resolutely checking unhealthy tendencies, striking at hedonism and extravagance as soon as they emerge, and applying precise treatment to formalism and bureaucratism. Simultaneously, we must emphasize positive incentives, vigorously promoting new trends of rectitude, and allowing the fresh breeze of seeking truth from facts and integrity to continuously flourish.
Work style construction is a long-term project. On the basis of adhering to strictness and reality, we must focus on grasping patterns and coordinating the relationships between various aspects. First is the relationship between "the routine" (chang) and "the long-term" (zhang). Work style construction must focus on "the routine," achieving normalized supervision and regular education; it must also look toward "the long-term," establishing long-term mechanisms to prevent problems from rebounding or recurring. Only by organically combining the routine and the long-term can we treat both symptoms and root causes, pushing work style construction to deepen continuously and achieve steady, sustainable progress. Second is the relationship between "strictness" and "practicality." Strictness is the requirement; being practical is the key. On one hand, we must use strict standards and measures to reinforce disciplinary constraints and form a powerful deterrent; on the other hand, we must adhere to seeking truth from facts and precise policy implementation to avoid formalism. "Strictness" and "practicality" complement each other, reflecting both firmness in attitude and scientific rigor in method, thereby enhancing the effectiveness of work style construction. Third is the relationship between "depth" and "detail." Work style construction needs to exert force at depth, focusing on key areas and prominent problems; meanwhile, it must work on details, paying attention to specific links and minor issues. "Depth" and "detail" promote each other; by grasping the large while not letting go of the small, we ensure work style construction has no blind spots and achieves full coverage, truly reaching solid results.
Adhere to Systems Thinking to Coordinate the Whole and Form a Holistic Synergy
Systems thinking is an important epistemology and methodology of Marxism, requiring us to grasp the integrity and interconnectedness of things and to advance various tasks in a coordinated manner. To deeply study and implement the spirit of the Central Eight-Point Regulations, we must not only attach high importance to it ideologically but also use systems thinking for coordinated planning and holistic advancement, highlighting systematicity, integrity, and synergy to ensure that study and education yield visible results. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the Eight-Point Regulations have served as the breakthrough point for comprehensively and strictly governing the Party, opening a new phase in work style construction. Using systems thinking to deeply implement the study and education of the spirit of the Eight-Point Regulations is an inevitable requirement for pushing work style construction toward greater depth, and is also an important manifestation of modernizing the governance system and governance capacity, providing solid theoretical support for comprehensively and strictly governing the Party.
It must be recognized that only by standing at the height of the overall situation, coordinating all forces, and integrating various resources can we ensure that study and education achieve substantive results. On the basis of clarifying general requirements and directions, we must further refine work measures to ensure tasks are implemented and seek practical effects. First, we must improve coordination mechanisms. Party organizations at all levels and the broad ranks of Party members and cadres must give full play to their subjective initiative; they must both fulfill their respective roles and responsibilities and engage in coordinated operations to form synergy. Establish cross-departmental and cross-field coordination platforms to realize information sharing and resource integration. Second, we must optimize the assessment and evaluation system. Incorporate the effectiveness of work style construction into the comprehensive assessment system for cadres, scientifically setting evaluation standards and assigning reasonable weights to assessment content. Third, we must strengthen technological support. Technological empowerment is an important means of advancing work style construction in the New Era. We should actively utilize modern information technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence to improve the precision and effectiveness of supervision.
Adhere to Legal Thinking to Strengthen Safeguards and Elevate Governance Levels
Legal thinking is the concrete manifestation of the basic strategy of "law-based governance of the country" within work style construction. It requires us to apply legal concepts and legal means to promote the implementation of the spirit of the Central Eight-Point Regulations. At present, in the deep study and implementation of the spirit of the Eight-Point Regulations, we must use legal thinking to strengthen institutional safeguards, ensuring that work style construction always proceeds steadily on a rule-of-law track to achieve long-term governance. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the Party Central Committee has treated the implementation of the Eight-Point Regulations as an act of "moving the pole to establish trust" [6] in the New Era, which has not only reshaped the internal political ecosystem of the Party but also provided an important institutional framework for work style construction.
Only by integrating legal concepts throughout the entire process of work style construction and improving the system of laws, regulations, and institutions can we provide solid legal support for the implementation of the spirit of the Eight-Point Regulations, ensuring that all measures have rules to follow and a legal basis. Specifically, we need to exert effort across the dimensions of institutional construction, disciplinary supervision, and the implementation of responsibility to ensure that legal thinking runs through the process and takes effect. First, improve the institutional system and strengthen rigid constraints. Constantly refine the laws and regulations supporting the spirit of the Eight-Point Regulations, clarifying norms of conduct and disciplinary requirements, refining operational standards, and plugging institutional loopholes. Second, strictly enforce discipline according to the law to enhance the deterrent effect. We must maintain a "zero tolerance" attitude toward behaviors that violate the spirit of the Eight-Point Regulations, ensuring every case is investigated and every violation is prosecuted. Simultaneously, we must increase the public exposure of typical cases and strictly punish those who violate discipline in the face of warnings, using warning education to reinforce deterrence so that Party members and cadres "remain in awe, maintain apprehension, and hold the bottom line" [7]. Third, strengthen supervision and accountability to promote the implementation of responsibility. Give full play to the specialized supervisory role of discipline inspection and supervision organs, conducting supervision and inspections in accordance with rules, discipline, and the law.
(Authors' Affiliations: Sichuan Research Center for the Theoretical System of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics; School of Marxism, West China Normal University) Source: Chinese Social Sciences Net (cssn.cn) Web Editor: Tong Xin