Yang Wensheng: The Spirit of the Eight-Point Regulations of the Central Committee Embodies the Standpoint of the People
The Spirit of the Central Eight-Point Regulations Embodies the People's Position
By Yang Wensheng
General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out: "We must stand firmly on the people's position, grasp the people's aspirations, respect the people's creativity, and concentrate the people's wisdom, so as to form a theory that is loved, recognized, and possessed by the people, making it a powerful ideological weapon for guiding the people in understanding and transforming the world." Recently, the entire Party has carried out study and education on the in-depth implementation of the spirit of the Central Eight-Point Regulations. By constraining power, opposing the "Four Winds," and strengthening the mass line, the spirit of the Central Eight-Point Regulations has provided institutional constraints and a guide for action to improve work style and maintain close ties between the Party and the masses. This serves as an important guarantee for ensuring the stability of the Party's governing foundation. Within this, the essence of practicing strict economy, opposing extravagance and waste, maintaining clean governance, and ensuring a pragmatic work style profoundly reflects the Party's people's position.
Grasping the People's Aspirations: Resolutely Resisting Formalism and Bureaucratism
General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that resolutely resisting formalism and bureaucratism must be taken as an important task in strengthening style construction [1]. We must vigorously promote the style of seeking truth and being pragmatic: the promotion of work must be solid and "hard-hitting," the resolution of problems must be swift and effective, and in the face of difficulties, one must dare to take charge and assume responsibility. The normative constraints imposed by the spirit of the Central Eight-Point Regulations on bureaucratism and formalism reflect the Party's theoretical self-awareness in deepening its understanding of the laws of governance; they reflect the Party's fundamental purpose of "serving the people wholehearted," and reflect the Party's profound grasp of the people's aspirations. When public power detaches from the needs of the masses and evolves into a tool for self-service, it produces "seas of meetings and mountains of documents" [2] and hollow rhetoric—formalism detached from reality. It likewise breeds buck-passing [3] and "increasing the pressure at every level" [4]—bureaucratism that betrays the original aspiration.
The spirit of the Central Eight-Point Regulations grasps the people's aspirations across three levels by resolutely resisting formalism and bureaucratism. At the value level, it establishes mass satisfaction as the highest standard, transforming the abstract people's position into concrete evaluation indicators. At the operational level, it constructs a problem-oriented corrective mechanism, maintaining institutional vitality by continuously solving problems that the masses feel strongly about. At the supervisory level, it forms an interactive network of constraints between higher and lower levels, preventing both top-level decisions from being detached from reality and grassroots execution from being distorted. Rooted in the basic principles of historical materialism—wherein the masses create history—the spirit of the Central Eight-Point Regulations builds a new political ecosystem by bringing the opposition to formalism and bureaucratism into institutional channels. It shifts the criteria for evaluating cadres' performance from "being responsible to those above" to "being responsible to those below," returns the logical starting point of policy-making from leadership preferences to the people's aspirations, and sublimates the value orientation of power exercise from management and control to service and empowerment. Thus, it achieves a historical dialectic between governing legitimacy and effectiveness within the unity of theory and practice.
Safeguarding the People's Interests: Opposing Hedonism and Extravagance
General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: "Public funds belong to the public; not a single penny may be spent recklessly. Public power is for the people; not a single shred of it may be used for private gain." The spirit of the Central Eight-Point Regulations establishes the opposition to hedonism and extravagance as a matter of serious political discipline. In essence, this is a profound interpretation of the "people-centric" nature (人民性) of a Marxist party, reflecting the dialectical unity of substantive rationality and instrumental rationality in the Chinese Communist Party's construction of governing ethics. When ideals and beliefs waver and the consciousness of the Party's purpose fades, hedonism—which craves comfort, lacks ambition, and erodes the will to struggle—is produced. This breeds extravagance, waste, and profligacy, which corrode the very foundation of the Party.
The spirit of the Central Eight-Point Regulations safeguards the people's interests across three dimensions by curbing hedonism and extravagance. In the value dimension, it upholds the political character of "plain living and hard struggle," making the purpose of serving the people a concrete daily code of conduct for Party members and cadres. In the institutional dimension, it establishes a mechanism that addresses both symptoms and root causes, continuously compressing the space for privilege through a system that combines daily supervision with special rectification campaigns. In the cultural dimension, it builds a supervisory pattern linking internal and external forces, using intra-Party disciplinary review to prevent individual misconduct while leveraging mass public opinion to curb the growth of unhealthy tendencies, thereby forming a multi-dimensional ecosystem to prevent corruption and degeneration. The spirit of practicing strict economy and opposing extravagance deepens the practice of the mass line: "everything for the masses, everything relying on the masses, from the masses, and to the masses; turning the Party's correct propositions into the conscious action of the masses." From the perspective of political philosophy, it reconfigures the value hierarchy between public power and the people's interests. It achieves a dialectical unity between "breaking down" (破) and "building up" (立): breaking the material basis for the growth of "privilege thinking" through rigid constraints, while establishing the governing concept of "the people's interests above all else" through value reshaping. It transforms the abstract people's position into operable, supervisable, and evaluable governance standards, thereby truly realizing the value promise of "power being used for the people and interests being sought for the people" in political practice.
Concentrating the People's Wisdom: Strengthening Grassroots Research and Ties with the Masses
General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: "To improve the scientific nature of reform decision-making, it is essential to listen extensively to the opinions and suggestions of the masses, promptly summarize the fresh experiences created by the masses, and fully mobilize the initiative, enthusiasm, and creativity of the masses in advancing reform... so as to advance reform together with the people." The spirit of the Central Eight-Point Regulations establishes maintaining close ties with the masses and strengthening grassroots research as a serious political responsibility. This is essentially the continuation of the fine tradition of the Party's mass line, reflecting the dialectical unity between historical experience and the requirements of the times in the CPC's process of modernizing its governance capacity. When the concept of the masses is neglected and the consciousness of being a "public servant" is weakened, the greatest danger—detachment from the masses—arises. When the style of research is superficial and decision-making mechanisms are rigid, the "subjective impulsiveness" of "head-patting decisions" [5] occurs.
The spirit of the Central Eight-Point Regulations concentrates the people's wisdom across three directions by strengthening grassroots research and ties with the masses. In the value direction, it highlights the political position of the people as the subject, transforming the abstract mass line into concrete mechanisms for gathering public opinion. In the methodological direction, it innovates research paradigms through "staying at grassroots units" (蹲点调研), field visits, and "sparrow-dissection" research [6] to grasp the pulse of the people's livelihoods. In the mechanical direction, it improves the procedure of "consulting the people," establishing both regular feedback channels to ensure policy precision and a whole-process people's democracy participation system to increase governance transparency. The fine style of improving investigation and research is deeply rooted in the dialectical materialist epistemology that "practice is the source of knowledge." It achieves the dialectical unity of "knowing and doing," consolidating the foundation of planning and the path to success through the "heirloom" of investigation and research, while gaining continuous practical strength and theoretical wisdom by humbly learning from the people. It transforms abstract practical viewpoints into a quantifiable, traceable, and verifiable governance process, thereby effectively implementing the method of "asking the people about their needs and their wisdom" in the governance of the country.
Standing Firmly on the People's Position: Advocating Clean Governance and Pragmatic Style
General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that "it takes a good blacksmith to forge good steel" [7]. The spirit of the Central Eight-Point Regulations distills the advocacy of clean governance and a pragmatic work style into a distinct political hallmark. This is essentially a theoretical deepening of the Party's spirit of self-revolution, demonstrating the dialectical unity between the political character and the governing foundation of the CPC in the new journey of comprehensively and strictly governing the Party. When the view of power is distorted and the view of political achievements is skewed, corrupt behaviors such as rent-seeking and the delivery of interests—which erode public credibility—will occur. When the ideological style is superficial and the sense of responsibility is weak, "bookishness" (本本主义) [8] emerges, characterized by reading from scripts, prioritizing paperwork over results, and betraying the spirit of seeking truth from facts.
The spirit of the Central Eight-Point Regulations stands firmly on the people's position across three dimensions by advocating clean governance and pragmatism. In the ideological dimension, it strengthens the political self-awareness of resisting corruption and degeneration, transforming abstract anti-corruption into a concrete list for power supervision. In the practical dimension, it builds a prevention and control system to "nip problems in the bud," putting power in the "cage of institutions" through methods such as clean-governance talks, risk screening, and special rectifications. In the institutional dimension, it perfects long-term mechanisms that address both symptoms and root causes: establishing the disciplinary deterrence of "not daring to be corrupt," perfecting the restrictive system of "not being able to be corrupt," and persisting in the self-constraint mechanism of "not wanting to be corrupt." The spirit of advocating clean governance and a pragmatic style embodies the organic unity of self-discipline and external discipline. It builds an ideological defense against corruption through the "hard constraints" of strict discipline and rules, and draws moral strength and political wisdom from a pragmatic path of honest and diligent service for the people. This transforms abstract integrity concepts into institutional arrangements with standards, supervision, and accountability, thereby effectively implementing the practical principle of "promoting governance through integrity and promoting efficiency through pragmatism" in the process of comprehensively and strictly governing the Party.
The Chinese Communist Party, using the spirit of the Central Eight-Point Regulations as an entry point, has initiated a historic practice of style construction in the New Era. This institutional innovation is not only a continuation of the fine tradition of the Party's mass line but also a contemporary answer to how the Party can maintain its "flesh-and-blood ties" (血肉联系) with the masses under the conditions of long-term governance. The historical significance of the spirit of the Central Eight-Point Regulations lies in successfully cracking the governance puzzle of how to prevent detachment from the masses during long-term rule: by grasping the people's aspirations, it concretizes the abstract purpose of serving the people into rigid indicators for cadre selection and policy evaluation, ensuring that the "people's position" is no longer an empty slogan but an operable tool of governance; by safeguarding the people's interests, it has formed a high-pressure stance against chronic ailments like the "Four Winds," building an institutional chain for discovering, preventing, and solving problems; by concentrating the people's wisdom and smoothing the expression of public opinion, it provides a "source of living water" for policy-making; by standing on the people's position and advocating for clean governance, it directly addresses the "pain points" of the masses, allowing the people to truly feel fairness and justice in the transformation of work styles; and by integrating the Party's self-revolution with the supervision of people's democracy, it uses both intra-Party discipline to constrain the exercise of power and mass supervision to force the improvement of style, constructing a collaborative internal and external supervision network. From the "key minority" [9] of leading cadres to the "nerve endings" of grassroots cadres, from decision-making to execution, the multi-dimensional Party-building network woven by the spirit of the Central Eight-Point Regulations ensures that public power always operates on the track of serving the people. This not only consolidates the Party's governing foundation but also enriches and develops the theory of Marxist governing party construction in practice, contributing Chinese wisdom and Chinese solutions to the governance of political parties globally.
(The author is a professor at the School of Marxism, Tianjin University, and a researcher at the Tianjin University Base of the Tianjin Research Center for the Theoretical System of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics)
Source: Chinese Social Sciences Net - Chinese Social Sciences Today, July 30, 2025
Online Editor: Tongxin