Tian Peiyan: An Action Guide for Deepening the Party's Self-Revolution — Studying Xi Jinping's Important Thought on the Party's Self-Revolution

Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, General Secretary Xi Jinping—proceeding from the strategic heights of maintaining the advanced nature and purity of a Marxist party, consolidating the Party's long-term governing status, successfully realizing the Party's historical mission, and ensuring the enduring prosperity of the cause of the Party and the people—has confronted prominent contradictions and problems within the Party with a deep sense of concern, a strong sense of historical responsibility, tenacious will, and the courage to "turn the blade inward." He has deeply advanced the comprehensive and strict governance of the Party and creatively proposed a series of original and landmark new concepts, ideas, and strategies. These have formed General Secretary Xi Jinping's important thought on the Party's self-revolution, which scientifically answers major questions such as why our Party must practice self-revolution, why it is able to do so, and how to advance it. This thought has guided our century-old Party to open up a new realm of self-revolution, providing a fundamental compliance and an action guide for deeply advancing the Party's self-revolution on the new journey in the New Era.

Scientifically Answering the Major Question of Why Self-Revolution Is Necessary

Marxist parties were born in the revolutionary movements to break the old world and build a new society; revolutionism is their essential attribute, and self-revolution is an inherent requirement for maintaining their revolutionary character.

Self-revolution is an inevitable requirement for a Marxist party to realize its historical mission. The ideals pursued by a Marxist party are lofty and sacred, dedicated to the ultimate realization of communism and the thorough liberation of all humanity. By formulating and implementing goals for different historical stages to continuously open up the future, it requires generations of Communists to firm up their ideals, remain loyal to them, and persevere in their pursuit with unswerving dedication and arduous struggle. Because a Marxist party engages in a pioneering cause without precedent, the mission it shoulders is arduous and heavy. On the road ahead, it will inevitably encounter encirclement and suppression by various old forces, as well as various difficulties, obstacles, and risk challenges. This requires Communists to always maintain a vigorous revolutionary fighting spirit, enhance their revolutionary courage to face difficulties head-on, and master the ironclad skills to overcome obstacles and forge ahead through the waves. All of these factors constantly place new demands on the mental state, capabilities, and conduct of a Marxist party. Only by examining oneself against the requirements of the times, alerting oneself with a strong sense of concern, forging oneself through the spirit of self-revolution, and improving and perfecting oneself in all aspects according to the standards of the vanguard of the working class, can a party continuously enhance its political leadership, ideological guidance, mass organization, and social appeal.

On the new journey in the New Era, the central task the Party has undertaken—to unite and lead the people of all ethnic groups in comprehensively advancing the great cause of building a strong country and national rejuvenation through Chinese-path modernization—places new and higher requirements on our Party's governing ability and level of leadership. We must demonstrate a new atmosphere, undertake new actions, and achieve new results in areas such as scientifically planning for the future, promoting high-quality development, maintaining social fairness and justice, stimulating the creative vitality of the whole society, preventing and defusing major risks and challenges, and promoting the building of a community with a shared future for humanity. We must deeply advance the Party’s self-revolution, accelerate the patching of gaps in capabilities and weaknesses in quality, and truly become politically sound and highly capable, ensuring the Party remains true to its original aspiration and founding mission and remains the strong leadership core of the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

Self-revolution is an inevitable requirement for a Marxist party to maintain its advanced nature and purity. The advanced nature and purity of a Marxist party do not emerge naturally, nor are they acquired automatically. As the size, structure, and composition of the Party membership evolve, problems of impurity in thought, politics, organization, and conduct will continually arise. Party members do not live in a vacuum; they are constantly influenced by the external environment, and the Party's "organism" will inevitably be stained by various types of "political dust" and "political microbes." Maintaining the advanced nature and purity of a Marxist party is a process that requires constant and rigorous self-examination, unceasing removal of impurities, and continuous improvement of quality. We must use the spirit of self-revolution to promptly eliminate various factors that affect the Party's advanced nature or weaken its purity to ensure the party's enduring vitality. In this regard, the classical Marxist writers offered many incisive expositions. Marx and Engels noted that "the class overthrowing [the ruling class] can only in a revolution succeed in ridding itself of all the muck of ages." Engels pointed out that "the working-class party of a large country can only develop through internal struggle, which is in accordance with the general laws of dialectical development." Lenin emphasized, "A political party that does not dare to speak the truth about its disease, does not dare to make a rigorous diagnosis and find a cure for it, does not deserve respect."

Since the 18th National Congress, the comprehensive and strict governance of the Party has achieved remarkable results; we have solved many prominent problems within the Party. However, problems already solved may rebound, some deep-seated issues have not been fundamentally resolved, new problems continue to emerge, and the "Four Tests" and "Four Dangers" ^[1] facing the Party will exist for a long time. Regarding the anti-corruption struggle, the soil and conditions that produce corruption have not been completely eradicated, the "stock" of existing corruption has not been fully cleared, and "incremental" new corruption is still occurring. The situation remains grave and complex, and the anti-corruption struggle still has a long way to go. We must persevere with the tenacity of being "always on the road" and use the spirit of thorough self-revolution to face and resolve the prominent contradictions and problems within the Party, ensuring that our Party never changes its nature, its color, or its "flavor" ^[2].

Self-revolution is an inevitable requirement for a Marxist party to consolidate its long-term governing status. Historical materialism holds that under the conditions of modern party politics, those who exercise public power are both representatives of the public interest and maintainers of their own interests. To effectively prevent the public interest from being harmed by private interests and to ensure that the exercise of power always conforms to the public interest, there must be strict supervision and effective constraints. Under governing conditions, a Marxist party wields state power on behalf of the people and shoulders the sacred responsibility of holding and using power well for the people. To ensure that the Party's governing backbone always uses the power bestowed by the people to seek benefits for the people, strict supervision and effective constraints are likewise required.

As a Marxist party in power over the long term, our Party has a glorious history and great achievements. Under the halo of governing success, some individuals are prone to overlooking their own shortcomings and ignoring their own problems, falling into the predicament where "it is easy to revolutionize others, but hard to revolutionize oneself." Our Party commands rich governing resources; those who wield power are susceptible to abusing it or being "hunted" ^[3] and corrupted in the absence of supervision or effective constraints. Furthermore, it must be recognized that in the contradictory movement between external supervision and self-supervision, self-supervision is always the principal aspect of the contradiction; external causes can only function through internal causes. Practice has shown that for a Party as large as ours, no external force can topple us—only we ourselves can do that. We must always keep in mind what General Secretary Xi Jinping has repeatedly emphasized: "It is not easy to maintain a sense of danger in times of peace and preserve the diligent spirit of the early days of entrepreneurship when one has achieved success; it is not easy to remain frugal and cautious from beginning to end after taking power; it is not easy to strictly govern officials and guard against corruption and extravagance in times of tranquility; and it is not easy to follow the trend and adapt to the people's will at moments of major change." We must face and solve problems with the attitude of seeking truth from facts, forge and temper ourselves with the courage of self-revolution, and always keep our future and destiny firmly in our own hands.

Scientifically Answering the Major Question of Why Self-Revolution Is Possible

The confidence of the Communist Party of China to have the courage for self-revolution stems from the advanced nature of a Marxist party, its deep historical accumulation, and its solid realistic foundation.

The advanced nature of a Marxist party determines that our Party possesses the distinct character and unique advantages of self-revolution. The nature and purpose of a Marxist party dictate that it always represents the fundamental interests of the broadest masses of the people, has no special interests of its own, and never represents the interests of any interest group, power group, or privileged stratum. By not seeking personal gain, one can seek the fundamental and the great; one can persist in the truth and correct errors, dare to examine oneself and frequently reflect on one's faults, avoid "hiding the sickness for fear of treatment" ^[4] or "glossing over wrongs," and discover and resolve its own problems in a timely manner. Being free of such interests, the Party can escape the "hunting" and corruption of interest groups, power groups, and privileged strata, and can "perform surgery" on those within the Party who have been co-opted by these groups. In this regard, the classical Marxist writers also provided many brilliant expositions. Marx noted that the working class and its party "criticize themselves constantly, interrupt themselves continually in their own course, return to the apparently accomplished in order to begin it afresh, deride with unmerciful thoroughness the inadequacies, weaknesses and paltrinesses of their first attempts." Lenin said, "All the revolutionary parties that have perished so far perished because they became conceited, because they failed to see the source of their strength and feared to speak of their weaknesses. We, however, shall not perish, because we are not afraid to speak of our weaknesses and will learn to overcome them." Lenin also said, "The attitude of a political party towards its own mistakes is one of the most important and surest ways of judging how serious the party is and how it in practice fulfils its obligations towards its class and the working people. Frankly admitting a mistake, ascertaining the reasons for it, exposing the conditions which led to it, and thoroughly discussing the means of correcting it—that is the earmark of a serious party."

These essential advanced qualities of a Marxist party stand in sharp contrast to the limitations of other classes and their parties. The limitations of the peasantry are prominently manifested in a lack of grand ideals, political foresight, organization, and discipline, as well as an inability to withstand the test of victory, ultimately failing to escape the "cycles of history" ^[5]. The limitations of bourgeois parties are mainly manifested in ceaseless partisan strife, severe political polarization, and the fact that the group interests represented by the parties take precedence over the public interest, inevitably causing them to fall into a quagmire from which they cannot extricate themselves.

In the course of long-term revolutionary tempering, the Party has accumulated rich historical experience and historical wisdom regarding the courage for self-revolution. The fundamental reason our Party was able to emerge victorious in the repeated contests between various political forces in modern China is that it always maintained the spirit of self-revolution and the courage to admit and correct mistakes, solving its own problems time and again by its own efforts.

During the years of revolutionary war, our Party successively corrected Chen Duxiu’s "Rightist opportunist" errors, "Leftist" blind-actionism and adventurism, and Wang Ming’s "Leftist" dogmatism, allowing the revolution to rise from failure and move continuously toward victory. The Gutian Conference ^[6] creatively proposed the principle of prioritizing ideological Party building, emphasizing self-revolution at the ideological level and striving to transform non-proletarian ideas within the Red Army, which was composed mainly of peasants. According to statistics, among the archives from before 1949 held in the Chinese People's Liberation Army Archives, starting with the 1932 "Review of the Ganzhou Campaign" by the Third Division of the Third Red Army Corps, there are more than 2,200 documents with the word "review" (jiantao) in the title alone. During the Yan'an period, our Party created the form of "rectification" (zhengfeng) through criticism and self-criticism for ideological education. Both central leaders and ordinary members consciously engaged in self-reflection and took the initiative to "clean the political dust" from themselves, conducting a thorough baptism of their thoughts and souls.

On the eve of the founding of the People's Republic of China, at the Second Plenary Session of the Seventh CPC Central Committee, Mao Zedong explicitly proposed the "Two Musts" ^[7] in response to the sentiments of arrogance, acting like a "hero of the revolution," stagnating rather than seeking progress, and craving pleasure over a hard life that appeared within the Party due to the revolutionary victory. He cautioned the whole Party to be vigilant against the attacks of the "sugar-coated bullets" of the bourgeoisie. In the early years of the PRC, to consolidate the new people’s political power, our Party launched the "Three-Anti" and "Five-Anti" campaigns ^[8], conducted Party rectification, and strictly handled the cases of [corrupt officials] Liu Qingshan and Zhang Zishan, effectively solving new problems that emerged within the Party under governing conditions.

Since the beginning of reform and opening up, our Party has seriously summarized both positive and negative experiences since the founding of the PRC, completely repudiated the "Cultural Revolution," and realized the strategic shift of the focus of the Party and state's work. Centering on the two major historical tasks of improving the Party's leadership and governing level and enhancing the ability to resist corruption and risks, the Party focused on resolving prominent internal problems.

Since the 18th National Congress, our Party has strictly governed itself with unprecedented determination and intensity, "using potent medicine to treat a serious illness," "applying strict laws to end chaos," "scraping the bone to remove the poison," and "clearing away corruption to let new flesh grow." It has deployed a "combined punch" ^[9] of self-revolution, fundamentally overturning the situation wherein Party governance was "loose, soft, and weak." A clean and upright political ecosystem has been continuously formed and developed, making the Party even stronger and more powerful through revolutionary tempering. It can be said that the courage for self-revolution has already become a gene passed down through the Party’s century of history and integrated into its very blood.

The great achievements of the New Era of socialism with Chinese characteristics have endowed our Party with a formidable capacity for self-revolution. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has united and led the people in comprehensively implementing the Party's basic theory, line, and policy. By adopting a series of strategic measures, advancing a series of transformative practices, achieving a series of breakthrough advances, and securing a series of landmark results, the cause of the Party and the state has achieved historic accomplishments and undergone historic shifts. This has laid a solid foundation and provided favorable conditions for the further advancement of the Party’s self-revolution. Our Party has achieved the major political result of the "Two Establishments," providing the most reliable political guarantee for the Party’s self-revolution. The system of socialism with Chinese characteristics has become more mature and finalized, and the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity has significantly improved, providing stronger institutional support for the Party’s self-revolution. The enthusiasm for oversight by the people has been further stimulated, and the consciousness of internal self-oversight within the Party has been further enhanced, providing stronger momentum and potential for the Party’s self-revolution. Our Party’s understanding of the laws governing self-revolution has deepened; the mechanisms for upholding truth, correcting errors, discovering problems, and rectifying deviations have become more complete; and the ideas and measures for governing and managing the Party have become more scientific, providing a more effective practical path for the Party’s self-revolution.

Scientifically Answering the Major Question of How to Advance Self-Revolution

The practical requirements of the "Nine Havings" ^[10] proposed by General Secretary Xi Jinping not only possess rich ideological connotations but also carry strong practical relevance and long-term guiding significance. We must study, comprehend, and implement them thoroughly.

Taking the persistence of the Party Central Committee’s centralized and unified leadership as the fundamental guarantee. The most essential feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics is the leadership of the Communist Party of China; the greatest advantage of the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics is the leadership of the Communist Party of China. The CPC is the highest force for political leadership, and persisting in the Party Central Committee’s centralized and unified leadership is the supreme political principle. Advancing the Party’s self-revolution is conscious rather than spontaneous, holistic rather than local, and thorough rather than a compromise or half-measure. It requires clear goals, meticulous deployment, authoritative and efficient organization, and coordinated action. It necessitates the continuous application of force across all dimensions and levels, penetrating to the very end. This is a major political task that no single department, locality, or system can undertake alone; it must, and can only, be planned, deployed, and advanced in a unified manner under the centralized and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee to ensure it always moves in the correct direction.

Taking the leadership of the great social revolution as the fundamental purpose. The Party’s self-revolution is a means, not an end; its fundamental purpose is to better lead the great social revolution. We must plan the Party’s self-revolution based on the new requirements of the practice of the great social revolution, clarifying objectives, tasks, strategic deployments, and points of focus. We must test the actual efficacy of the Party’s self-revolution through the new outcomes of the development of the great social revolution, striving to lead the great social revolution through the great self-revolution and promote the great self-revolution through the great social revolution. At present, this means planning and advancing the Party’s self-revolution by closely centering on the comprehensive advancement of the great cause of building a strong country and national rejuvenation through a Chinese path to modernization. This involves: strengthening political leadership to ensure the Party’s line, principles, and policies align with new trends in era-defining development, new requirements of practical development, and new expectations of the masses; strengthening ideological leadership to consolidate the ideological foundation of the Party’s unity; strengthening organizational leadership to mobilize the majestic force of the entire Party and the people of all ethnic groups in the country to work together for the great cause; and strengthening the leadership of conduct (wàizuò) to create a favorable environment for entrepreneurship and innovation, ensuring that the Party’s self-revolution better serves the Party’s central tasks.

Taking Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as the fundamental followed principle. The degree of consciousness, the level of capability, and the actual efficacy of the Party’s self-revolution ultimately depend on the breadth and depth of theoretical armament. To advance the Party’s self-revolution, we must unswervingly arm the entire Party with the Party’s innovative theories, educating and guiding the broad ranks of Party members and cadres to work hard on deepening and transforming this understanding. We must master and apply the worldview and methodology of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, as well as the positions, viewpoints, and methods running through it, to deeply comprehend the scientific connotation and essential essence of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important thought on the Party’s self-revolution. We must master and apply General Secretary Xi Jinping’s strategic principles, deployments, and measures regarding comprehensively and strictly governing the Party, continuously enhancing the ability to advance the Party’s self-revolution. We must consciously draw ideological nourishment from the Party’s innovative theories—such as firming up ideals and convictions, strengthening the tempering of Party spirit, and elevating spiritual and moral character—to continuously increase the steadfastness of the Party’s self-revolution.

Taking the escape from the historical cycle of rise and fall as the strategic goal. To prevent "trouble arising from within the house" (huò qǐ xiāo qiáng) ^[11] and "destroying our own Great Wall" (zì huǐ cháng chéng) ^[12], ensuring the Party always stands at the forefront of the times, remains invincible, and stays the most reliable and strongest "backbone" (zhǔ xīn gǔ) for the Chinese people, and successfully escapes the historical cycle of "rising with a sudden burst of energy but perishing just as quickly" (qí xīng yě bó yān, qí wáng yě hū yān) ^[13]—these are the far-reaching strategic considerations behind General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important thought on the Party’s self-revolution. The great practice of comprehensively and strictly governing the Party since the 18th National Congress has proven that advancing the Party’s self-revolution is the important "magic weapon" (fǎ bǎo) for escaping the historical cycle of rise and fall, order and chaos. In advancing the Party’s self-revolution, we must focus on this strategic goal with a high degree of political vigilance, "repairing the house before it rains" (wèi yǔ chóu móu) ^[14] and "preventing trouble before it happens" (fáng huàn wèi rán). We must promptly clear the "viruses" eroding the Party’s healthy organism and eliminate all hidden dangers damaging the Party’s foundation of governance, always maintaining the health of the Party’s organism and continuously consolidating its long-term governing status.

Taking the resolution of the unique challenges facing a large party as the primary direction of attack. We must at all times maintain a clear-headed and determined approach to solving the unique challenges facing a large party. This is a major new proposition for comprehensively and strictly governing the Party on the new journey of the New Era, derived from the Party’s historical position, its mission and tasks, and the complex environment it faces, as well as a deep grasp of the Party's fundamental nature and the changes in the Party's conditions. The unique challenges of a large party we speak of are primarily manifested in the "Six How-Tos" ^[15]. Solving these challenges is by no means the work of a single day. Advancing the Party’s self-revolution must adhere to a problem-oriented approach, maintain strategic resolve, move toward problems, and rectify them head-on. We must treat both symptoms and root causes, employ comprehensive measures, align efforts in the same direction, and persist over the long term. We must solve problems one by one and overcome difficulties one by one, accumulating small victories into grand triumphs, and manifesting the advantages of a large party through the continuous resolution of its unique challenges.

Taking the improvement of the system for comprehensively and strictly governing the Party as the effective path. The Party’s self-revolution is a systematic project; it cannot be fought in isolation, nor can we "attack one point while ignoring the rest" (gōng qí yī diǎn, bù jí qí yú). It requires holistic planning and systematic advancement. We must closely follow the general requirements for Party building in the New Era, ensuring that the content is all-encompassing, the targets are fully covered, the responsibility chain is complete, and the system is fully integrated. We must persist in institutional Party governance and governing the Party according to regulations ^[16]. We should place greater emphasis on the organic connection, linkage integration, and synergy of all aspects of Party building. We should highlight the improvement of systems and mechanisms and the scientific efficacy of laws and regulations. We should emphasize the use of governance concepts, systematic thinking, and dialectical thought in managing and building the Party. We must continuously refine the system of institutional norms for the Party’s self-revolution, further forming a virtuous cycle of discovering problems, correcting deviations, promoting innovation, and achieving a holistic improvement in governing capacity by relying on the Party’s own strength.

Taking the forging of strong organizations and the building of a high-quality workforce as the key point of exertion. The Party's strength comes from its organization. The Party's self-revolution depends on the promotion by Party organizations at all levels and the actual actions of the broad ranks of Party members and cadres. We must deeply implement the Party’s organizational line for the New Era, improving an organizational system that connects the top and bottom and executes effectively. We must enhance the political and organizational functions of Party organizations, focusing on solving problems such as the weakening of Party leadership, the lack of Party building, and ineffective governance of the Party. We must promote the comprehensive progress and strength of Party organizations at all levels, making them strong "fighting fortresses" (zhàn dòu bǎo lǎo) for advancing the Party's self-revolution. We must persist in implementing the criteria for good cadres in the New Era, strictly controlling the checkpoints of politics, ability, and integrity to prevent "promotion despite illness" and "taking office despite illness" ^[17]. We must strengthen ideological tempering, political experience, practical training, and professional training, ensuring that the broad ranks of Party members and cadres are loyal, clean, and responsible, serving as vanguard models courageous in self-revolution.

Taking the rectification of conduct, the enforcement of discipline, and the fight against corruption as important grasps. The rectification of conduct, enforcement of discipline, and the anti-corruption struggle have a wide reach, exert great deterrence, and produce strong driving effects, playing an irreplaceable role in advancing the Party’s self-revolution. Since the 18th National Congress, through an unprecedented struggle for the improvement of Party conduct, clean government, and anti-corruption, we have halted "unhealthy winds" (wāi fēng) ^[18] that had persisted for long periods, rectified stubborn ailments that had gone uncured for years, and eliminated serious hidden dangers within the Party, the state, and the military. This fully demonstrates the thoroughness of the Party’s self-revolution in the New Era. We must grasp the rectification of conduct, enforcement of discipline, and the fight against corruption together, always maintaining a strict tone, strict measures, and a strict atmosphere. Guided by excellent conduct, guaranteed by strict discipline, and cleared of obstacles by punishing corruption, we will ensure that the Party’s self-revolution is closely linked and progresses level by level, continuously achieving self-transcendence by "discarding the old to bring in the new" (gé gù dìng xīn) and upholding the fundamentals and breaking new ground.

Taking the combination of self-oversight and oversight by the people as a powerful driving force. Consciously strengthening self-oversight and consciously accepting oversight by the people is an important hallmark of a mature Marxist party. Experience shows that self-oversight and oversight by the people are organically unified and complementary. The more proactive, deep, and powerful self-oversight is, and the more extensive, frequent, and full oversight by the people is, the more rapidly and thoroughly the Party’s own problems will be solved. To advance the Party’s self-revolution, we must strengthen the Party’s self-oversight, improve various institutional mechanisms for internal Party oversight, and continuously refine the internal Party oversight system. We must consciously accept oversight by the people, clear channels for oversight, innovate methods of oversight, and improve oversight systems. We must effectively integrate internal Party oversight with oversight by state organs, democratic oversight, judicial oversight, oversight by the masses, and oversight by public opinion, achieving a virtuous interaction where self-discipline and external discipline complement each other.