Lv Yongxiang: Polishing the "Golden Business Card" of the Central Eight-Point Regulation
As the ancients said: "In the way of governing, nothing takes precedence over rectifying customs" [1]. The Party's conduct is its image; it concerns the orientation of the people's support and determines the success or failure of the cause of the Party and the state. The Eight-Point Regulations are not only a "golden business card" for strengthening the Party's conduct in the New Era, but also an important fulcrum for pivoting the overall landscape of governing and managing the Party, driving a century-old Party to continuously radiate vigorous vitality through self-revolution. General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out: "We must resolutely implement the spirit of the Eight-Point Regulations, rectify conduct with strict discipline, and enrich the effective avenues of self-revolution; we must persist in punishing evil and fighting corruption with the force of a thunderbolt, and fight both the battle of attrition and the long-term war of self-revolution."
Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has broken new ground by formulating and implementing the Eight-Point Regulations. They have resolutely corrected the Four Winds—formalism, bureaucratism, hedonism, and extravagance—resolutely eradicated the mentality and behavior of seeking privileges, and resolutely rectified the unhealthy tendencies and corruption problems occurring at the people's side. This has promoted a continuous upward and positive shift in the conduct of the Party, the government, and society, ushering in a new atmosphere where "the Eight-Point Regulations have changed China," and advancing the Party's self-revolution with the effect of "moving one pawn to revitalize the whole chessboard" [2]. Since March 2025, the entire Party has carried out awareness and education efforts on the in-depth implementation of the spirit of the Eight-Point Regulations. In-depth implementation of this spirit provides a concrete handle for advancing the Party's self-revolution; it is of great significance for creating a clean and upright intra-Party political ecosystem, advancing the comprehensive and strict governance of the Party, and providing a strong guarantee of conduct for the great undertakings of building a strong nation and achieving national rejuvenation.
First, we must take "the people first" as the value position for the in-depth implementation of the spirit of the Eight-Point Regulations, continuously rectifying the Four Winds that the masses react to most strongly, and upholding the correct value orientation for advancing the Party's self-revolution.
The Eight-Point Regulations and their implementation rules are scientific institutional arrangements for the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee to improve work conduct and maintain close ties with the masses; behind these institutional norms lies a distinct value orientation of putting the people first. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: "We must always persist in zero tolerance, treating the Eight-Point Regulations as an iron rule and a hard benchmark, seriously investigating and punishing 'Four Winds' problems that defy regulations or take on invisible and mutated forms, urging Party members and cadres to resolutely oppose privilege-seeking mindsets and phenomena, and firmly establishing a correct view of power, performance, and career." In the context of the Party-wide education on the spirit of the Eight-Point Regulations, the broad masses of Party members and cadres have integrated learning, inspection, and rectification. They have deeply studied and grasped General Secretary Xi Jinping's important discourses on strengthening the Party's conduct, and comprehensively compared their own behavior against the Eight-Point Regulations and their implementation rules to see whether they treat the well-being of the people as the fundamental yardstick for gauging their views on power, performance, and career. They must check for alienated views of power, misplaced views of performance, or distorted views of their careers, and timely correct erroneous behaviors in the exercise of power such as ignoring the demands of the masses or harming their interests. We must take the timely resolution of conduct problems that the people react to strongly as an important entry point for advancing the Party's self-revolution. We must continue to deepen the rectification of the "Four Winds," improve institutional mechanisms for preventing formalism and bureaucratism, and carry out specialized governance of hedonism and extravagance. We must seriously investigate and punish prominent problems such as illicit dining and drinking, illicit official hospitality, illicit gift-giving and acceptance, illicit distribution of subsidies or bonuses, illicit travel using public funds, and illicit use of official vehicles and office space, thereby renewing the conduct of the Party and government, leading society toward health and positivity, and safeguarding the Party’s image in the hearts of the people. The effectiveness of implementing the spirit of the Eight-Point Regulations should be reflected in solving the urgent, difficult, and anxious problems of the masses. We must target pain points in livelihoods such as education, employment, and healthcare, and, with the spirit of "turning the blade inward" [3] in self-revolution, implement precise accountability for leading cadres who are inactive, slow, chaotic, or performative in dealing with the most direct and realistic interests of the people. This will enhance the people's sense of gain, happiness, and security, winning their trust through the results of self-revolution.
Second, we must treat the improvement of the mechanism for "joint investigation of conduct and corruption" as an important focus for the in-depth implementation of the spirit of the Eight-Point Regulations, promoting the integrated deepening of conduct rectification and anti-corruption, and consolidating the clean political foundation for the Party's self-revolution.
In 2022, the General Office of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection [4] issued the "Opinions on Implementing the Requirements of the 20th National Congress of the CPC to Unswervingly Implement the Spirit of the Eight-Point Regulations and Deepen the Rectification of the 'Four Winds,'" which identified "digging deep into the integration of conduct and corruption problems and improving the mechanism for joint investigation" as a key measure. The work report of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection made important deployments for this mechanism, treating it as a key focus for "deepening the implementation of the spirit of the Eight-Point Regulations on a routine and long-term basis." The report to the 20th National Congress of the CPC pointed out: "Corruption is the largest cancer harming the Party's vitality and combat effectiveness, and anti-corruption is the most thorough form of self-revolution." In the process of implementing the spirit of the Eight-Point Regulations, whether we can timely sever the chain between unhealthy conduct and corruption directly affects the actual results of the CPC's self-revolution. Based on the complex relationship where unhealthy conduct and corruption share the same roots and serve as "underlying and surface" manifestations of each other, the in-depth implementation of the Eight-Point Regulations should take the improvement of the joint investigation mechanism as a priority to enhance the comprehensive effectiveness of rectification. We must study and formulate opinions on the joint investigation and treatment of conduct and corruption, improve systems where conduct leads to the discovery of corruption and corruption leads to the rectification of conduct, use "joint investigation" to severely punish intertwined problems, and use "joint treatment" to uproot common causes. We should dig deep into the sources of funds, purposes, and participants in illicit dining and gift-giving, strengthen analysis to check if "Four Winds" problems hide "cliques" or interest exchanges, and build a work chain for investigating corruption through conduct. For integrated cases, we must follow the clues to tear open "networks of connections," sever "chains of interest," and resolutely eliminate hidden corruption such as the transfer of interests and money-for-power transactions, severing the chain where conduct evolves into corruption.
Third, we must treat the normalization and long-term effectiveness of conduct building as the practical orientation for the in-depth implementation of the Eight-Point Regulations, connecting the investigation of "Four Winds" problems with deepening reform, improving systems, and promoting governance to solidify the institutional foundation of the Party's self-revolution.
General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out: "On the issue of improving conduct, we cannot retreat, nor can we afford to; we must maintain the tenacity of constant effort and the patience of long-term effort, seeing the routine in persistence and seeking long-term efficacy through institutional building." Since the 18th National Congress, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has brought conduct building onto an institutional track, formulating the Eight-Point Regulations and their implementation rules. They have incorporated failure to implement these regulations into the accountability scenarios of fundamental intra-Party regulations such as the "CPC Regulations on Accountability," providing a strong institutional guarantee for correcting the "Four Winds." In response to conduct problems reported by the masses, the Party has issued intra-Party regulations and normative documents such as the "Regulations on Practicing Thrift and Opposing Waste in Party and Government Organs," providing specific norms for austerity, official hospitality, and office space management, thereby consolidating the achievements of conduct building through systems. In-depth implementation must remain problem-oriented, taking the correction of the "Four Winds" as the guide for the Party's self-revolution, and linking the punishment of these problems with reform and governance. We must accurately grasp the regional, industrial, and temporal characteristics of conduct issues, using case analysis to understand why certain "Four Winds" problems are stubborn, recurring, and universal, and identifying the institutional roots that allow them to persist. We must persist in integrating investigation, rectification, and governance, planning anti-corruption and conduct rectification alongside reform measures. Relying on typical cases to promote rectification and governance, we will build a rigorous institutional system to prevent "Four Winds" problems, consolidating the institutional foundation of self-revolution from the dimension of conduct building.
"Sailing against the current, one cannot slacken the oar for a moment; water dripping through stone, one cannot cease for a single drop." Conduct building is a long-term war. The Eight-Point Regulations are not a short-term fix but long-term, effective iron rules and hard benchmarks. Continuous education on their implementation is an effective form of normalizing conduct building. We must always persist in governing the Party with the spirit of reform and strict standards, fighting the long-term war, the battle of attrition, and the war for the "hearts and minds" in conduct building. We must persist in tackling Party spirit, Party conduct, and Party discipline together, integrating the rectification of conduct, the enforcement of discipline, and the fight against corruption. We must continue to work on "routine and longevity, strictness and pragmatism, depth and detail," using the solid results of education to continuously polish the "golden business card" of the Eight-Point Regulations.
(This article is a phased result of the National Social Science Fund Youth Project "Research on the Generation Mechanism and Governance Path of Alienated Accountability at the Grassroots Level" [21CZZ050])
(The author is an Associate Professor at the Center for Intra-Party Regulations Research, Wuhan University)
Source: Guangming Daily (March 26, 2026) Editor: Huihui