The Fourth Forum on Ruling Party Building Theory and Practice was held in Guangzhou on May 21
On May 21, the 4th "Theory and Practice of Ruling Party Building" Forum was held in Guangzhou. The theme of this forum was "Research on Issues Concerning Intra-Party Political Life." More than 150 scholars from social science academies, Party schools, and universities across the country conducted in-depth discussions on General Secretary Xi Jinping’s thought on Party building, the theory and practice of comprehensively and strictly governing the Party, and the strengthening and standardization of intra-party political life.
Comprehensively and strictly governing the Party is the key to guiding ideology and serving the nation
In October 2016, the Sixth Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the CPC conducted a special study on the issue of comprehensively and strictly governing the Party and deliberated and adopted the Certain Norms Regarding Intra-Party Political Life Under the New Situation. Promoting the theoretical community to deeply study and research how to strengthen and standardize intra-party political life is currently an important topic of concern.
Huang Xiaobo, Secretary of the Party Committee of Guangdong University of Finance and Economics, argued that the principle of "the Party must manage the Party" [1] and strictly governing the Party not only concerns the future of the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics, but is also the key to effectively grasping the developmental direction of philosophy and the social sciences, guiding ideology, and serving the country.
Deng Chundong, Secretary of the Party Committee and Director of the Institute of Marxism Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), argued that General Secretary Xi Jinping’s new concepts, thoughts, and measures regarding comprehensively and strictly governing the Party are rich in content and possess great theoretical and practical significance. First, these new concepts, thoughts, and measures provide scientific theoretical guidance for our Party to comprehensively advance the great cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics, realize the "Two Centenaries" [2] goals and the Chinese Dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and create a strong core of leadership. Second, they provide scientific guidance for the Chinese Communist Party to maintain long-term governance, respond to trials, resist risks, and permanently preserve its advanced nature and purity. Third, these new concepts, thoughts, and measures carry out a historically significant theoretical exploration into how to ensure effective supervision under the conditions of the Party’s long-term governance, pointing out the correct direction for ensuring the Party remains untainted by the corrosion of power. Fourth, they develop the Marxist doctrine of the party, particularly the theory of ruling party building. Specifically, they answer a series of unprecedented questions concerning the self-construction of a ruling party under the complex contemporary background, thereby advancing the exploration of ruling party building theory to a brand-new stage. Fifth, they scientifically answer a series of major questions regarding contemporary global party politics and the self-management of political parties, providing beneficial enlightenment for all parties in the world in solving their own internal problems and handling relations with state power and national governance.
Xi Jinping’s thought on Party building is a hot spot and focus of Party building research
Regarding research on the standardization of intra-party political life, Wang Tingda, former Secretary of the Party Leadership Group of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, argued that as the Party is currently uniting and leading the people of all ethnic groups across the country to realize the Chinese Dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, it must carry out serious and earnest intra-party political life, comprehensively advance Party building, and continuously improve the Party's cohesion and combat effectiveness. Conducting serious intra-party political life is both a fine tradition of our Party and the foundation for strictly governing the Party. In conducting serious and earnest intra-party political life, one must adhere to a problem-oriented approach and focus on solving prominent problems, particularly the issues of "vulgarization, trivialization, and normalization" [3] of intra-party political life, so as to effectively lay the foundation for comprehensively and strictly governing the Party. Currently, strengthening and standardizing intra-party political life requires "four focuses": focusing on enhancing the political, contemporary, principled, and militant nature of intra-party political life; focusing on enhancing the Party's capacity for self-purification, self-perfection, self-revolution, and self-improvement; focusing on improving the Party's level of leadership and governance and enhancing its ability to resist corruption and risks; and focusing on safeguarding the authority of the Party Central Committee, ensuring Party unity, and maintaining the Party's advanced nature and purity.
Researcher Dai Lixing, Director of the Party Building and Party History Research Office of the Institute of Marxism Studies at CASS, reviewed the main characteristics of Party building research in 2016. He noted that in 2016, research hotspots were concentrated and academic achievements were prolific. Among these, the most popular research focused on General Secretary Xi Jinping’s thought on Party building and the strengthening of intra-party political life. In particular, General Secretary Xi Jinping’s thought on Party building has received increasing attention from scholars, becoming the priority of priorities in Party building research. Research has mostly concentrated on the era background, historical development process, ideological origins, connotations, and characteristics of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s thought on Party building. However, there is still space for expansion regarding the theoretical elevation, core essentials, practical and theoretical characteristics, and philosophical methods of his thought on Party building. From an overall perspective, the research horizon needs further expansion, as the interpretation and research of its philosophical and methodological characteristics remain relatively weak. For instance, the distinct practical-theoretical characteristics of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s thought on Party building—the methods of governing the Party by always adhering to a problem-oriented approach and combining theory with practice, the strategy of combining Party management with national governance, and the style of combining strictness with pragmatism—all require increased research efforts.
Party building research faces a new situation of development
How can we further enhance Party building research and expand its depth? Scholars attending the forum stated in their speeches that over the past year, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has attached great importance to Party building, and research in this field faces a new situation of development.
Many scholars proposed that strengthening Party building research first requires the effective integration of research forces. This involves integrating Party building researchers scattered across Party schools, universities, and state-owned enterprises through the National Party Building Research Association, uniting aspiring comrades through platforms like specialized academic conferences, and leveraging the role of authoritative journals. Secondly, it is necessary to strengthen the discipline of Party building, deepen basic theoretical research, and reinforce graduate student training and textbook compilation. To increase the scientific nature of Party building research, one must first enhance "problem consciousness," second, make good use of diverse research methods, and third, attach importance to archival foundations to achieve the integration of history and theory. Finally, research should promote the combination of theory and reality in Party building.
Grassroots Party building was one of the focal points of this seminar. Zhou Cheng, Deputy Political Commissar of the Air Force Aviation University, argued that weak academic research has become a bottleneck restricting the innovative development of Party organizations. In recent years, theoretical research has shown two biased tendencies: one is summarizing experience only through investigation and research, and the other is making principled guidance only through academic research. Emphasizing the former leads to the trap of empiricism, while emphasizing the latter leads to the trap of dogmatism. Therefore, the theoretical research on the operation of grassroots organizations must be closely monitored from both academic and practical perspectives. Zhou Cheng emphasized that to grasp the key to the construction and operation of grassroots Party organizations, attention must be paid to the professional level of grassroots Party workers.
This forum was co-hosted by the Institute of Marxism Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Guangdong University of Finance and Economics, and organized by the School of Marxism of Guangdong University of Finance and Economics, the Guangdong Provincial Higher Education Association for Ideological and Political Education, and the Guangdong Provincial Steering Committee for Ideological and Political Theory Courses in Higher Education.
(Wu Yong, Liu Haifei)