Party Committee of the China Academy of Discipline Inspection and Supervision: Theoretical Connotation and Contemporary Value of Mao Zedong's Thoughts on Party Discipline Construction
Strengthening the Party’s discipline construction is a vital component of the Party’s self-revolution, an essential path to solving the unique challenges facing a large party, and a crucial guarantee for building a powerful nation and achieving national rejuvenation. Mao Zedong scientifically applied the basic principles of Marxism and combined them with the concrete realities of the Chinese revolution and construction, forming a body of thought on the Party’s discipline construction through arduous exploration. Strengthening the Party’s leadership, enforcing strict political discipline, and emphasizing ideological education remained distinct themes within this thought, which has continuously sublimated into new theories and achieved new leaps alongside practical developments. Deeply exploring the profound theoretical connotations and the contemporary value of Mao Zedong’s thoughts on the Party’s discipline construction—and deepening the application of practical experience gained in strengthening discipline construction since the 18th National Congress—is of great significance for comprehensively strengthening the Party’s discipline construction on the New Journey [1] and forging a stronger and more powerful Marxist governing party.
1. The Generative Logic of Mao Zedong’s Thoughts on the Party’s Discipline Construction
As the core of the Party’s first generation of central collective leadership, Mao Zedong, throughout the historical process of leading China’s revolution and construction, consistently adhered to the attributes of a proletarian party and inherited and innovated upon the Marxist theory of party building. Combining China’s realistic needs, he conducted systematic thinking on strengthening the Party’s discipline construction, formed important ideas regarding it, and pioneered the Party’s practice of "setting rules and emphasizing discipline."
Political Roots: Inherently Required by the Attributes of a Proletarian Party and its Original Aspiration and Founding Mission Iron discipline is a unique advantage of a proletarian party and a prominent feature that distinguishes it from other political parties. In the process of founding, leading, and building proletarian parties, Marx, Engels, and Lenin pointed out that a proletarian party is one that serves the interests of the vast majority and has no interests separate from those of the proletariat as a whole. They demanded that within a proletarian party "Party discipline must be absolutely maintained, otherwise nothing can be achieved," emphasizing the unique advantage of the proletariat’s strict discipline and the distinct characteristic that "Party discipline is iron discipline." Since the Opium War, facing the crisis of "national extinction" [2] where the nation suffered humiliation, the people suffered hardship, and civilization was shrouded in dust, the Communist Party of China courageously picked up the great banner of national rejuvenation and took up Marxism as an advanced ideological weapon. In the process of integrating this with China’s actual national conditions, the Party forged distinct characteristics of Party spirit. Standing on the broad perspective of creating a powerful and revolutionary Marxist party to achieve national independence and the liberation of the people, Mao Zedong, as a great patriot and national hero of modern China, put forward the political requirements for the Party’s discipline construction. To achieve the task proposed in the First National Congress program that "the fundamental political purpose of the Party is to implement social revolution," Mao emphasized that as the leader of the Chinese proletarian revolution, the Party must strictly enforce disciplinary requirements. Otherwise, it would be unable to carry out thorough revolutionary struggles, unable to win the trust and support of the masses, and even more unable to realize the revolutionary goals of national independence and people's liberation. In the Resolution of the Gutian Congress [3], Mao specifically emphasized Party discipline in the section on organizational issues, pointing out that "one of the Party's disciplines is that the minority is subordinate to the majority," demonstrating the distinct characteristic of the unity of organization and discipline in a proletarian party. Later, he summarized "a disciplined Party, armed with the theory of Marxism-Leninism, using the method of self-criticism and linked with the masses of the people" as one of the Party's three "main weapons for defeating the enemy," [4] clearly positioning Party discipline as an important way and content to ensure the Party's advanced nature and purity and its flesh-and-blood ties with the masses. This laid an important foundation for our Party to become the world’s largest Marxist governing party.
Theoretical Foundation: A Vivid Manifestation of the Sinicization of the Marxist Theory of Party Building The Marxist theory of party building elaborates in detail the goals, requirements, paths, and methods of proletarian party building from the aspects of the party's nature, principles, characteristics, organization, guiding ideology, revolutionary program, and strategy, laying the theoretical foundation for proletarian parties. In the process of leading the Chinese revolution, the Communist Party of China stood out among many modern political forces by virtue of its scientific theory, rigorous organization, and strict discipline, ending the state of "total disunity" (literally 'a sheet of loose sand') [5] in Chinese society and opening a new chapter for the Chinese revolution. In this practice, Mao Zedong deeply realized that the Party’s discipline, and whether the Party could timely and effectively strengthen discipline construction, was an important basis and key measure for strengthening unity, enhancing combat effectiveness and cohesion, and persisting in the unremitting struggle for its original aspiration and founding mission. He continuously improved the content related to Party discipline in light of practice, promoting the Sinicization of the Marxist theory of party building to better guide the building of the Party. Regarding the Party's own construction, Mao inherited and developed the disciplinary content of the Marxist theory of party building, absorbed lessons from the cycles of order and chaos (literally 'rising and falling, order and disorder') throughout Chinese history, and creatively proposed a series of thoughts and viewpoints on the party's self-supervision and the regulation of power. These provided an important ideological foundation for founding, promoting, and strengthening the Party. For example, he emphasized the fine tradition of criticism and self-criticism, believing that "inner-Party criticism is a weapon for strengthening the Party organization and increasing its fighting capacity," put forward the "two musts," [6] and warned the whole Party that it "must fight against such corrupt ideas within the Party" to effectively prevent and curb corruption. At the same time, Mao emphasized and initially explored the methods and paths for the Party's discipline construction. The Party's disciplinary supervision organs were developed, and systems such as inner-Party supervision gradually became standardized. This enriched the Marxist theory of party building and provided important support for us to create a proletarian party that is "endowed with both centralism and democracy, both discipline and freedom."
Realistic Necessity: An Inevitable Choice to Solve Prominent Problems in China’s Revolution and Construction As the vanguard leading the socialist revolution and the construction of a new society, the proletarian party naturally requires rigorous organizational discipline and demands that party building always adapt to the needs of the development of the social revolution. The key to solving prominent problems in China’s revolution and construction lay in: a strong leadership core—the proletarian party; powerful and effective party organization and social mobilization; and a broad mass base. The Party’s discipline construction runs through all three, playing a safeguarding role. Regarding the maintenance of the leadership core and authority, Mao used the lessons of the Paris Commune to warn that "without a unified, centralized, and disciplined party to command," "internal differences of opinion and scattered forces will give the enemy an opportunity, which is the first reason for failure." Addressing the conditions of "undisciplined anarchy, localism, and guerrilla-ism," he proposed that "strengthening discipline leads to victory in the revolution," emphasizing the need to uphold the authority of discipline and ensure the centralized and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee. Regarding party organization and social mobilization, Mao ensured that the Party’s line, principles, and policies were implemented through strict discipline. Facing the grim situation after the failure of the Great Revolution [7], Mao emphasized the importance of discipline for the Party and the army, creating the "Three Main Rules of Discipline and Six Points for Attention," [8] leading "strict Party purges," and strengthening the Party’s discipline, especially political discipline. At the Sixth Plenary Session of the Sixth CPC Central Committee, Comrade Mao Zedong put forward the major proposition that "discipline is the guarantee for the implementation of the line," further strengthening the Party's unity and centralized leadership. Regarding consolidating the Party’s mass base, Mao required that the Party’s fine style and spirit be demonstrated through good discipline to maintain flesh-and-blood ties with the people. He pointed out that "the Party Constitution should indeed fully reflect discipline and creativity, and reflect the mass line," and required Party members and the Red Army to "observe discipline that is stricter than that for ordinary civilians." In leading the construction of New China, Mao consistently placed the Party’s discipline construction in an important position, focusing on maintaining the people's status as masters of the country through discipline construction and ensuring the smooth progress of the socialist cause. Mao Zedong’s thoughts on the Party’s discipline construction emerged from the historical trends of modern China, fully absorbed the basic principles of Marxism, and responded to the risks and challenges on the road of the Chinese revolution. They not only effectively solved the problems and dilemmas faced by the Party but also greatly enriched and expanded the content of discipline construction, accumulating valuable experience for Party building, especially in the realm of discipline.
2. The Theoretical Connotations of Mao Zedong’s Thoughts on the Party’s Discipline Construction
Mao Zedong’s thoughts on discipline construction are profound in vision and rich in content, covering all aspects of discipline construction. Regarding the status of discipline construction, he clearly defined discipline as the "guarantee for the implementation of the line"; regarding the content, he established the "Four Subordinations" [9] as the most important discipline; regarding methods, he focused on strengthening ideological education to cultivate "conscious discipline"; regarding the system, he emphasized establishing rules and regulations to strengthen the rigidity of disciplinary constraints; and regarding enforcement, he achieved an effective combination of strict discipline with the principle of "learning from past mistakes to avoid future ones and curing the sickness to save the patient."
Treating Discipline as the "Guarantee for the Implementation of the Line" to Ensure "the Party Leads Everything" and the People are Masters of the Country In the early days of the Party's founding, Mao was keenly aware of the extreme importance of strengthening Party discipline for the development of the Party’s cause. He expressed strong agreement with the view Cai Hesen sent in a letter: "The Party organization must be an extremely centralized organization, and the Party's discipline must be iron discipline... only thus can an extremely conscious and organized minority be formed to adapt to the era of war and undertake the massive task of transformation." In the grim and complex situation of the revolutionary era, Mao more deeply recognized the important functions of discipline in ensuring the implementation of the Party's lines, principles, and policies, and in strengthening the Party's leadership. In the report "On the New Stage" at the Sixth Plenary Session of the Sixth CPC Central Committee, addressing phenomena such as subjectivism and sectarianism that hindered Party leadership and drove a wedge between the Party and the masses, Mao first put forward the famous thesis that "discipline is the guarantee for the implementation of the line," profoundly clarifying the close relationship between the Party's discipline and the Party's line. In order to achieve victory in the arduous environment of the full-scale War of Resistance [against Japan] and ensure that all base areas acted in unison, Mao put forward the important thesis at the enlarged meeting of the Political Bureau in September 1941 that the "line" is the "way of the king" (theoretical/moral guidance) [10] while "discipline" is the "way of the hegemon" (strict enforcement). As the People's Liberation Army turned to strategic offense, the rapid development of the revolutionary situation put higher demands on the Party's own construction. To overcome the decentralism existing within the Party during this period and seize the final victory of the national liberation, Mao demanded that discipline construction be the "central link" in implementing the line. This slogan was summarized at the time as "strengthen discipline, and the revolution will always be victorious." Based on a profound summary of the experience of Party building during the revolutionary years, Mao placed discipline in the foremost position. This fully reflects Mao's ideological understanding and practical determination that the more complex the situation and the more arduous the tasks, the more necessary it is to implement various requirements and deployments through discipline construction.
Treating the "Four Subordinations" as the "Most Important Discipline" to Maintain the Authority of the Party Central Committee and Centralized, Unified Leadership As early as the Autumn Harvest Uprising, Mao, based on the needs of military victory, put forward the "Three Main Rules of Discipline and Six Points for Attention," the first of which was "obey orders in all actions," highlighting the conscious action to enhance the Party's fighting capacity by strengthening centralized unity. After the failure of the Great Revolution, the Gutian Congress criticized tendencies such as the purely military viewpoint, extreme democratization, and non-organizational viewpoints within the Party in the Fourth Red Army. The core was to "cleanse all non-proletarian ideologies" and effectively consolidate and strengthen the Party's leadership. In 1937, Mao published the article "Combat Liberalism," systematically criticizing liberalism and decentralism within the Party, laying a good ideological foundation for strict discipline. In the early days of the full-scale War of Resistance, in view of Zhang Guotao's act of "establishing another central committee" during the Long March and Wang Ming's serious damage to the Party's unity in the early stages of the war, the 1938 Sixth Plenary Session of the Sixth CPC Central Committee placed strengthening democratic centralism and tightening Party discipline in a prominent position. It explicitly put forward the "Four Subordinations": "(1) the individual is subordinate to the organization; (2) the minority is subordinate to the majority; (3) the lower level is subordinate to the higher level; and (4) the entire Party is subordinate to the Central Committee." It pointed out that "whoever breaks the Party's discipline, breaks the Party's unity." In 1942, at the opening ceremony of the Central Party School, Mao reiterated the "Four Subordinations" in response to the problem of "asserting independence" within the Party. In 1945, the Seventh National Congress of the CPC gave a more comprehensive explanation of the "Four Subordinations" and wrote them into the Party Constitution for the first time. This fully demonstrates the core essence of the Party's discipline and rules, and is of great significance for maintaining the authority of the Party Central Committee and its centralized, unified leadership, as well as ensuring the implementation of the Central Committee’s various decisions.
Treating Ideological Education as "First-Class Business" and Striving to Cultivate "Conscious Discipline"
Mao Zedong pointed out: "The Party's discipline is mandatory; but at the same time, it must be built upon the consciousness of Party members and cadres, and is by no means a formalistic 'commandism' [11]." He proposed the major proposition of cultivating "conscious discipline" to the entire Party. Taking education as the precursor and firmly grasping ideology—the "master switch" [12]—is a distinctive feature of Mao Zedong's approach to strengthening disciplinary development. From the very beginning of his leadership of the Chinese revolution, Mao Zedong attached great importance to the role of ideological education. At the Gutian Conference [13] in 1929, Mao emphasized that "carrying out inner-Party education in a planned way, to correct the previous unplanned state of letting things take their natural course, is one of the Party's important tasks." To conduct effective inner-Party education, Mao listed 10 types of materials and 18 methods at this meeting. The 10 materials included political analysis and discussions from higher leadership organs, while the 18 methods covered Party newspapers, training classes, and individual talks. In February 1942, Mao clearly pointed out in a speech to the Political Bureau that "among the five major tasks of the Political Bureau, ideology ranks first; to grasp ideology, we must first focus on cadre education." This meeting also passed the Decision of the CPC Central Committee on the Education of Cadres in Service, which put forward many specific requirements for strengthening cadre education. Building on the foundation of inner-Party education, Mao also highlighted disciplinary education as a key focus. At the Sixth Plenary Session of the Sixth CPC Central Committee in 1938, Mao pointed out clearly: "We must conduct education on Party discipline for members, so that ordinary members can both observe discipline and supervise the Party's leaders to ensure they also observe discipline, thereby avoiding a repeat of the Zhang Guotao incident [14]." This was an early and explicit proposition for strengthening disciplinary education. The Decision of the CPC Central Committee on Strengthening Party Spirit [15] passed in July 1941 reiterated the need to strengthen disciplinary education throughout the Party. During the Yan'an Rectification Movement [16], Mao specifically recommended that all Party members and cadres read Lenin's "Left-Wing" Communism: An Infantile Disorder, achieving an effective integration of disciplinary development and political-theoretical study. In 1946, Mao personally drafted the telegram Pay Attention to Strengthening Disciplinary Education in the Troops, emphasizing that before every collective action, the military must conduct disciplinary education for all members to ensure that "all commanders and fighters observe political discipline" during operations. Through flexible, diverse, continuous, and in-depth educational activities, our Party deepened the disciplinary awareness and bottom-line thinking of Party organizations and cadres at all levels, greatly enhancing the consciousness of the entire Party in observing rules and discipline.
Elevating discipline and rules into rigid constraints, focusing on correcting inner-Party problems through institutions
Institutional development is the key lever for strengthening disciplinary development and the solid guarantee for its long-term effectiveness. On one hand, Mao Zedong emphasized maintaining disciplinary authority by strengthening the Party's system of internal regulations. In 1938, the Sixth Plenary Session of the Sixth CPC Central Committee passed the Decision on Work Rules and Discipline for the Central Committee and the Decision on Work Rules and Discipline for Party Committees at All Levels. From the perspective of strengthening centralized unity, these emphasized that the entire Party must firmly establish awareness of discipline and rules, providing specific requirements for leading cadres at all levels. In January 1948, addressing problems of "independentism" [17] and the lack of timely or thorough requests for instructions and reporting in some regions, Mao drafted the Instruction on Establishing a Reporting System and strictly enforced its execution. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the Party Central Committee issued the Decision of the CPC Central Committee on Strengthening the System of Requesting Instructions and Reporting to the Central Committee by Various Departments of the Central People’s Government and Strengthening Central Leadership over Government Work (Draft). It noted: "From now on, all major and important principles, policies, plans, and major matters in government work must be submitted to the Central Committee for instruction in advance, and may only be implemented after discussion, decision, or approval by the Central Committee." The system for requesting instructions and reporting adapted to the urgent requirements of the new situation, clearly embodying the principles of democratic centralism and enabling the Party to rapidly overcome the states of lack of discipline and anarchy within its ranks. On the other hand, Mao focused on perfecting disciplinary norms by improving the Party's leadership system. In September 1948, Mao drafted the Decision on Strengthening the Party Committee System, which set specific requirements for improving the Party committee meeting system and clearly stated: "The Party committee system is an important Party institution for ensuring collective leadership and preventing individual monopolization of power." In 1949, at the Second Plenary Session of the Seventh CPC Central Committee, Mao listed twelve specific work methods for Party committees, objectively reflecting the laws and characteristics of their work. In 1953, the CPC Central Committee launched a struggle against "scatteredness" [18]. Mao pointed out the need to strictly implement democratic centralism and provided a concise yet profound summary of the relationship between collective leadership and individual responsibility: "Major power is concentrated while minor power is dispersed; the Party committee decides, and all parties implement; implementation must be decisive but never stray from principle; the Party committee is responsible for inspecting the work." Improving the Party committee system played an important leading role in promoting the standardization, institutionalization, and proceduralization of disciplinary development.
Combining strict discipline with "learning from past mistakes to avoid future ones, and curing the sickness to save the patient," demonstrating the clean and upright political character of Communists
The concept of "learning from past mistakes to avoid future ones, and curing the sickness to save the patient" [19] was a creative initiative of the Chinese Communists, represented by Mao Zedong, in strictly enforcing Party discipline. Mao emphasized that everyone is equal before discipline and there are no exceptions to its execution, highlighting the intensity of "punishment" (惩). During the Long March, He Minren, the younger brother of He Zizhen [20], entered a minority ethnic group's Tibetan Buddhist temple without authorization and took silver dollars and copper plates from the local people, violating Party discipline. Mao demanded he be dealt with according to Party discipline and specifically emphasized that the Red Army must have "iron discipline." In handling the case of Huang Kegong [21], in response to the view held by some that he should receive a lighter punishment as a "meritorious official," Mao proposed: "The Communist Party and the Red Army cannot but enforce more stringent discipline on their own members than on ordinary civilians," making a classic judgment on the relationship between Party discipline and the law. While strictly enforcing discipline, Mao also focused on the efficacy of "curing" (治), giving the Party’s enforcement both "strength" and "warmth." During the Jinggang Mountains period [22], Mao required that when imposing disciplinary sanctions, the person being disciplined must also be made to recognize their mistake; he argued that any practice of "killing without teaching" (punishing without prior education) was wrong and must be resolutely opposed. In his February 1942 speech Rectify the Party's Style of Work, Mao pointed out: "Our aim in exposing errors and criticizing shortcomings is like that of a doctor treating a sickness; it is solely for the purpose of saving the person, not of doctoring them to death." After the founding of the PRC, Mao further refined and developed the policy of "learning from past mistakes to avoid future ones, and curing the sickness to save the patient." In 1956, in On the Ten Major Relationships, he first proposed the policy of "first, see; second, help": first see if the individual corrects themselves, while the organization also actively helps them. Through continuous enrichment and development, this policy has fully released the normative, leading, and deterrent functions of discipline, proving of significant value for consolidating the Party's unity, and maintaining its advanced nature and purity.
3. Contemporary Inspirations from Mao Zedong's Thought on Party Disciplinary Development
Reviewing the century-long journey, at every critical historical juncture, our Party has placed the strict enforcement of discipline in a prominent position, relying on disciplinary development to consolidate Party leadership, advance self-revolution, and lead social revolution. On the journey of the New Era, to comprehensively strengthen the Party's disciplinary development, we must deeply summarize the historical experience of the older generation of proletarian revolutionaries like Mao Zedong in strictly enforcing discipline. We must persist in taking Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as our guide, fully implement the spirit of the 20th CPC National Congress and the decisions of the Party Central Committee, and deepen the application of fresh experience in strengthening discipline in the New Era. This will drive the systematized, institutionalized, and standardized development of Party discipline, playing an important role in comprehensively and strictly governing the Party in the New Era and clearing the way for Chinese-path modernization.
Strengthen ideological leadership and unswervingly use the latest achievements in the Sinicization and modernization of Marxism to guide the Party’s disciplinary development
The Party’s guiding ideology is the concentrated expression of the integration of Marxist theory with practice; it is the key to applying Marxist stances, viewpoints, and methods, as well as basic principles, to solve national problems, and is thus a hallmark of theoretical innovation. Mao Zedong Thought addressed the changing historical stages of the Chinese revolution and construction, raising new questions, making new judgments, and guiding new practices, achieving the first leap in the Sinicization of Marxism. On the new journey, the development of the times, the changes in the situation, and the arduousness of the tasks have raised a series of major new subjects for the comprehensive building of a modern socialist country. This requires us to develop Marxism through the interplay of practical and theoretical innovation, and to arm the entire Party with Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era—the latest achievement in the Sinicization and modernization of Marxism. We must fully grasp the mission and task of advancing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts through Chinese-path modernization, as well as the situation, tasks, and stage-specific characteristics of Party disciplinary development on the new journey. We must persist in self-confidence and self-reliance, strengthen political leadership and theoretical arming, and carry forward the glorious tradition and unique advantages of Marxist parties in being strictly disciplined. We must always strengthen disciplinary development under the centralized and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee and the guidance of the Party’s innovative theories. We must persist in putting the people first, always maintain a firm proletarian standpoint, practice the mass line, and maintain the "flesh-and-blood ties" between the Party and the people through the actual results of rectifying the Four Winds, enforcing discipline, and the anti-corruption struggle. We must persist in a problem-oriented approach, deeply recognizing the long-term, complex, and arduous nature of disciplinary development, and apply precise treatment to problems such as some Party organizations’ lax or imprecise enforcement of discipline and some leading cadres’ lack of attention to or mastery of Party rules and discipline. We must persist in a systems perspective, deepening disciplinary development systematically rather than fragmentary, holistically rather than locally, and persistently rather than temporarily, forging a more powerful leadership force for Chinese-path modernization through strict discipline.
Highlight political discipline and political rules to ensure the entire Party firmly upholds the "Two Establishments" and resolutely achieves the "Two Upholds"
The history of the Party tells us that to govern our large Party and our large country well, ensuring the Party's unity and centralized authority is of vital importance. Mao Zedong firmly pointed out: "Of the seven sectors—industry, agriculture, commerce, education, the military, the government, and the Party—it is the Party that leads everything." He emphasized that "there must be strong, unified central leadership, and there must be a unified national plan and unified discipline." The Party's political discipline directly addresses major issues such as the political line, direction, principles, and viewpoints, and concerns the fundamental nature and direction of disciplinary development. Observing the Party's political discipline inherent contains the political requirement to persist in the Party's leadership and maintain the authority and centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee. Entering the New Era, in the face of a severe and complex domestic and international situation, the fundamental reason our Party has been able to overcome a series of risks and challenges and promote historical achievements and transformations in the cause of the Party and the state lies in the Establishment of Comrade Xi Jinping’s core position on the Party Central Committee and in the whole Party, and the Establishment of the guiding position of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. As we embark on the new journey, the more complex the situation and the more arduous the tasks the Party faces, the more we must take the "Two Upholds" as the highest political principle and fundamental political discipline. We must continuously improve the systems and mechanisms for the "Two Upholds," seriously implement democratic centralism, and perfect various institutions for firmly maintaining the authority and centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee. We must improve the implementation mechanisms for the Central Committee's major decisions and deployments, ensuring that strict political discipline and political rules are integrated into inner-Party political life, the political ecosystem, and political culture, thus maintaining the Party's unity and ensuring the entire Party advances with a single will, action, and pace.
Persist in grasping Party spirit, Party style, and Party discipline together, and drive the entire Party to imprint discipline and rules upon their hearts
The Party's discipline is built upon the foundation of loyalty to the Party, firmness of faith, and conscious obedience. During the revolutionary period, Mao Zedong pointed out incisively that if the relations between officers and soldiers or between the military and the people were poor, it was not a question of method or technique, but "a question of fundamental attitude (or fundamental purpose); this attitude is one of respect for the soldiers and respect for the people." At the Second Plenary Session of the Seventh CPC Central Committee, Mao emphasized winning the hearts of the people through solemn discipline, remaining clear-headed at all times regarding the "examination-taking" [23] challenge, and adhering to the "Two Musts" [24]. After the founding of New China, Mao further pointed out that for leading cadres, "whoever commits bureaucratism and fails to solve the problems of the masses... the masses have reason to remove him." These discourses remain thought-provoking today. Our Party has struggled for over 100 years and has been in power for over 70 years; the theoretical level and cognitive ability of Party members and cadres have long since made significant progress. It can hardly be said that they lack an understanding of the political hazards of improper conduct and lax discipline. The existence of these problems is never merely a matter of incorrect methods or insufficient ability; what plays the decisive role behind them is Party spirit. General Secretary Xi Jinping has profoundly proposed that persisting in grasping Party spirit, Party conduct, and Party discipline together is a deep revelation of the patterns of governing and managing the Party, as well as a scientific summary of the fine traditions formed during the Party's long-term practice. We must strengthen the foundation through Party spirit education, transform social customs by correcting Party conduct, and provide guarantees through the standardization of Party discipline. We must integrate disciplinary education with Party spirit education and the construction of a culture of integrity in the New Era. This should be incorporated into the normalized study and education of Party history, the inheritance of fine traditional Chinese culture, and into social norms, industry regulations, and family traditions and education. This will urge the entire Party to keep in mind the "Three Musts" [25], vigorously promote a style of pragmatism, foster an atmosphere of integrity, and cultivate a habit of frugality, so that they may establish themselves and conduct affairs through Party spirit, engraving discipline and rules upon their hearts.
Applying systemic concepts to fully leverage the function of disciplinary construction as a root-cause solution within the healthy system of comprehensively and strictly governing the Party
Strictly enforcing Party discipline and strengthening disciplinary construction is a prominent main thread running through the Party's century-long struggle. Whether it was the "Three Great Constructions" [26] of ideology, organization, and work style formed during the New Democratic Revolution, or the "Five Great Constructions" [27] of ideology, organization, work style, anti-corruption and integrity, and institutions gradually formed since the reform and opening up, the Party's discipline and rules have been integrated into all aspects of construction through channels such as standardization, guidance, constraint, and punishment. Since the 18th National Congress, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has creatively incorporated disciplinary construction into the overall layout of Party building as a root-cause strategy for comprehensively and strictly governing the Party, opening a new chapter in the Party's disciplinary construction. To implement the general requirements for Party building in the New Era and comprehensively strengthen the Party's disciplinary construction, we must promote the integration and coordination of disciplinary construction with all other forms of construction. First and foremost, we must enhance the political nature of disciplinary construction, profoundly recognizing that many problems existing within disciplinary construction are, at their root, political problems, all related to weak political construction and a lack of solemnity in intra-Party political life. By strengthening disciplinary construction, we reinforce the Party's political leadership and consolidate its political foundation. We must lead disciplinary construction with ideological construction, making the understanding of rules, the observance of discipline, and the maintenance of awe into a conscious cultivation that is "soaked into the bones and fused into the blood" of Party members and cadres. We must promote the integration of organizational construction and disciplinary construction, using strict discipline to boost the building of the Party's organizational system and the ranks of cadres, thereby strengthening the organizational concepts and disciplinary awareness of Party members and cadres. We must ensure that disciplinary construction and work style construction move in the same direction, implementing the spirit of the Eight-Point Regulations and correcting the "Four Winds" with immediate disciplinary follow-up and without yielding an inch, thereby cultivating a heart of awe toward discipline and rules among Party members and cadres while purifying Party conduct and establishing new virtues. Finally, we must permeate disciplinary construction with institutional construction, promptly solidifying the achievements and experiences of disciplinary construction into systems and elevating them into Party regulations and discipline, maintaining the solemnity and authority of the system with strict discipline to achieve unity between institutional expectations and actual effects.
Strengthening disciplinary construction with the concept of "integrally promoting the 'Three Non-corruptions'" to enhance the comprehensive effect of treating both symptoms and root causes
In the process of leading the Chinese revolution and construction, Mao Zedong not only made incisive theoretical expositions on disciplinary construction but also consistently demanded the implementation of stricter discipline for Party members in practice, ensuring the Party's nature as the proletarian vanguard and its strong combat effectiveness. Since the 18th National Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping has clearly recognized the still severe and complex situation of the anti-corruption struggle, originally proposing the policy and strategy of integrally promoting the "Three Non-corruptions" [28]. He has systematically explained the core essence and internal links of the "Three Non-corruptions," clarified the basic principles, methods, and strategies of "integral promotion," and advanced theoretical, practical, and institutional innovations in this area. All corruption begins with the breaking of discipline. We must use strict disciplinary and law enforcement to enhance the rigidity of disciplinary constraints, leading Party members and cadres from the state of "not daring" out of fear of investigation and punishment to a state of "not daring" out of awe for the Party, the people, Party discipline, and national law. We must apply "full-cycle management" methods, integrating disciplinary requirements throughout the entire cycle of supervision, discipline enforcement, and law enforcement, as well as the entire cycle of the growth, selection, management, and utilization of Party members and cadres, thereby promoting the linkage of "not being able." We must improve the system of disciplinary norms and institutions, deepen faith cultivation and warnings regarding discipline and law, and externalize discipline into conscious behavioral compliance while internalizing it as a lofty spiritual belief. This will achieve the organic unity of heteronomy and autonomy, as well as the force of discipline and law with moral guidance, thereby enhancing the consciousness of "not wanting."