The 7th Forum on "Theory and Practice of Ruling Party Building" Convened in Yangzhou
On November 21, 2020, the 7th Forum on "Governing Party Building Theory and Practice" was held in Yangzhou. The theme of this forum was: "Upholding and Improving the System of Institutions for Party Leadership." The forum was jointly organized by the Institute of Marxism Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Yangzhou University. It was co-hosted by the Department of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era at the CASS Institute of Marxism Studies, the School of Marxism at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, the National Training and Research Center for Ideological and Political Work Teams in Universities (Yangzhou University), and the School of Marxism at Yangzhou University.
More than 100 experts and scholars engaged in research on Party building from various universities, Party schools (academies of governance), and research institutions attended the meeting, including the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the Party School of the Central Committee of the CPC (National Academy of Governance), the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Wuhan University, Beihang University, Lanzhou University, Northeast Normal University, Southeast University, Northwest University, Guangxi Normal University, and Yangzhou University. The opening ceremony was chaired by Professor Hu Lifu, Dean of the School of Marxism at Yangzhou University. The keynote speech phase was successively chaired by Professor Yuan Jiuhong, Dean of the School of Marxism at Southeast University, Professor Wang Chunxi of the School of Marxism at Beihang University, and Professor Tang Huiling of the School of Marxism at Yangzhou University, who also served as commentating experts. The sub-forum reports and the closing ceremony were chaired by Professor Liu Jiping, Party Committee Secretary of the School of Marxism at Yangzhou University.
In the opening remarks, Professor Ye Baisen, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Yangzhou University, extended a warm welcome and sincere greetings to the participating experts and scholars on behalf of Yangzhou University. He introduced the general development and construction achievements of Yangzhou University and its Marxist theory discipline. Professor Ye stated that this forum consistently focuses on the theory and practice of governing party building, which is both a major proposition and an eternal subject. Committed to the great cause of the Chinese nation for millennia to come, the Party is currently in its prime [1] at its centenary. The year 2021 marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. Over a century, the great Party has led the Chinese people across one obstacle after another, achieving victory after victory and creating monumental achievements rarely seen in the world. These achievements were made possible because our Party has always possessed the courage to "turn the blade inward" [2], continuously engaged in self-revolution, and prioritized the strengthening of its own construction.
Xin Xiangyang, a research fellow and Secretary of the Party Committee of the CASS Institute of Marxism Studies, first introduced the departmental adjustments and the integration of science and education at the Institute during his address, and reviewed the developmental trajectory of the previous six forums. Subsequently, he delivered a keynote speech centered on "strengthening the Party through theory." He emphasized that the reason the CPC has been able to achieve such great success today is inseparable from its special emphasis on ideological Party building and strengthening the Party through theory. The CPC is a political party characterized by the fastest theoretical innovation and the strongest theoretical arming. To persist in strengthening the Party through theory, one must both maintain the lineage and advance with the times, ensuring that the broad ranks of Party members and cadres truly master the stances, viewpoints, and methods of Marxism. It is necessary to strengthen research on the movement of basic social contradictions and dare to timely criticize and struggle against erroneous theoretical viewpoints.
Wang Tingda, former head of the Discipline Inspection Group of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) stationed at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Dean of the School of Marxism at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, delivered a keynote report titled "Distinctive Characteristics of Xi Jinping’s Important Expositions on Party Building." He pointed out that General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important expositions on Party building fully apply the stances, viewpoints, and methods of Marxism and profoundly summarize the experiences and lessons of the world socialist movement. They are the product of combining the Marxist theory of party building with the CPC’s own practice of self-construction, representing the latest achievement of Marxist party building theory, and bringing Sinicized Marxist party building theory into a new stage and a new realm. These expositions are innovations built upon inheritance and constitute an important part of the Party’s theoretical innovation, possessing distinct scientific, epochal, popular, practical, and guiding qualities.
During the expert speech phase of the conference, Research Fellow Chen Zhigang, Director of the Department of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era at the CASS Institute of Marxism Studies, expounded on the internal logic of the system of institutions for Party leadership from six perspectives: establishing the institution for "staying true to our original aspiration and founding mission," improving various institutions for resolutely upholding the CPC Central Committee’s authority and centralized, unified leadership, perfecting the system for the Party's overall leadership, perfecting various institutions for governing for the people and by relying on the people, perfecting institutions for improving the Party's governing capacity and leadership level, and improving the system for comprehensively and strictly governing the Party. Professor Ding Junping of the School of Marxism at Wuhan University pointed out that rich experience has been accumulated over the century-long journey of the Party's organizational construction: first, the Party must persist in taking scientific theory as its guide; second, it must take political construction as the overarching principle; third, it must focus on making the Party's organizational system rigorous; fourth, it must treat the cultivation of the cadre and member workforce as the key; fifth, it must uphold and improve democratic centralism; and sixth, it must place greater emphasis on improving the quality of the Party member ranks. Gu Zhaoming, Deputy Secretary-General of the Standing Committee of the Shanxi Provincial People's Congress, expressed views on the status and role of the responsibility system for Party building in government organs, the improvement of working mechanisms for this system, and the intensification of its assessment, evaluation, and application. Professor Wang Shiyi, a distinguished professor at Yangzhou University and from the Jiangsu Provincial Party School, explored the issue of constructing a theoretical discourse system for governing party building in the New Era from three perspectives: new concepts, new categories, and new expressions. Research Fellow Lei Houli, former Vice President of the Guizhou Academy of Social Sciences, argued that the "eight excellences" (being excellent in politics, ideology, organization, conduct, discipline, anti-corruption, institutions, and capability) constitute the landmark objectives for the CPC's self-construction. Professor Song Fufan from the Party School of the Central Committee of the CPC (National Academy of Governance) shared his views on the methodology of the Party's leadership system. He argued that the six aspects of the Party leadership system mentioned in the "Decision" of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee [3] constitute a rigorous institutional system, answering the question of "what kind of Party leadership system to uphold and how to uphold it" in the New Era. Professor Zhou Jianchao, Vice President of Taizhou University, explored the logical path of the generation of the Party's institutional advantages through four dimensions: theoretical logic (scientific guiding ideology and high theoretical self-awareness), organizational logic (a serious organizational system and firm centralized unity), value logic (a firm people-centered stance and broad social appeal), and cognitive logic (unremitting self-revolution and selfless political character). Professor Wang Jinfen of the School of Marxism at Guangxi Normal University explored Lenin's practical explorations on how to conduct intra-Party political life from four aspects: adhering to the organizational principle of democratic centralism, establishing a meeting system centered on Party congresses, implementing the combination of collective leadership and individual division of labor, and improving the independence and authority of intra-Party supervision. Professor Han Qiang of Beijing Union University discussed the regularization of democratic centralism, arguing for greater emphasis on the role of intra-Party rules to enhance rule-consciousness at the source, correctly understanding the positioning of intra-Party rules, perfecting the system of intra-Party rules for democratic centralism, and strengthening research on the regularization of democratic centralism so that the Party's advanced nature can be more fully realized under the protection of the system of intra-Party regulations. Research Fellow Li Jianxiu of the Hebei Academy of Social Sciences explored the epochal characteristics and practical paths of the Party's self-revolution, emphasizing the need to profoundly understand the great significance, scientific connotation, and fundamental requirements of self-revolution. He stressed persisting in a problem-oriented approach and constantly exploring the realistic paths and developmental laws for promoting self-revolution to achieve the Party's self-purification, self-perfection, self-renewal, and self-improvement, thereby forever preserving the political character of Communists.
The forum also established four sub-forums with the following themes: Practices, Achievements, and Experiences of Party Building over the Past 100 Years; Research on Comprehensively and Strictly Governing the Party; Research on the New Layout of Party Building in the New Era; and Research on the Party's Self-Revolution. During the sub-forum sessions, participating experts and scholars conducted in-depth discussions around these themes. The atmosphere of the onsite discussions was enthusiastic, with participants speaking eagerly; many expressed after the meeting that they had gained much from the exchange and collision of viewpoints.
Wang Li, Editor-in-Chief of the Information Center for Social Sciences of RUC: Communist Party of China, spoke on behalf of academic journals, delivering a presentation titled "The Process and Standards for Manuscript Selection in the RUC Information Center: Using the CPC Special Topic as an Example."
The forum closely followed its theme, and through the exchanges and discussions of the participants, a consensus was reached on many fronts. Finally, Research Fellow Dai Lixing, Deputy Director of the Department of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era at the CASS Institute of Marxism Studies, provided the closing summary. He introduced the preparations for the meeting, summarized its characteristics, and highly praised the meeting as a high-end gathering with ideological depth and height, theoretical sensitivity, and problem-awareness, conducted with a very upright style. He noted that the forum demonstrated the sense of mission, responsibility, and commitment of Marxist theory researchers and educators, as well as their unremitting pursuit of scholarship. He expressed sincere gratitude to the experts and scholars who attended and supported the meeting, as well as the staff who contributed to its organization.
(Contributed by Liu Haifei, Associate Research Fellow, Institute of Marxism Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)