Zhang Zhongjun: Further Deepening Comprehensively Reform Must Adhere to the Party's Overall Leadership
The Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee proposed major principles for further comprehensively deepening reform, the first of which is "upholding the Party's overall leadership." This is a scientific summation of the precious experience of comprehensively deepening reform since the start of reform and opening up, and especially in the New Era. It profoundly reveals the fundamental reason for the successful advancement of our country’s reform and opening up and points out the fundamental guarantee for further comprehensively deepening reform and advancing Chinese-path modernization. To implement this major principle, we must profoundly recognize the great significance of upholding the Party's overall leadership, deeply grasp the internal connection between upholding the Party's overall leadership and further comprehensively deepening reform, and effectively incorporate the Party's leadership into all aspects and the whole process of reform, ensuring that reform always proceeds along the correct political direction.
Upholding the Party's overall leadership contains a profound theoretical, historical, and practical logic
The key to doing a good job in China's affairs lies with the Party. The leadership of the Communist Party of China is the most defining feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics and the greatest strength of the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Upholding the Party's overall leadership over reform, firmly safeguarding the authority of the Party Central Committee and its centralized, unified leadership, giving play to the Party's role as the core of leadership in exercising overall command and coordinating all sides, and incorporating the Party's leadership into all aspects and the whole process of reform contains a profound theoretical, historical, and practical logic.
From the perspective of theoretical logic, the issue of the Party's leadership power is a major issue in the Marxist theory of party building. Marxism holds that the proletarian party is the representative of advanced productive forces and relations of production. In the process of establishing and building a new society and leading social revolutions, it must form a unified pace and consistent action, and master the leadership over various social forces, social resources, and social activities. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "The Communist Party of China is the governing party; the Party's leadership is the fundamental guarantee for doing all the work of the Party and the country well, and is the fundamental point of our country's political stability, economic development, ethnic unity, and social stability." In the Party, the government, the military, society, and academia, and in the north, south, east, west, and center, the Party leads everything. On the new journey of the New Era, to push comprehensively deepening reform toward greater breadth and depth and to carry reform through to the end, we must uphold the Party's overall leadership and give full play to the Party's role as the leadership core in exercising overall command and coordinating all sides.
From the perspective of historical logic, upholding the Party's overall leadership is a scientific summation of the precious experience of reform and opening up. At the conference celebrating the 40th anniversary of reform and opening up, General Secretary Xi Jinping summarized the precious experience accumulated during reform and opening up, the first of which is that "we must uphold the Party's leadership over all work." The history of more than 40 years of reform and opening up tells us that it is precisely because we have always adhered to the Party's centralized and unified leadership that we have been able to achieve a great historical turning point, open a new period of reform and opening up and a new journey for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and avoid both the old path of closed and rigid stagnation [1] and the evil path of changing flags and banners [2]. Instead, we have unswervingly followed the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics, continuously pushed forward the cause of reform, opening up, and socialist modernization, promoted the great leap of the Chinese nation from standing up to becoming prosperous, and enabled China to catch up with the times in giant strides.
From the perspective of practical logic, upholding the Party's overall leadership is the fundamental reason why comprehensively deepening reform has achieved historic and great achievements in the New Era. The Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee opened a new journey of comprehensively deepening reform and advancing reform through systematic and integral design. Facing a grim and complex international environment and arduous tasks for domestic reform, development, and stability, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has united and led the whole Party, the whole military, and the people of all ethnic groups throughout the country. With great historical initiative, immense political courage, and a strong sense of responsibility, they have broken through the shackles of old ideas, breached the barriers of solidified interests [3], dared to charge into "deep-water zones," dared to "gnaw on hard bones," and dared to "wade through dangerous shoals" [4]. They have resolutely eliminated institutional and mechanistic defects in various areas, achieving a transformation of reform from local exploration and "ice-breaking" breakthroughs to systematic integration and comprehensive deepening. The basic institutional frameworks in various fields have been essentially established, and many fields have achieved historic changes, systematic reshaping, and overall reconstruction. Practice has proven that reform will inevitably involve the adjustment of deep-seated interest patterns and changes in the institutional system, and will inevitably face various risks and challenges. To ensure that the stance of reform does not shift and the direction does not deviate, that it always moves toward the correct political direction and always holds firm to the correct value orientation, we must uphold the Party's overall leadership.
Upholding the Party's overall leadership provides the fundamental guarantee for further comprehensively deepening reform and advancing Chinese-path modernization
The Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee emphasized that the Party's leadership is the fundamental guarantee for further comprehensively deepening reform and advancing Chinese-path modernization. The Party is the highest force for political leadership, occupies the core position in the national governance system, and is always the strong leadership core of our various undertakings. We must profoundly grasp the important significance of the Party's overall leadership for further comprehensively deepening reform and advancing Chinese-path modernization.
Ensuring the correct direction of further comprehensively deepening reform. Our reform and opening up has direction, stance, and principles. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "The purpose of promoting reform is to continuously promote the self-improvement and development of our country's socialist system and to endow socialism with new vigor and vitality. The most core element here is upholding and improving the Party's leadership and upholding and improving the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics; deviating from this would be like 'driving the chariot south to go north' [5]." Only by unswervingly upholding the Party's overall leadership can we ensure that further comprehensively deepening reform always adheres to the correct direction; otherwise, it will deviate from its course, lose its soul, and even make subversive mistakes. On the new journey, further comprehensively deepening reform faces complex international and domestic situations. We must remain very clear-headed and very firm in our stance on the major issue of principle concerning the Party's overall leadership, which is a matter of right and wrong.
Promoting further comprehensively deepening reform to achieve steady and long-term progress. Further comprehensively deepening reform is a broad and profound social transformation, a comprehensive and systematic reform and improvement, and the linkage and integration of reforms and improvements in various fields. This complex systematic project—with the breadth of the fields it covers, the depth of the adjustment of interest patterns it touches, the sharpness of the contradictions and problems it involves, the arduousness of breaking through institutional and mechanistic obstacles, and the complexity of the "great struggle" [6] it entails—all requires upholding the Party's overall leadership. We must give full play to the greatest political advantage of the Party's overall leadership, strengthen the overall planning and systematic layout of reform, and promote better adaptation between the relations of production and productive forces, between the superstructure and the economic base, and between national governance and social development. We must coordinate the deployment of economic structural reform and reforms in other fields to form a synergy, and coordinately handle major relationships such as those between the economy and society, the government and the market, efficiency and equity, vitality and order, and development and security. We must focus on resolving deep-seated institutional and mechanistic obstacles and structural contradictions to ensure that further comprehensively deepening reform achieves steady and long-term progress.
Gathering strong forces for further comprehensively deepening reform. In the process of reform, various ideas and interest demands clash with each other, and various contradictions, risks, and hidden dangers are interwoven. Whether we can break the barriers of solidified interests, build a consensus for reform, and gather the forces for reform directly relates to the success or failure of the reform. To further comprehensively deepen reform, we must rely closely on the people and respect their principal position and pioneering spirit. Upholding the Party's overall leadership can give full play to the Party's strong political leadership, ideological guidance, mass organizational power, and social mobilization power. It can mobilize and organize the strength of the whole Party and the whole society to promote reform, gather the strength and wisdom for further comprehensively deepening reform and advancing Chinese-path modernization, and create a vivid situation where the vitality for reform and innovation bursts forth and flows out fully, struggling together in unity for the great cause of building a strong country and national rejuvenation.
Incorporating the Party's leadership into all aspects and the whole process of reform
The system of Party leadership is the fundamental leadership system of our country. To improve the Party's leadership level for further comprehensively deepening reform and advancing Chinese-path modernization, we must promote the Party's overall leadership to be more scientific and reasonable in functional allocation, more complete and perfect in systems and mechanisms, and more efficient in operation and management, transforming the strategic deployment for further comprehensively deepening reform into a powerful force for advancing Chinese-path modernization. The vast number of Party members and cadres should always maintain a vigorous state of mind and a sense of responsibility of "always being concerned" [7], implementing the strategic deployment of the Party Central Committee on further comprehensively deepening reform, and promoting Chinese-path modernization to continuously achieve new progress and breakthroughs.
Upholding the centralized and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee over further comprehensively deepening reform. "The affairs are in the four quarters, but the pivot is at the center" [8]. Upholding the Party's overall leadership first requires firmly safeguarding the authority of the Party Central Committee and its centralized, unified leadership, specifically ensuring the "Two Upholds." After long-term exploration and practice, especially the reform and innovation since the 18th CPC National Congress, the Party Central Committee has strengthened the top-level design, overall coordination, and integral advancement of reform, and has formed a complete set of institutional mechanisms for effectively leading reform. For example, the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau and the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee regularly study and analyze the economic and social situation and decide on major matters; the Central Commission for Comprehensively Deepening Reform is responsible for the top-level design, overall layout, coordination, advancement, and supervision of major work in the field of reform, and so on. These institutional mechanisms are in line with reality and are effective; they need to be maintained over the long term and continuously improved while advancing with the times in the process of further comprehensively deepening reform.
Improving the mechanism for implementing the major decision-making deployments of the Party Central Committee. Centering on the implementation of the Party Central Committee's major decision-making deployments, the Party Central Committee and relevant departments have established and improved a series of systems such as task division, supervision and inspection, situation reporting, and supervision and accountability. Combined with a rigorous organizational system that connects all levels and executes effectively, these can ensure that the Party Central Committee’s decision-making deployments are implemented seamlessly throughout the process. To further comprehensively deepen reform, all regions and departments must adhere to the principle that the local is subordinate to the whole and "small logic" is subordinate to "large logic" [9]. They must effectively fulfill their leadership responsibilities for reforms within their scope of duties, strictly implement the system of requesting instructions from and reporting to the Party Central Committee, resolutely implement the Party Central Committee's decision-making deployments, promote the implementation and effectiveness of various reform tasks, and ensure that the Party Central Committee's orders are carried out and its prohibitions are respected. The greatest vitality for reform and innovation lies among the grassroots and the masses; we must respect and give play to the pioneering spirit of local authorities, the grassroots, and the masses. On the premise of ensuring that the Party Central Committee's orders and prohibitions are followed, we should encourage all regions and departments to break new ground and innovate in light of their actual conditions, creating fresh experiences that can be replicated and promoted. We should properly implement the Party's mass line in the New Era, and fully absorb social expectations, the wisdom of the masses, expert opinions, and grassroots experiences into the reform design, making the reform more grounded and enhancing the masses' sense of gain and identification. We should set reform topics around solving prominent contradictions, optimize the mechanism for generating key reform plans, adhere to the truth, correct errors, discover problems in a timely manner, and correct deviations.
Creating a good internal political ecosystem for the Party that is conducive to further comprehensively deepening reform. To uphold the Party's overall leadership, we must always remain clear-headed and determined in solving the unique problems of a large party, deepen the reform of the system for Party building, maintain a high degree of consciousness in leading social revolution through the Party's self-revolution, and mobilize the enthusiasm, initiative, and creativity of the whole Party to grasp reform and promote development. We must strengthen the arming of the Party with innovative theories and establish a long-term mechanism for "molding the soul through study, increasing wisdom through study, improving conduct through study, and promoting action through study" [10]. We should refine the reform of the cadre and personnel system, clearly establish a dynamic for using personnel that emphasizes practical work, practical results, and responsibility, and guide cadres to establish and practice a correct view of performance and comprehensively improve their ability for modernization. We should enhance the political and organizational functions of Party organizations, explore effective ways to strengthen Party building in new economic organizations, new social organizations, and new employment groups, and properly implement the Party Central Committee’s decision-making deployments on reform, organizing and gathering the vast masses in all fields. We should deeply promote the improvement of Party conduct, clean government, and the anti-corruption struggle, persevere in implementing the spirit of the Central Eight-Point Regulations, resolutely oppose the Four Winds, and effectively reduce the burden on the grassroots. We should improve the mechanism for simultaneously promoting the goals of ensuring that officials do not dare, cannot, and do not want to be corrupt, strive to eradicate the soil and conditions that breed corruption, and strive to create a clean and upright political ecosystem and a good environment for reform.