Cui Jianzhou: Xi Jinping's Fundamental Contributions to the Marxist Theory of Party Building
"Since the 18th Party Congress, we have inherited and developed the Marxist theory of Party building, summarized and applied the historical experience of the Party’s century of struggle, and deeply advanced innovations in practice, theory, and institutions regarding the governance of the Party. We have reached a new height in our regularized understanding of what kind of long-term governing Marxist party to build and how to build it."[1] This is marked by the formation of Xi Jinping’s important thought on Party building, with the "Thirteen Persistences" as its main content, and Xi Jinping’s important thought on the Party’s self-revolution, with the "Nine In-orders" as its practical requirements. This constitutes a new contribution to the development of the basic principles of Marxist Party-building theory and opens a new realm in its evolution.
I. From "The Party is the Vanguard Organization of the Class" to "The Party is the Highest Force for Political Leadership that Leads Everything"
Political party theory must first answer what the essence of a party is, what its role in political life is, and how that role is exercised. Before the 18th Party Congress, "many problems existed within the Party regarding vague understanding and weak action in upholding Party leadership, as well as the weakening, hollowization, and marginalization of the implementation of Party leadership."[2] This necessitated a systematic answer to how a Marxist governing party should position itself and exercise its role. Xi Jinping pointed out: "The leadership of the Communist Party of China is the most essential feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics. The Communist Party of China is the highest force for political leadership in the country and the fundamental guarantee for achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Southeast, northwest, and center—Party, government, military, society, and academia—the Party leads everything."[3] This important discourse reveals the basic laws governing the leadership and administrative activities of a long-term governing Marxist party.
"A political party is the political organization of a class." Marxist Party-building theory holds that a Marxist party is the party of the proletariat and its organized vanguard. Lenin pointed out that the "revolutionary party of the proletariat" is "the highest form of class association of the proletarians."[4] Mao Zedong noted: "The Communist Party of China is the party of the proletariat. From within the proletariat, a group of relatively advanced people emerged and organized into a group of a political nature called the Communist Party."[5] The introduction of the "Three Represents" [1] further enriched the essential attributes, profound connotations, and practical requirements of a Marxist governing party as the vanguard of the class and the nation. On the basis of adhering to the basic principle that "the Marxist party is the highest form of class organization of the working class," Xi Jinping clearly proposed the major political judgment that "the Party is the highest force for political leadership." This fundamentally reveals that a Marxist governing party possesses the most advanced political attributes and occupies an irreplaceable leading position in the political life of a socialist country. It provides a solid theoretical foundation for establishing the relationship between the leader and the led among the Marxist governing party, various political forces, and state power, and offers ideological support for the Marxist governing party to implement its leadership and governance activities.
Upholding the leadership power of the Marxist party is an inevitable conclusion of the premise that "the Party is the vanguard organization of the proletariat" and is a basic principle of Marxist Party-building theory. "The German Social-Democratic Workers' Party, precisely because it is a workers' party, necessarily pursues 'class politics,' the politics of the working class... Moreover, every real proletarian party, beginning with the English Chartists, has always put forward class politics, the organization of the proletariat as an independent political party, as the primary condition, and the dictatorship of the proletariat as the immediate aim of the struggle."[6] Lenin pointed out: "The proletariat, being the only thoroughly revolutionary class of modern society, must be the leader... of the whole people in the struggle for a complete democratic revolution, in the struggle of all the working and exploited people against the oppressors and exploiters. The proletariat is revolutionary only insofar as it is conscious of and gives effect to this idea of hegemony."[7] The Communist Party of China has always adhered to Marxist basic principles regarding Party leadership. Before the founding of the People's Republic, the system of "unified leadership" (yiyuanhua) [2] of the Party was established in the bases of the Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. In the early days of the New China, the "Common Program of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference" stipulated the Party's leading position. The "1954 Constitution" wrote the adherence to Party leadership into the Preamble and constructed an institutional system for Party leadership. Subsequently, in the process of socialist construction, the Party continuously explored the scientific connotation of Party leadership and constructed its structures and mechanisms. Mao Zedong noted: "Of the seven sectors—industry, agriculture, commerce, culture and education, the army, the government, and the Party—the Party leads everything. The Party must lead industry, agriculture, commerce, culture and education, the army, and the government."[8] Deng Xiaoping emphasized: "To engage in socialist modernization, we must guarantee Party leadership. The most fundamental reason we can withstand storms is the guarantee of Party leadership. Party leadership is the most fundamental of the Four Cardinal Principles."[9] The Constitution of the Communist Party of China adopted at the 12th Party Congress both reaffirmed that "the Party is the core of leadership for China's socialist cause" and specifically stipulated that political, ideological, and organizational leadership are the main contents and methods of Party leadership. Hu Qiaomu [3] explained this provision: "Party leadership is mainly political, ideological, and organizational leadership. The Party must realize this leadership through the formulation and implementation of correct lines, principles, and policies, through meticulous and powerful ideological and political work and propaganda, through rigorous and prudent organizational work, and by giving full play to the vanguard and exemplary role of Party members."[10]
Entering the New Era, faced with prominent problems existing in Party leadership, Xi Jinping pointed out: "Party leadership is comprehensive, systematic, and holistic, and must be implemented comprehensively, systematically, and holistically. We must improve the institutional system of Party leadership that oversees the overall situation and coordinates all parties, improve the mechanism for implementing the major decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee, ensure that the entire Party maintains a high degree of consistency with the Party Central Committee in political stance, direction, principle, and path, and ensure the unity and solidarity of the Party."[11] Xi Jinping both revealed the political rationality of upholding the Party's comprehensive leadership from the political essence that "the Party is the highest force for political leadership," and explained the historical necessity of upholding comprehensive leadership from the historical vision that "the leadership of the Party concerns the future and destiny of the Party and the country." He also clearly designated "upholding the authority of the Party Central Committee and its centralized, unified leadership" as the highest political principle and fundamental political rule. He systematically expounded the basic connotations and practical requirements of upholding and strengthening the Party's comprehensive leadership, requiring that Party leadership must be integrated into all fields of governing the Party, the country, and the military; all aspects of internal affairs, diplomacy, and national defense; and the entire process of decision-making, execution, and supervision, according to the principles of being comprehensive, systematic, and holistic. The upholding and strengthening of Party leadership must achieve institutionalization and legalization, refining the organizational system, institutional system, and working mechanisms of Party leadership. It is necessary to continuously improve the Party's governing capacity and leadership level while improving and perfecting the Party's methods of leadership and governance. The principled contribution of these important discourses lies in using the major judgment that "the Party is the highest political force" to develop the scientific revelation of the nature of the political party in Marxist Party-building theory. Furthermore, the systematic discourse on "the Party's comprehensive leadership" supplements and perfects the leadership principles of a long-term governing Marxist party, thereby providing a fundamental guide for the Marxist governing party to correctly carry out its leadership and governance activities.
II. From the "First Answer" to the "Second Answer" for Escaping the Historical Cycle
How to escape the "historical cycle" [4] is both a historical conundrum that various regimes throughout history and across the world have attempted to solve, and a universal subject that world political parties—especially Marxist parties—must face. In 1945, when answering Huang Yanpei’s [5] question on how the Communist Party of China could "escape the dominion of the cycle," Mao Zedong pointed out: "We have found a new path; we can escape this cycle. This new path is democracy. Only by letting the people supervise the government will the government not dare to slacken. Only when everyone stands up to take responsibility will the government not perish when the leader dies." [12] Xi Jinping pointed out: "As the world's largest Marxist governing party, how can our Party successfully escape the historical cycle of order and chaos, rise and fall, and ensure that the Party never changes its nature, its conviction, or its character? This is a strategic question facing all comrades in the Party. Since the 18th Party Congress, in the great practice of advancing the comprehensive and strict governance of the Party, we have continuously conducted practical exploration and theoretical reflection. On the basis of the 'first answer' given by Comrade Mao Zedong of 'letting the people supervise the government,' we have given a second answer, which is to continuously advance the Party's self-revolution."[13] Xi Jinping’s important thought on the Party’s self-revolution clearly proposed for the first time in the history of Marxist Party-building theory the entirely new theoretical category and ideological system of "the Party’s self-revolution," marking a new height in the regularized understanding of how a Marxist governing party consolidates its long-term governing position.
The basic viewpoints of historical materialism endow the Marxist party with the historical mission of continuously advancing social revolution, and dialectical materialism inherently contains the basic spirit of the Party's self-revolution. "Revolution is necessary, therefore, not only because the ruling class cannot be overthrown in any other way, but also because the class overthrowing it can only in a revolution succeed in ridding itself of all the muck of ages and become fitted to found society anew."[14] The above discourse by Marx and Engels emphasizes that the proletariat can only achieve self-revolution and self-liberation within a social revolution, but it already implies the mutual promotion between the social revolution led by the Party and the Party’s self-revolution. Engels once pointed out: "It seems that any workers' party of a large country can only develop through internal struggle, which is in accordance with the general laws of dialectical development."[15] Lenin emphasized that the Party must have the courage to admit errors and strive to correct them: "We are not afraid to admit our mistakes and shall not be afraid to make repeated efforts to rectify them—and we shall reach the very summit."[16] In its glorious journey of over a hundred years, the Communist Party of China has always adhered to the truth and had the courage to correct mistakes, accumulating ideological understandings and effective forms of self-revolution such as conducting criticism and self-criticism, Party rectification and "rectification of style" (zhengfeng), strict execution of Party discipline, and resolutely advancing the anti-corruption struggle. Mao Zedong pointed out: "We stand for active ideological struggle because it is the weapon for ensuring unity within the Party and the revolutionary organizations in the interest of our fight."[17] Deng Xiaoping’s important judgment that "to rectify our Party well and achieve our strategic goals, if we do not punish corruption—especially the phenomenon of corruption at the high levels of the Party—there is indeed a danger of failure"[18] initially revealed the relationship between Party building and the Party's cause. In his speech at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 14th Central Committee, Jiang Zemin regarded the "great task of leading the people of the whole country in reform, opening up, and the realization of socialist modernization" undertaken by the Party in the new historical period as "a new revolution," and clearly emphasized that "for our Party to lead and advance this revolution, it must itself be strong and powerful."[19]
Since the 18th Party Congress, Xi Jinping has created an important body of thought on the Party's self-revolution in combination with the great practice of the Party's cause and Party governance in the New Era. Taking the 19th Party Congress as a dividing point: before this, Xi Jinping focused on emphasizing that the Party should possess the political courage and political character for self-revolution; after this, he gradually deepened and expanded the understanding of the Party's self-revolution and formed a complete theoretical system. In the report to the 19th Party Congress, Xi Jinping included "having the courage for self-revolution" in the goal system of Party building. At the Third Plenary Session of the 19th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), he profoundly expounded on the "Four Selfs" [6] requirement of the Party's self-revolution. At the Sixth Plenary Session of the 19th CCDI, he proposed the "Six Musts" [7] for advancing the Party's self-revolution. At the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CCDI, he further proposed the "Nine In-orders" [8] as practical requirements for the Party's self-revolution. Viewed from the dimension of the basic principles of Marxist Party building, Xi Jinping’s important thought on the Party’s self-revolution focuses on maintaining the political character of the Marxist party, clearly providing "the Party's self-revolution" as the "second answer" for a Marxist governing party to escape the historical cycle. It emphasizes that forging a powerful political party must persist in the Party's self-revolution; a Marxist party must maintain a "high degree of self-awareness in leading social revolution through great self-revolution." This profoundly reveals the relationship between the Party's self-revolution, the cause led by the Party, and the Party's own development. It systematically expounds on the significant meaning, profound connotation, and specific path of the Party's self-revolution, explicitly defining the pursuit of self-revolution as the normal state for the survival and development of a Marxist party. It comprehensively deepens and sublimates the regularized understanding of how a Marxist party consolidates its long-term governing position, adding new basic principles to Marxist Party-building theory.
III. From "Five Major Pillars of Building" to the "5+2" General Layout of Party Building
"What kind of party to build and how to build it" is the foundational question of Marxist theory on Party building. It requires answering the objectives, tasks, constituent elements, methods, and paths of Party building. The essence of the general layout of Party building lies in prescribing the primary content, key components, and their mutual relations. The process of expanding and enriching the general layout or core content of Party building is the process of the Marxist party's deepening understanding of the laws governing Party building. In the process of guiding the construction of workers' parties in various countries, Marx and Engels formed basic principles for the layout of Party building centered on organizational, ideological, and institutional construction. Lenin’s theory of the new-type proletarian party emphasized ideological construction, organizational construction, the construction of democratic centralism, discipline construction, and the construction of work styles. Before Reform and Opening-up, the Party, in its theory and practice of Party building, formed primary contents including ideology, organization, and work style, emphasizing that ideological construction must be placed first. After Reform and Opening-up, contents such as institutional construction and the anti-corruption struggle were gradually added, and the concept of the "general layout of Party building" was progressively developed and refined. The "Decision of the CPC Central Committee on Several Major Issues Concerning the Strengthening of Party Building," adopted at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 14th CPC Central Committee, summarized the Party's achievements in ideological, theoretical, political, organizational, and work style construction since the Third Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee. In a speech in May 2002, Jiang Zemin proposed that we "must organically combine ideological, organizational, and work style construction, and permeate them with institutional construction" [28]. This general layout of Party building was confirmed in the report to the 16th CPC National Congress, which also for the first time raised the major task of "building the Party's governing capacity." The report to the 17th CPC National Congress clarified that the general layout of Party building included "five major constructions": ideological, organizational, work style, institutional, and anti-corruption and integrity construction, identifying the Party’s governing capacity and advancement [9] as the main thread. The report to the 18th CPC National Congress continued to use the "five major constructions" layout and, surrounding the main thread of Party building, added "purity construction." Although the report explicitly called for "strengthening the Party’s discipline construction," it did not yet place this within the general layout.
For a period, prominent problems existed within the Party, such as the "intertwining of political and economic issues," "insufficient political and principled nature of intra-Party political life," and "lax Party discipline." These indicated that the primary components of Party building had to adapt to the practical development of Party building. Consequently, the general layout of Party building achieved a new breakthrough in the report to the 19th CPC National Congress. In this report, Xi Jinping made a general deployment and comprehensive arrangement for Party building in the New Era using the "General Requirements for Party Building in the New Era," achieving innovative development in the basic principles, main thread, focus points, objectives, and tasks of Party building. Examined from the level of fundamental principles, the outstanding contribution of these General Requirements lies in the first explicit inclusion of the Party's political construction and discipline construction into the general layout of Party building, further elucidating the mutual relationships between various forms of construction. Xi Jinping profoundly pointed out: "Practice has made us realize deeply that the Party's political construction determines the direction and effect of Party building; if we do not grasp political construction or deviate from the direction guided by political construction, it will be difficult for other aspects of Party building to achieve their expected results" [29]. Setting his sights on maintaining the political advancement of a Marxist party—the foundation of Party building—and on resolving prominent political problems within the Party such as the "seven types of misconduct" [10]. Xi Jinping, for the first time in the history of the development of Marxist Party-building theory, explicitly emphasized that "political construction is the fundamental construction of the Party," "we must use political construction to command all work of Party building," and "the primary task of the Party's political construction is to ensure that the whole Party obeys the Central Committee and upholds the authority and centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee." This both profoundly clarified the important status and great value of the Party's political construction and systematically expounded its primary content and path, making the Marxist party's theoretical understanding of political construction more scientific. An advanced Marxist party must formulate and strictly implement high-standard disciplinary rules. However, the failures of some large and old Marxist parties in discipline construction also show that issues such as party members and cadres having an unclear understanding of the connotation of disciplinary rules, the unscientific formulation of rules, and the "relaxed, soft, and weak" execution of rules are matters to which Marxist party building must pay high attention. Xi Jinping emphasized that discipline construction is the "routine work" of Party building and the "fundamental cure for comprehensively and strictly governing the Party." He pointed out: "We must persist in governing the country according to law and governing the Party according to regulations, and hold up and establish discipline and rules"; "Strengthening discipline construction is the fundamental cure for comprehensively and strictly governing the Party... Comprehensively and strictly governing the Party focuses on strengthening discipline construction" [30]. The "5+2" general layout [11] of Party building is more consistent with the laws of building a Marxist governing party and represents a major innovation in Marxist Party-building theory. Incorporating political and discipline construction into the general layout is a theoretical manifestation of the Party reaching a new height and achieving new results in its law-based understanding of the core content of Party building.
IV. From "the Party must Manage the Party and Strictly Govern the Party" to "Comprehensively and Strictly Governing the Party"
The basic view of Marxist Party-building theory is that to maintain the advancement and purity of a Marxist party, one must strictly manage and govern the Party. Marx’s provision in the "General Rules of the International Workingmen's Association" that "every section is at liberty to... be responsible for the integrity of its members" [31] indicates that a Marxist party must strictly manage and restrain its members. Starting from Lenin, and particularly in the development of the Communist Party of China, the law-based understanding of managing and governing the Party has gradually deepened. Lenin pointed out: "We are the only party in the world, the party of the revolutionary working class, that does not seek quantity of members, but pays attention to improving the quality of members and 'cleansing the Party of those who have crept into it'" [32]. In a letter to Lei Jingtian regarding the Huang Kegong case [12], Mao Zedong solemnly pointed out: "The Communist Party and the Red Army cannot but enforce stricter discipline upon its own members and Red Army personnel than upon ordinary civilians" [33]. In 1962, Deng Xiaoping pointed out: "The Party must manage the Party: first, manage the members, and second, manage the cadres. For a governing party, the most critical part of 'the Party managing the Party' is the issue of cadres, because many members are cadres of various levels" [34]. In 1985, the CPC Central Commission for Guiding Party Consolidation first proposed the requirement for "strictly governing the Party" in the "Notice on the Deployment of Rural Party Consolidation Work." Jiang Zemin first proposed the need to "persist in the Party managing the Party and strictly governing the Party" in the report to the 14th CPC National Congress and clarified it as the policy that Party building must adhere to in the report to the 16th CPC National Congress. The longer a Marxist party governs and the more complex its governing environment, the higher the requirements for the scientific, systematic, and effective nature of managing and governing the Party. Before the 18th CPC National Congress, the grim reality was that "some Party members and cadres experienced wavering political faith; in some places and departments, the 'Four Winds' persisted despite repeated prohibitions; the mentality and phenomenon of privilege were relatively serious; and some corruption problems were shocking" [35]. This caused many people to be "deeply worried," necessitating that the CPC form a more law-based understanding and propose a more systematic strategy on how a Marxist governing party can effectively manage and govern itself.
After the 18th CPC National Congress, Xi Jinping adhered to the basic viewpoints of Marxist Party-building theory and emphasized that "the Party managing the Party and strictly governing the Party is the consistent requirement and fundamental policy of Party building" [36]. After first proposing "comprehensively advancing the strict governance of the Party" in October 2014, he formally proposed "comprehensively and strictly governing the Party" in December of the same year and included it in the "Four Comprehensives." The proposal of "comprehensively and strictly governing the Party" added a new original concept to the system of Marxist Party-building theory. "The core of comprehensively and strictly governing the Party is strengthening the Party's leadership, the foundation lies in 'comprehensive,' the key lies in 'strict,' and the essential point lies in 'governing'" [37]. This assertion is concise yet rich in connotation, pointing out the "core," "foundation," "key," and "essential point," and providing a scientific definition of the concept centered on basic philosophy, core tenets, and practical requirements. It achieved an innovation in the philosophy and methods of Marxist Party-building theory regarding managing and governing the Party. In the report to the 20th CPC National Congress, Xi Jinping explicitly proposed the requirement to "improve the system for comprehensively and strictly governing the Party." This global and pioneering work requirement reflects that Xi Jinping's understanding of the laws governing how a Marxist party manages and governs itself is constantly advancing with the times. In his speech at the Second Plenary Session of the 20th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, Xi Jinping pointed out: "The system for comprehensively and strictly governing the Party should be a dynamic system with rich connotation, complete functions, scientific norms, and efficient operation. To improve this system, we need to persist in institutional Party governance and governing the Party according to regulations, emphasizing the organic connection, integrated linkage, and synergy of all aspects of Party building; emphasizing the improvement of systems and mechanisms and the scientific effectiveness of laws and regulations; and emphasizing the use of governance concepts, systematic concepts, and dialectical thinking to manage, govern, and build the Party" [38]. This discourse specifies the essential characteristics of the system, emphasizing that managing and building the Party must value the application of governance concepts, systematic concepts, and dialectical thinking, further revealing the objective laws of how to advance comprehensive and strict Party governance. In June 2024, while presiding over a group study session of the CPC Central Committee Political Bureau, Xi Jinping made deployments regarding "improving the system for comprehensively and strictly governing the Party," emphasizing the need to improve an "organizational system that links the upper and lower levels and is powerful in execution," an "educational system that strengthens the foundation and consolidates the soul," a "supervisory system that takes precise action and treats both symptoms and root causes," a "regulatory system that is scientific, complete, and effective," and a "responsibility system with clear subjects and requirements" [39]. This indicates that comprehensively and strictly governing the Party in the New Era has become increasingly systematized in both theory and practice, reflecting the Party's deeper understanding of basic laws. The fundamental contribution of Xi Jinping’s important discourses on comprehensively and strictly governing the Party lies in defining it as a basic principle that a Marxist party must always adhere to, pointing out that it should highlight a problem-oriented approach, strengthen scientific thinking, and focus on system construction, thereby elevating the basic Marxist viewpoints on Party management and strict governance into the basic principles of "comprehensively and strictly governing the Party."
(The author is the Director and Professor of the Department of Party Building at the Party School of the CPC Shanxi Provincial Committee) Web Editor: Tongxin Source: Theoretical Vision, Issue 1, 2025