He Husheng and Xue Siqi: Implementing the Spirit of the Central Eight-Point Regulation to Advance Chinese Modernization
Recently, the Party Central Committee decided to carry out an in-depth study and educational campaign throughout the Party from after the 2025 National Two Sessions [1] until July to thoroughly implement the spirit of the central Eight-Point Regulations. The formulation and implementation of the Eight-Point Regulations has been the opening move and a "trust-building act" [2] for the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core to persistently rectify conduct and discipline and to advance the Party’s self-revolution since the 18th National Congress. It has played a vital role in the revolutionary forging of comprehensively and strictly governing the Party in the New Era. On the new journey, the whole Party must deeply implement the spirit of the Eight-Point Regulations, using conduct construction [3] to strengthen Party leadership and using excellent conduct to coalesce the hearts of the Party and the people, thereby safeguarding the steady and sustained progress of Chinese-path modernization.
The formulation and implementation of the Eight-Point Regulations is the breakthrough point for promoting conduct construction
The issue of conduct concerns the very survival of a governing party; this is a precious piece of experience accumulated by our Party over its century-long struggle. Attaching great importance to conduct construction is a political advantage demonstrated by our Party during its long-term leadership of revolution, construction, and reform. Entering the New Era, facing new historical coordinates and development requirements, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has inherited and carried forward the glorious traditions and excellent conduct accumulated over the long term. It began its work by formulating and implementing the Eight-Point Regulations as an opening move, pushing the Party's conduct construction into a new stage. Shortly after the 18th National Congress, a meeting of the Political Bureau deliberated and adopted the Eight-Point Regulations of the 18th CPC Central Committee Bureau on Improving Working Conduct and Maintaining Close Ties with the Masses. Taking the strengthening of conduct construction as its main thread, it made systematic deployments across eight areas, including investigation and research, the style of meetings and documents, overseas visits, and diligence and frugality. This was the first important intra-Party regulation formulated by the Party Central Committee after the 18th National Congress, becoming a landmark measure for the Party to strengthen conduct construction in the New Era.
The Eight-Point Regulations focus on leading from the top, creating a "head goose effect" [4] of demonstration and driving. As the saying goes, "He who is good at prohibiting must first prohibit himself before others" [5]. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Conduct construction must start with leading officials, and leading officials must start with central leaders." Formally, the Eight-Point Regulations are codes of conduct for members of the Political Bureau; however, their introduces established a benchmark for conduct construction for the entire Party, nation, and military. They play a crucial guiding role, promoting a general improvement in the atmosphere across the Party. The Detailed Rules for the Implementation of the Central Eight-Point Regulations explicitly require: "All regions and departments must, in strict accordance with these detailed rules and in light of actual conditions, formulate more specific and operable implementation measures covering leading officials at all levels, and grasp implementation firmly to ensure results are achieved." The Eight-Point Regulations combine the specificity of leading by example with the universality of demonstration and driving, starting with improving the working conduct of Party members and officials and setting a clear reference point through the personal actions of central leading officials. They combine the central top-level design with the subjective initiative of all levels, effectively mobilizing the enthusiasm of both central and local authorities so that conduct construction truly takes root and achieves results.
The Eight-Point Regulations target specific problems, ensuring conduct construction is aimed at a clear target. The Party's conduct is a complex concept involving many aspects. If conduct construction lacks focus, it easily lapses into formalism and becomes "shouting slogans"; if it is too fragmented, it easily leads to everyone going their own way and becomes "going through the motions." The Eight-Point Regulations are eight aspects of improving working conduct in the New Era, refined and summarized by the Party Central Committee in response to prominent problems facing the Party's conduct construction under new circumstances. They clarify the basic requirements for improving conduct and point out the direction for developing a healthy political ecosystem. Based on the Eight-Point Regulations, the Party Central Committee and local Party organizations at all levels have successively introduced a series of systems for contacting and serving the masses and regulating the exercise of power, making strict, detailed, and operable regulations for all aspects of intra-Party life. Facing specific problems and emphasizing implementation, the Eight-Point Regulations effectively solved the key questions of what to grasp and how to grasp conduct construction under the new situation, providing a breakthrough point and a mobilization order for the Party's conduct construction in the New Era.
Strengthening Party leadership through continuous conduct construction
The Eight-Point Regulations are the "golden business card" of the Party's conduct construction in the New Era. Conduct construction is an eternal theme of Party building, relating to the Party's image, prestige, and its rise or fall. It is a key link for our Party to maintain its original aspiration and founding mission, consolidate its governing foundation, and win historical initiative. Since the 18th National Congress, from taking the Eight-Point Regulations as the breakthrough point to focusing on rectification according to these regulations, and then to long-term consolidation through implementing their spirit, the Party's conduct construction in the New Era has continued to deepen. This has made the Party's leadership over various undertakings stronger and more powerful, forging a strong leadership core for advancing Chinese-path modernization.
Polishing the original aspiration and founding mission through conduct construction to shape a Party with firm beliefs. Conduct construction is a unique creation of the Communist Party of China in practice. Looking across the world, almost no other political party has ever imposed such strict and detailed regulations on its members' ways of working and living. The Party’s conduct is the external manifestation of the advanced nature and purity of a Marxist party, and a visible characteristic of the original aspiration and founding mission of Chinese Communists. Ideal and belief are the foundations upon which Communists base their lives; they determine the value pursuits, spiritual realm, and self-cultivation of Party members, and fundamentally determine their conduct. Therefore, Party spirit and Party conduct are an interconnected, dialectical, and unified community. Starting from practical actions, the Party's conduct construction forms a synergy with other elements of Party building, treating both symptoms and root causes, and cultivating both internal and external qualities to jointly guard the "master switch" [6] of Party members' ideals and beliefs. In practice, the Party insists on tackling Party spirit, conduct, and discipline together, transforming the firm ideals and beliefs of Party members and officials into conscious conduct practices, and strengthening the sense of mission and responsibility of Communists through in-depth conduct construction.
Enhancing governing capacity through conduct construction to build a Party with powerful leadership. Formalism, bureaucratism, hedonism, and extravagance—the Four Winds—are the great enemies affecting our Party's leadership level and long-term governing capacity. Through specific correction of the behavior of Party members and officials, conduct construction wages a resolute struggle against the Four Winds, standardizes behavioral patterns, and promptly resolves problems of "distortion" in policy implementation. On the one hand, by rectifying formalism and bureaucratism, it eliminates malpractices such as dereliction of duty and inaction, or the reckless misuse of power. it clears bottlenecks and obstacles in the implementation of the Party Central Committee’s major decisions and deployments, and promotes the formation of a political ecosystem characterized by solid work and responsibility. On the other hand, by rectifying the hidden dangers of hedonism and extravagance, it corrects the "privilege mentality" and corrupt behavior of Party members and officials, breaks them out of the "comfort zone" of being content with the status quo and lacking ambition, and ensures they maintain and carry forward the fine tradition of hard struggle, promoting a spiritual state of striving for achievement.
Assisting self-revolution through conduct construction to temper a Party with clear-eyed self-awareness. Conduct construction is an important component of comprehensively and strictly governing the Party and a key link with leading significance and endogenous function in the Party's self-revolution. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Why did the Party Central Committee start with the Eight-Point Regulations to grasp the construction of a clean government? It is because the Four Winds and corruption are two sides of the same coin; the former is the breeding ground for the latter." The Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection explicitly emphasized that the interweaving of misconduct and corruption is a prominent problem to be solved in the current stage of improving Party conduct, building a clean government, and the anti-corruption struggle. Through guiding and standardizing the behavior of Party members and officials, conduct construction plays the role of making the Party's self-revolution concrete, detailed, and long-lasting. The degeneration of Party members and officials often begins with the formation of bad conduct; conduct construction is the first internal line of defense for resisting corruption and preventing degeneration. "Rectifying conduct" and "enforcing discipline" complement each other. By persistently promoting conduct construction, the normative dimension of self-revolution is extended in time and space, achieving the goal of nipping problems in the bud and preventing gradual decline.
Leading social and folk customs with excellent Party conduct
General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: "Formulating and implementing the central Eight-Point Regulations is a trust-building act of our Party in the New Era. We must grasp it unremittingly and persist over the long term until it truly becomes a custom, leading social and folk customs with excellent Party conduct." The Eight-Point Regulations are not the highest standard, but the basic requirement that Communists should achieve. Implementing them is not the ultimate goal, but a breakthrough point for the formation of excellent Party and government conduct and a healthy social atmosphere. Since the 18th National Congress, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has deeply advanced conduct construction, solving chronic ailments that affected social customs for a long time, consolidating the Party's governing foundation, changing the social appearance of China in the New Era, and opening broad prospects for Chinese-path modernization.
Building healthy Party-mass relations to consolidate the Party's governing foundation. The people are the greatest source of confidence for the Party's governance. At its core, the issue of conduct is an issue of the relationship between the Party and the masses. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "If the Party's conduct is upright, the people will be in high spirits; the Party and the people can then share weal and woe." Since the New Era began, the Party has started with specific issues that the masses feel strongly about—such as excessive hospitality, "mountains of documents and seas of meetings" [7], banquets at public expense, and gifts bought with public funds. It has continuously expanded the scope of rectification, standing in the position of the broad masses of the people, especially determining to rectify the Four Winds issues that make the common people feel "uncomfortable" or "indignant." Moving from the surface to the deep, from the easy to the difficult, and extending from behavioral norms to the improvement of Party spirit, the Party has gradually achieved the goal of building a clean and upright political ecosystem. When the Party's conduct is upright and its prestige among the masses is high, the advancement of the causes of the Party and the state becomes smoother and more powerful. Through continuous strengthening of conduct construction, the Party maintains its "flesh-and-blood ties" with the people, winning their heartfelt trust and support, and continuously consolidating the political foundation for the Party's long-term governance.
Leading the improvement of social customs to coalesce the synergy for modernization. The Communist Party of China is the leadership core of the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics and the backbone of the whole society. Party members play a vanguard and exemplary role in society; therefore, Party and government conduct profoundly affects and even shapes social and folk customs. Since the 18th National Congress, while rectifying its own conduct, the Party has also set a benchmark for good moral character in the whole of society. On the one hand, the Party has continuously improved the system of regulations for conduct construction and created healthy and clean intra-Party relations, effectively curbing the breeding and spread of unhealthy tendencies. On the other hand, the Party has combined conduct construction with promoting social customs that advocate virtue and goodness, requiring Party members, officials, and public servants to take the lead in resisting outdated customs, thereby promoting a continuous improvement in social atmosphere. Conduct construction in the New Era has not only gradually eliminated corruption and malpractices within the Party but has also fostered good customs, eliminated filth, and brought about clarity throughout society, gathering social synergy to advance Chinese-path modernization.
Providing a strong guarantee for Chinese-path modernization through new achievements in conduct construction
The Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee sounded the clarion call of the times to further comprehensively deepen reform and advance Chinese-path modernization. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "The greater the risks, the more challenges, and the heavier the tasks, the more we must strengthen the Party's conduct construction, using good conduct to boost spirits, stimulate fighting will, establish a good image, and win the hearts of the people." On the new journey, we must deeply implement the spirit of the central Eight-Point Regulations and promote the normalization and long-term effectiveness of conduct construction to contribute to Chinese-path modernization.
Maintaining clarity in planning and advancing the cause through continuous conduct construction. Through long-term efforts, conduct construction in the New Era has achieved remarkable results, strengthening Party leadership, purifying the political ecosystem, and leading social customs. However, it must also be seen that on the new journey, the importance of conduct construction is not smaller but greater, and the tasks are not fewer but more. On the one hand, the accumulated evils and toxic remnants of the Four Winds that affect the Party's good conduct still exist; any slackening could lead to a resurgence or even a rebound. On the other hand, with the gradual deepening of Chinese-path modernization and the continuous emergence of new things, new questions and challenges are posed to the Party's conduct construction. Therefore, on the new journey, we must maintain the consciousness that "the road is always ahead," continuously strengthen conduct construction in line with the requirements of the times, and maintain strategic clarity in managing the Party and preventing corruption while planning and advancing our cause.
Enhancing the resolve to start businesses and pursue careers through in-depth conduct construction. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "After decades of governing in peace, many Party members and officials have not experienced the test of life and death, and lack the tempering of severe struggle and harsh environments. They are prone to pursuing ease and pleasure, becoming demoralized and lacking ambition." As the realization of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation enters a critical period, advancing Chinese-path modernization will inevitably encounter various predictable and unpredictable risks, challenges, difficulties, and even "stormy waves" [8]. Therefore, on the new journey, we must promote deeper conduct construction—one that touches the heart—to boost the spirit and fighting will of the broad masses of Party members and officials. We must resist the unhealthy tendencies of demoralization and indulgence in pleasure, maintain the Party's cohesion and combat effectiveness, and inspire all comrades in the Party to move forward with one heart and one mind on the path of Chinese-path modernization.
Winning the initiative in career development through solid conduct construction. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "The key to promoting the cause of reform and development lies in the Party, and the key is for the broad masses of Party members and officials to have excellent working conduct. Experience proves that the most important thing in grasping conduct construction is to be 'earnest' (jiang renzhen)." The Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee proposed more than 300 reform measures involving systems, mechanisms, and institutions at multiple levels. This especially requires Party members and officials to use solid conduct and strict discipline to align themselves with the center and take real actions. Therefore, on the new journey, conduct construction must center on the overall situation of the development of the Party and the country. The process of improving conduct should be organically integrated with the process of implementing the Party's theories, lines, principles, and policies. This will allow Party members and officials to change their conduct and temper their thinking in the process of further comprehensively deepening reform, using the new atmosphere of Party and government conduct to promote new achievements in the cause of Chinese-path modernization.