Liu Honglin: Profoundly Grasping the Original Contributions of General Secretary Xi Jinping's Important Thought on Party Building

On the occasion of the 102nd anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, the National Conference on Organizational Work was held in Beijing from June 28 to 29. General Secretary Xi Jinping issued important instructions on Party building and organizational work, emphasizing the need to profoundly understand the Central Committee’s important thoughts on Party building, thoroughly implement the general requirements for Party building in the New Era and the Party's organizational line for the New Era, and further advance the great new project of Party building in the New Era. Advancing Party building as a "great project" ^[1] while consistently adhering to the principles and policies of "the Party exercising self-supervision" and "comprehensively and strictly governing the Party" is a major innovation of our Party, as well as a "magic weapon" ^[2] for founding, governing, revitalizing, and strengthening the Party.

Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, facing the "four tests" ^[3] and "four dangers" ^[4] as well as the grim situation in Party building, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has focused closely on the fundamental proposition of "what kind of long-term governing Marxist party to build and how to build it" in the New Era. Approaching the matter from the height of the life and death of the Party and the state, the resolution of unique challenges facing a large party ^[5], and escaping the "historical cycle" ^[6], the Central Committee has comprehensively and strictly governed the Party, carried out the Party's self-revolution, and persisted in and strengthened the Party's overall leadership. Inheriting and carrying forward the fine traditions of Party building, it has creatively applied modern governance concepts, systemic perspectives, dialectical thinking, and rule-of-law thinking to the management and governance of the Party. It has proposed and implemented a series of new concepts, thoughts, strategies, and measures, continuously advancing innovation in the theory, practice, institutions, and methods of Party building. This has made comprehensively and strictly governing the Party the distinctive theme of Party building in the New Era and the great practice of the Party's self-revolution, opening up a new realm for the self-revolution of a century-old major party. General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important thoughts on Party building have enriched and developed Marxist Party-building theory and the theoretical system of Sinicized Marxism on Party building through a series of original achievements, bringing our Party’s understanding of the laws governing the construction of a Marxist governing party to a new height.

Proposing the general requirements for Party building in the New Era and improving the content system of Party building

Since the 18th CPC National Congress, on the basis of advancing the comprehensive and strict governance of the Party toward greater depth, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has treated Party building as a systemic project and conducted top-level design. The report to the 19th CPC National Congress clearly put forward the general requirements for Party building in the New Era. These general requirements are comprehensive, systemic, and holistic, representing an organic unity of many elements such as the fundamental purpose, basic policy, main line, political characteristics, internal drive, content layout, quality requirements, and developmental goals of Party building. Summarily, they possess at least four major innovations:

First, they closely link the Party’s leadership, Party building, and comprehensively and strictly governing the Party. They take persisting in and strengthening the Party’s overall leadership as a vital task, and the Party exercising self-supervision and being comprehensively and strictly governed as the strategic policy, effectively overcoming phenomena such as the weakening and hollowing out of Party building, "self-rotation," and "idling," ^[7] as well as misunderstandings in ideological perception. Second, they focus on "clearing the source and strengthening the foundation" ^[8], highlighting the political characteristics of a Marxist party and its construction. They place the Party’s political building at the forefront, using it as the overarching guide to advance Party building in all areas and preserve the political character of Communists. As General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Taking a clear-cut political stand is the fundamental requirement for our Party as a Marxist party. The Party’s political building is its fundamental construction and determines the direction and efficacy of Party building. Ensuring that the whole Party obeys the Central Committee and upholds the CPC Central Committee’s authority and centralized, unified leadership is the primary task of the Party’s political building." Third, they uphold the fundamentals and break new ground, enriching and improving the content system of Party building. They have developed the content of Party building in the New Era into a "5+2" layout ^[9], making it more comprehensive, perfect, and scientific. Within this, the Party’s discipline is highlighted and strictly enforced, with disciplinary building newly incorporated into the basic content of Party building. The fundamental, overall, stable, and long-term nature of the Party's institutional building is emphasized, with institutional building integrated throughout all aspects of Party building. It also emphasizes the in-depth advancement of the anti-corruption struggle, elevating "anti-corruption and integrity advocacy" to the "anti-corruption struggle" and listing it separately. Fourth, they establish requirements such as always standing at the forefront of the times, enjoying the heartfelt support of the people, having the courage to carry out self-revolution, withstanding various storms and tests, and being full of vigor as the basic goals for building a Marxist governing party in the New Era. The general requirements and strategic layout of Party building in the New Era provide a concentrated reflection of the enrichment and development of Marxist Party-building theory and the theoretical system of Sinicized Marxism on Party building, marking a new peak in our Party’s understanding of "how to build a long-term governing Marxist party."

Unswervingly comprehensively and strictly governing the Party and constructing a system for doing so

As a "great project," Party building emphasizes "construction," which includes the meaning of managing and governing the Party. As the distinctive theme of Party building in the New Era, "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 crux lies in 'governing'." Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has governed the Party comprehensively and strictly from the height of the life and death of the Party and the state. Starting with the formulation and implementation of the Eight-Point Regulations, it has strictly corrected the "Four Winds" from the top down, tightened Party discipline, and severely punished corruption. Moving from the strict management of officials to the strict governance of the Party, and then to the comprehensive and strict governance of the Party, it has continuously pushed the process toward greater depth. A notable feature of the decade of comprehensively and strictly governing the Party in the New Era is the persistence in incremental progress, addressing both symptoms and root causes, and comprehensive governance. It has focused on strengthening the Party's construction in political, ideological, organizational, conduct, disciplinary, and regulatory fields as well as in the anti-corruption struggle, earnestly implementing the responsibility for governing the Party. On the basis of deepening the theory and practice of this process, General Secretary Xi Jinping clearly proposed new concepts, thoughts, and requirements for improving the system of comprehensively and strictly governing the Party.

In his speech at the summary meeting of the Party's mass line education and practice activities, General Secretary Xi Jinping clearly put forward eight requirements for persisting in strictly governing the Party under new circumstances: implementing the responsibility for strict governance; persisting in the close integration of ideological Party building and institutional Party governance; normalizing intra-Party political life; strictly managing cadres; continuously and deeply improving conduct; tightening Party discipline; leveraging the role of people’s supervision; and profoundly grasping the laws of strictly governing the Party. He required that "all efforts to strictly govern the Party must be concentrated on enhancing the Party's capacity for self-purification, self-perfection, self-innovation, and self-improvement, and on enhancing the Party's leadership and governing capacity while maintaining and developing the Party's advanced nature and purity." In the report to the 20th National Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping again proposed new concepts for improving the system of comprehensively and strictly governing the Party, emphasizing that "the system of comprehensively and strictly governing the Party should be a dynamic system with rich connotations, complete functions, scientific norms, and efficient operation." Improving this system requires "persisting in institutional and regulation-based Party governance, placing greater emphasis on the organic connection, linkage, and coordination of all aspects of Party building, greater emphasis on the perfection of systems and mechanisms and the scientific effectiveness of regulations, and greater emphasis on applying governance concepts, systemic perspectives, and dialectical thinking to manage, govern, and build the Party."

At the same time, he put forward clear requirements for improving this system, requiring that the "comprehensive" requirement, the "strict" tone, and the "governance" concept be implemented into its construction. This means ensuring full coverage in content—wherever Party building extends, the system for strict governance must follow; full coverage in subjects—facing all levels of Party organizations and all members to manage and govern the entire Party; a full chain of responsibility—pressing home the primary responsibility of Party committees (party leadership groups) at all levels and the oversight responsibility of commissions for discipline inspection; and full integration in institutions—embodying institutional requirements throughout the entire process, all aspects, and all levels of strict governance to truly achieve institutional and regulation-based Party governance. These requirements aim to continuously improve the institutionalized, standardized, and scientific level of strict governance, ensuring that all work better reflects the times, grasps objective laws, and is full of creativity, thereby providing political, ideological, and organizational guarantees for the healthy development of the Party and state's cause. Both the theory of comprehensively and strictly governing the Party in the New Era and the requirements for improving its system carry pioneering significance in the history of Marxist Party-building theory and the Sinicized Marxist theoretical system.

Advancing the Party's self-revolution and forming the theory of self-revolution in the New Era

Having the courage to carry out self-revolution and strictly managing and governing the Party is the most distinctive character of our Party and a salient mark that distinguishes us from other political parties. In the great practice of comprehensively and strictly governing the Party, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has continuously deepened its understanding of self-revolution. It has not only treated self-revolution as the Party's political courage, spiritual character, and distinctive mark, but has also explicitly identified it as the "second answer" to "escaping the historical cycle of rise and fall," ^[10] endowing the term with new connotations and significance. A review of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important discourses on advancing the Party's self-revolution reveals that: self-purification, self-perfection, self-innovation, and self-improvement constitute the basic connotations of the Party's self-revolution in the New Era; and "fortifying the bones, detoxifying and disinfecting, 'cutting off one's own arm' ^[11] to save the body, and removing corruption to let new flesh grow, constantly clearing the viruses that erode the Party’s healthy body, and continuously improving self-immunity to prevent the decline of the state" are the core essence and basic requirements.

Regarding the practical path for the Party's self-revolution, General Secretary Xi Jinping explicitly proposed requirements in six areas: persist in taking the Party's political building as the guide to maintain the fundamental political direction of self-revolution; persist in taking ideological building as the foundational construction to temper the sharp ideological weapon of self-revolution; resolutely implement the spirit of the Eight-Point Regulations and rectify conduct through strict discipline to enrich the effective ways of self-revolution; persist in punishing evil and fighting corruption with the force of a thunderbolt to win the tough and protracted battle of self-revolution; persist in enhancing the political functions and organizational power of Party organizations to forge a cadre team that is brave and skilled in struggle and self-revolution; and persist in constructing a system of institutional norms for self-purification, self-perfection, self-innovation, and self-improvement to provide institutional guarantees for advancing the great self-revolution. General Secretary Xi Jinping has closely linked self-revolution, comprehensive and strict governance, and the resolution of unique challenges of a large party. He emphasizes both that "comprehensively and strictly governing the Party is the great practice of the Party's self-revolution in the New Era, opening up a new realm for the self-revolution of a century-old party" and that "comprehensively and strictly governing the Party is an ongoing journey; we must always remain clear-headed and determined to solve the unique challenges of a large party." He treats these processes as the inevitable path to solving those challenges. He has clearly pointed out the basic connotations, core essence, practical paths, and institutional guarantees of the Party's self-revolution in the New Era, effectively achieving a contemporary unity of the spirit, theory, and practice of self-revolution. This has seen the preliminary construction of a theory of the Party's self-revolution, which likewise holds pioneering significance in the history of Marxist Party-building theory.

Proposing and advancing regulation-based Party governance and innovating methods for Party building in the New Era

Strengthening Party building in pace with the times and continuously advancing the great new project of Party building involves both concepts and theories, as well as modes and methods. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has inherited and expanded the fine traditions of "building the Party ideologically" and "strengthening the Party theoretically." It has fully absorbed the successful experience of strengthening the Party's institutional construction since the Reform and Opening-up and clearly put forward new concepts and requirements for "institutional Party governance" and "regulation-based Party governance." In October 2014, General Secretary Xi Jinping explicitly proposed the requirement for "institutional Party governance," emphasizing that "strictly governing the Party relies on education as well as institutions; one is soft and the other is hard, and they must exert force in the same direction and at the same time." In June 2015, he formally proposed the requirement for "regulation-based Party governance" ^[12], emphasizing the need to "persist in governing the country according to law and governing the Party according to regulations." The 19th CPC National Congress for the first time wrote "persisting in regulation-based Party governance and addressing both symptoms and root causes" into the Party Constitution, making it a basic principle. The intensity and effectiveness of advancing intra-Party regulatory construction and regulation-based Party governance in the New Era have been unprecedented. Today, not only has a relatively complete system of intra-Party regulations been formed, with institutional authority and execution continuously increasing, but a theory of regulation-based Party governance in the New Era has also taken shape.

General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important expositions on the governance of the Party according to regulations ^[13] not only clearly point out the importance, basic connotation, value goals, and fundamental requirements of governing the Party according to regulations in the New Era, but also explicitly propose the practical strategies and paths for this endeavor. Regarding the importance and basic connotation, General Secretary Xi Jinping clearly pointed out: in the process of law-based governance, the Party must both "govern the country and manage state affairs in accordance with the Constitution and laws" and "manage and govern the Party in accordance with internal Party regulations." He emphasized that "only when governing the Party according to regulations wins the hearts of the Party members can law-based governance win the hearts of the people." He framed the strengthening of the system of internal Party regulations and governing the Party according to regulations as the long-term and fundamental strategy for comprehensively and strictly governing the Party, and viewed institutional Party governance and governing the Party according to regulations as the basic political guarantee for leading social revolution through the Party's self-revolution.

Regarding the value goals and basic requirements of governing the Party according to regulations in the New Era, General Secretary Xi Jinping clearly pointed out: we must "enhance our consciousness and determination in governing the Party according to regulations, maintain a firm political direction, raise our political standing, shoulder our political responsibilities, and continue to promote the construction of the system of internal Party regulations around the overall situation of the work of the Party and the state." We must "give full play to the significant role of internal Party regulations in maintaining the centralized and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee, guaranteeing the Party's long-term governance and the long-term stability of the country, and playing a major role in advancing the new great project of Party building in the New Era and implementing the comprehensive and strict governance of the Party, ensuring that the Party always remains a strong leadership core in the historical process of persisting in and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics."

Regarding the practical strategies and paths, General Secretary Xi Jinping clearly pointed out: the Party Constitution must be taken as the general basis for governing the Party according to regulations; the promotion of governing the Party according to regulations must be based on the principle of democratic centralism ^[14]; we must ensure there are regulations to follow, that regulations are followed, that enforcement is strict, and that violations are prosecuted; we must persist in scientific, democratic, and high-quality formulation of regulations; and Party members and cadres must study, know, and comply with regulations, "establishing the rigidity of the system" and strengthening institutional execution. Simultaneously, General Secretary Xi Jinping has closely integrated the persistence in and strengthening of the Party's overall leadership, governing the Party according to regulations, comprehensively and strictly governing the Party, and promoting the Party's self-revolution. He has not only demanded the improvement of the system of the Party's leadership, but also explicitly proposed new concepts, ideas, and requirements for "improving the system of norms and standards for the Party's self-revolution." He emphasized that to improve the system of norms and standards for the Party's self-revolution, we must "persist in institutional Party governance and governing the Party according to regulations, taking the Party Constitution as the fundamental basis and democratic centralism as the core, improving the system of internal Party regulations, enhancing their authority and execution, and forming a mechanism for adhering to the truth, correcting errors, discovering problems, and rectifying deviations."

The original contributions of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important thoughts on Party building are reflected in his persistence in a problem-oriented, value-oriented, and goal-oriented approach combined with systems thinking. These contributions center on the core issue of escaping the "historical cycle" ^[15], with the key being the persistence in and strengthening of the Party’s overall leadership. He focuses closely on: maintaining the centralized and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee; persisting in the principle that the Party must manage the Party and govern itself comprehensively and strictly; persisting in taking the Party's political building as the overarching guide; persisting in the "unwavering keynote of strictness" ^[16]; persisting in the "nail-driving spirit" ^[17] to strengthen conduct-building; persisting in punishing corruption with zero tolerance; persisting in correcting all corruption and unhealthy tendencies that harm the interests of the masses; persisting in grasping the "key minority" ^[18] to lead by example; and persisting in improving the Party and state supervision systems. Through these efforts, he has advanced the comprehensive and strict governance of the Party while carrying out innovations in theory, practice, institutions, and methods.

Furthermore, the original contributions of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important thoughts on Party building are reflected in the close connection between comprehensively and strictly governing the Party, the Party’s self-revolution, escaping the historical cycle, and solving the "unique challenges of a large party." ^[19] He is committed to ensuring that our Party "never forgets its original aspiration and founding mission," "always unifies its thoughts, will, and actions," "always possesses strong governing ability and leadership level," "always maintains a proactive spirit for entrepreneurship," "is always able to discover and solve its own problems in a timely manner," and "always maintains a clean and upright political ecosystem." Under the persistence in and strengthening of the Party's overall leadership, he leads a new great social revolution through the Party's self-revolution in the New Era. With the sobriety and determination that this work is "always on the road," ^[20] he advances the great cause of building a strong country and national rejuvenation.