Zheng Wentao: Deeply Grasping the Requirements of the Times for Establishing and Practicing a Correct Outlook on Political Performance
During this year’s National Two Sessions [1], General Secretary Xi Jinping, while participating in a deliberation with the Jiangsu delegation, emphasized: "We must earnestly organize and carry out education on establishing and practicing a correct outlook on performance [2]. We must guide the broad ranks of Party members and cadres to implement the general requirements of 'founding the Party for the public good, benefitting the people, making scientific decisions, and taking practical actions with real results,' thereby creating achievements that can withstand the test of practice, the people, and history." An outlook on performance not only reflects the political stance, Party spirit [3], and spiritual realm of Party members and cadres, but also concerns the overall development of the cause of the Party and the state, as well as the vital interests of the masses. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, General Secretary Xi Jinping has delivered a series of important expositions centering on the establishment and practice of a correct outlook on performance. He has profoundly elucidated major questions such as "for whom performance is established, what kind of performance should be established, and by what means is performance established," pointing the way forward and providing an important following for leading bodies at all levels and the broad ranks of Party members and cadres to lead high-quality development with a correct outlook on performance.
In February 2026, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee issued the Circular on Carrying Out Education Throughout the Party on Establishing and Practicing a Correct Outlook on Performance. It proposed "fully implementing General Secretary Xi Jinping's important expositions on establishing and practicing a correct outlook on performance, and persevering in promoting comprehensively and strictly governing the Party," as well as "educating and guiding Party organizations at all levels and Party members and cadres to adhere to seeking truth from facts and being realistic and pragmatic, producing performance for the people and through hard work." On the New Journey [4], we must take the opportunity of this educational campaign to profoundly grasp the rich connotations and epochal requirements of establishing and practicing a correct outlook on performance. We must implement the Major Decision-making Arrangements of the CPC Central Committee with practical actions, strive to achieve a successful start to the "15th Five-Year Plan," and together compose a new chapter in the great cause of building a strong country and national rejuvenation.
1. Adhere to Tempering Party Spirit and Strengthening the Foundation to Fortify the Ideological Basis of a Correct Outlook on Performance
In the dao of governance, self-cultivation is fundamental. To create achievements, one must resolve the questions of for whom, what kind, and how achievements are created—that is, one must resolve the issue of the outlook on performance. A correct outlook on performance guides us in correctly transforming our subjective world. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: "In establishing and practicing a correct outlook on performance, Party spirit plays the decisive role. Only when Party spirit is strong and selfish motives are discarded can we ensure that the outlook on performance does not deviate." Party spirit is the cornerstone for Party members and cadres to establish themselves, their careers, their speech, and their virtue. The outlook on performance is the touchstone for testing their Party spirit and conduct. Strong Party spirit is the ideological foundation and source of power for a correct outlook on performance; the two nourish and complement each other. A distorted outlook on performance, in the final analysis, stems from a deviation in understanding; its root lies in betraying Party spirit, losing sight of the Party's purpose, and abandoning one's convictions. To establish and practice a correct outlook on performance, we must grasp the fundamental task of "strengthening Party spirit," clarifying the source and strengthening the foundation. We must cultivate the "Study of the Mind" [5] of Communists, allowing a correct outlook on performance to be implanted in the heart, integrated into the blood, and manifested in action.
Strong Party spirit is not innate, nor is it achieved once and for all. Strengthening the cultivation of Party spirit is not a matter for "a moment" but for "a lifetime"; it requires constant cultivation, tempering, realization, and advancement. A primary goal of conducting concentrated intra-Party educational campaigns is to educate and guide Party members and cadres to keep in mind the fundamental questions of what the CPC is and what it aims to do, and to perseveringly strengthen the tempering of Party spirit, firm up ideals and convictions, and practice the original aspiration and founding mission. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: "Use ideals and convictions to strengthen the foundation, use the Party’s innovative theories to arm the whole Party, and use excellent traditional culture to rectify the heart and clarify virtue, thereby supplementing the 'calcium' of the spirit, forging the 'soul' of thought, and building a solid line of defense for ideological morality." Currently, in carrying out education on the outlook on performance, we must identify gaps, investigate root causes, and strengthen cultivation from the perspective of Party spirit, effectively enhancing political, ideological, and behavioral consciousness. Party members and cadres must further fortify the foundation of faith, supplement the "calcium" of the spirit, and steady the helm of thought. They must regard being loyal to the Party, sharing the Party’s concerns, fulfilling duties for the Party, and benefitting the people as their greatest political responsibility, preserving the political character of Communists and using a correct outlook on power, performance, and career to guide practice, promote work, and create achievements.
2. Adhere to Putting the People First and Benefitting the People to Anchor the Fundamental Position of a Correct Outlook on Performance
The question of "for whom" is the touchstone for testing the nature of a political party and a regime. Our Party was born for the people and has flourished because of the people; it has no special interests of its own other than the interests of the people. All the Party's work is intended to realize, safeguard, and develop the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people. Comrade Mao Zedong pointed out: "All speech and action of Communists must have as their highest standard the compliance with the greatest interests of the broadest masses of the people and the support of the broadest masses of the people." Comrade Deng Xiaoping explicitly required that whether the people support, approve, are happy with, or agree to something must be the starting point and the ultimate goal for formulating guidelines and policies and making decisions. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: "The Communist Party of China regards working for the people and benefitting the people as its most important achievement, and regards how many good and practical things have been done for the common people as the important standard for testing performance." The support or opposition of the people is the ultimate politics. Adhering to "people first" is the distinct background color of all our Party's theory and practice, and the genetic code for the Party’s perpetual vigor and strong combat effectiveness. Only by placing the people in the highest position can all struggle have meaning and all performance have value.
In governing the country, there are constants, and benefitting the people is the foundation. As socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered the New Era, the principal contradiction in Chinese society has evolved into the contradiction between the people’s ever-growing need for a better life and unbalanced and inadequate development. The process of continuously meeting the people’s needs for a better life and letting them lead a good life is the process of resolving the principal social contradiction and promoting social progress. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "The people are the source of our Party's strength; our Party’s foundation is in the people and its bloodline is in the people. We must place the people in the highest position in our hearts and always take the people's heart as our own." He also noted, "Our goal is grand yet simple; in the final analysis, it is to let the common people lead a better life." Adhering to the people-centered development philosophy and ensuring that development is for the people, relies on the people, and its fruits are shared by the people is the fundamental value orientation of Chinese Communists as they forge ahead on the New Journey. Party members and cadres must profoundly comprehend the questions of "who am I, for whom am I working, and on whom do I rely"—the questions of original aspiration and mission. They must strengthen their awareness of being public servants and their sentiments for the people, pursuing the spiritual realm of "I shall be selfless and live up to the people." They must firmly establish an outlook on performance that benefits the people, consciously becoming selfless contributors dedicated to the people's welfare. They should constantly reflect on why they joined the Party, what they are doing as "officials," and what they will leave behind. They must insist on being "officials of the common people," "sitting their backsides squarely on the side of the common people," and striving to handle the affairs of benefitting the people well and practically to win a good reputation among the masses.
3. Adhere to Seeking Truth from Facts and Taking Practical Action to Grasp the Spiritual Essence of a Correct Outlook on Performance
Seeking truth from facts is the essence of Marxism and the fundamental requirement for Chinese Communists to understand and transform the world; it is our Party’s basic ideological, working, and leadership method. Reviewing 105 years of glorious struggle, our Party has consistently adhered to the scientific attitude of seeking truth from facts, uniting and leading the people through arduous exploration and great practice in revolution, construction, and reform. We have ushered in a great leap for the Chinese nation from standing up to becoming wealthy and then becoming strong, continuously advancing toward the grand goal of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "All our past achievements relied on seeking truth from facts. Today, to continue pushing forward the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics, we still rely on seeking truth from facts. All comrades of the Party must adhere to liberating the mind, seeking truth from facts, and advancing with the times, always prepared to uphold the truth and correct errors." Seeking truth from facts is the important magic weapon for truly understanding why the CPC can, why socialism with Chinese characteristics is good, and how, in the final analysis, it is because Marxism works—specifically, because Marxism that has been Sinicized and modernized works. All achievements created by Chinese Communists must be rooted in the soil of "reality" and follow the criteria of "laws." Adhering to proceeding from reality and consciously acting according to objective laws—this is the spiritual essence and core meaning of establishing and practicing a correct outlook on performance.
The outlook on performance is closely linked to the outlook on development. High-quality development is the primary task of building a modern socialist country in all respects, and it is also the theme of economic and social development during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period and for a longer time to come. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: "Adhering to high-quality development must become an important part of the outlook on performance for leading cadres." Promoting high-quality development is a systemic project. We must fully, accurately, and comprehensively implement the New Development Philosophy [6]. We must comprehensively consider factors such as politics and economy, reality and history, matter and culture, development and people’s livelihood, and resources and ecology. We must handle the relationships between stability and progress, establishing the new and breaking the old, the virtual and the real, the symptoms and the root causes, and the near-term and the long-term. We must seek truth from facts, make scientific decisions, and perform practical work to find a path of high-quality development that fits our own reality and possesses local characteristics. Leading bodies and cadres at all levels must firmly establish the distinct orientation that "performance is achieved through action; only real action leads to real performance." They should act according to local conditions and specific matters—doing what must be done, striving to do what can be done, and resolutely not doing what should not be done. They must guard against the Four Winds, especially formalism and bureaucratism. With the spiritual realm of "success does not have to be attributed to me" [7] and the historical responsibility of "I must contribute to the success," they should work hard one term after another, taking one solid step at a time, and act as determined practitioners and men of action in Chinese-path modernization.
4. Adhere to a Problem-Oriented Approach and Institutional Building to Consolidate the Institutional Guarantee of a Correct Outlook on Performance
Adhering to a problem-oriented approach is an inherent requirement and important method for promoting the development of comprehensively and strictly governing the Party in depth. In carrying out education on the outlook on performance, we must combine the problem-oriented approach with a goal-oriented approach, effectively integrating problem awareness throughout the entire process of education, and continuously proposing new ideas, mechanisms, and methods to truly solve problems. We should clearly recognize that deviations and distortions in the outlook on performance still exist among leading bodies and cadres in some localities and units. These include: selective execution of the CPC Central Committee’s decisions, making unrealistic decisions that run counter to the people's wishes, "new officials ignoring old debts" [8], seeking quick success and instant benefits, being fond of greatness and craving success, practicing fraud, acting blindly and recklessly, engaging in "image projects" and "vanity projects," "flipping the pancake" [9] with policies and plans, and irregularly increasing local government hidden debt. These problems and phenomena seriously damage the interests of the masses and the relationship between the Party and the masses. If they are not corrected in time and are allowed to spread, they will shake the Party’s governing foundation. Through education, we must carry out concentrated rectification and promote the implementation of reforms, using a correct outlook on performance to guide the whole Party in establishing a new atmosphere of integrity, making the Party stronger and more powerful.
General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: "The Party's self-revolution focuses on governing power; locking power into the cage of institutions is an important task of comprehensively and strictly governing the Party in the New Era." The issue of the outlook on performance is closely related to the wayward abuse of power; power must be locked in the cage of institutions. We must discover institutional loopholes, shortcomings, and weaknesses from the problems identified and rectified during the educational process. We must effectively supplement and establish institutions and rules, promoting institutional building on a regular and long-term basis. We must clearly stipulate what can and cannot be done, for whom one works, and how one should work. We must establish and improve mechanisms to effectively prevent and rectify deviations in the outlook on performance, making the system more mature and stereotyped, and fully playing the role of guidance, incentive, regulation, and constraint. We must establish a correct orientation for selecting and appointing personnel, taking the establishment and practice of a correct outlook on performance as an important part of cadre inspections and as an important basis for cadre selection, appointment, evaluation, and rewards. Adhering to the combination of strict management and "kindness and care" [10], we must implement the "Three Distinctions" [11], daring to stand up for those who take responsibility and backing those who get things done. We must improve the high-quality development assessment system and the cadre performance evaluation system, enhancing the relevance and scientific nature of assessments, and giving full play to the role of assessment as a "baton" to fully mobilize the enthusiasm, initiative, and creativity of Party members and cadres.
The New Journey is a new Long March. To comprehensively promote the construction of a strong country and the great cause of national rejuvenation through Chinese-path modernization is the central task of the Party and the state on the New Journey in the New Era. Facing the complex and volatile international situation and the increasing number of uncertain and unpredictable factors, Chinese Communists in the New Era must carry forward the spirit of historical initiative and the spirit of self-revolution. They must establish and practice a correct outlook on performance, maintain strategic focus in complex situations, have the courage to take responsibility in the face of risks and challenges, and create solid achievements in serving the people. They must continuously cross the new "Loushan Pass" and "Lazikou" [12] on the road ahead, creating new great miracles through new great struggles.