Han Zhenfeng: Persist in Regarding Benefiting the People as the Greatest Achievementof One's Official Career
Carrying out education and study on establishing and practicing a correct outlook on career achievements is a major task for Party building this year.
The Outline of the "15th Five-Year Plan" proposes to "educate and guide officials at all levels to establish and practice a correct outlook on career achievements." Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has attached great importance to the issue of career achievements. General Secretary Xi Jinping has delivered a series of important discourses on establishing and practicing a correct outlook on career achievements, clearly emphasizing that "Communists must remember that benefiting the people is the greatest achievement," and proposing the "establishment and practice of an outlook on career achievements centered on benefiting the people." Currently, the broad masses of Party members and officials must deeply understand and grasp the spirit of these important speeches and instructions. They must further strengthen the concepts of establishing the Party for the public and benefiting the people, consciously achieving career results for the people through practice and solid work, so as to provide a powerful guarantee for making a good start and taking solid steps during the "15th Five-Year Plan," and for comprehensively advancing the great cause of building a strong country and national rejuvenation through Chinese-path modernization.
Distinguishing What Constitutes a Correct Outlook on Career Achievements
Career achievements (政绩, zhèngjì), as the name implies, are the performance results of governance; they refer to the successes achieved and contributions made by leading officials in the process of fulfilling their duties. From the perspective of the subject-object relationship, the scale of career achievements is a comprehensive manifestation of a leading official’s virtue, ability, and quality in practice. An outlook on career achievements (政绩观, zhèngjìguān) is a leading official’s fundamental view and general perspective on such achievements. It is a specific manifestation of their worldview, outlook on life, and values, as well as their views on power, status, and interests in their political conduct. Generally speaking, the outlook on career achievements reflects the value orientation of a leading official’s entrepreneurial spirit and work, including for whom achievements are established, what kind of achievements are established, and what means are used to establish them.
There is a distinction between a correct and an incorrect outlook on career achievements. A correct outlook is the concentrated manifestation of the Marxist worldview and methodology in the evaluation of career achievements. It requires leading officials at all levels to always adhere to the fundamental purpose of wholeheartedly serving the people and the people-centered development philosophy. They must insist that development is for the people, relies on the people, and its fruits are shared by the people. They must think what the masses think, be anxious about what the masses are anxious about, and solve the difficulties of the masses. They should do more work that lays a foundation, benefits the long term, improves people's livelihoods, and wins the hearts of the people. By doing good and practical deeds that resonate with the people, they can create achievements that stand the test of practice and history, truly benefit the people, and gain public recognition. An incorrect outlook is the opposite; it stands entirely on the position of the individual or a small clique. This is prominently manifested in some officials who do not hesitate to damage the interests of the people, the collective, or even the state to fish for personal achievements. Whether one persists in benefiting the people is both the fundamental difference and the fundamental standard for measuring a correct versus an incorrect outlook on career achievements.
Grasping the Scientific Connotation and Internal Logic
The people are our Party's greatest source of confidence in its governance. For Chinese Communists, the people are the core of a correct outlook on career achievements and the value source of all endeavors. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "The Communist Party of China regards working for the people and benefiting 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 inspecting achievements." To this end, we must profoundly grasp its scientific connotation and internal logic.
It is a direct manifestation of the Party's nature and purpose. The "people-centered nature" is the essential attribute and most distinctive character of Marxism. Marx and Engels solemnly declared in the Manifesto of the Communist Party: "All previous movements were movements of minorities, or in the interest of minorities. The proletarian movement is the self-conscious, independent movement of the immense majority, in the interest of the immense majority." As an advanced party guided by Marxism, the Communist Party of China has no special interests of its own and has never represented the interests of any interest group, power group, or privileged stratum. The CPC is the vanguard of the Chinese working class, and at the same time, the vanguard of the Chinese people and the Chinese nation; it is the core of leadership for the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Fundamentally, our Party represents the fundamental interests of the broadest possible range of people and always adheres to the fundamental purpose of wholeheartedly serving the people. Our Party's original aspiration and founding mission are to seek happiness for the Chinese people and rejuvenation for the Chinese nation. The Party's nature, purpose, and original aspiration and founding mission determine that Party members and officials must always maintain the people’s standpoint, represent the people’s interests, and stand on the side of the people. They must persist in establishing the Party for the public and exercising power for the people, taking benefiting the people as the starting point and final goal of all work. "He who wins the people's hearts wins the world" [1]. Only by effectively benefiting the people can our Party's foundation of governance remain rock-solid.
It is an inherent meaning of the Party’s goals of struggle. Communists engage in causes and create achievements for the sake of benefiting the people. Our Party takes the people's yearning for a better life as its goal of struggle, striving to maintain and promote social fairness and justice, and striving to promote common prosperity for all people. As socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a New Era, the principal contradiction in Chinese society has been transformed [2]. The people's need for a better life has acquired richer and more profound connotations of the times, presenting characteristics of diversification, multi-layering, and many facets. In this context, benefiting the people—whether in terms of expanding its connotation or its evaluation criteria—increasingly needs to adapt to the new characteristics and trends of the New Era. This includes not only satisfying the people's demand for higher levels of material civilization, but also the requirement to accelerate the pace of spiritual civilization [3]. It must satisfy not only realistic expectations regarding education, employment, elderly care, medical care, housing, and social security, but also higher expectations for democracy, the rule of law, fairness, justice, security, and the environment. We must continuously promote new progress so that the young have overseas education [4], the student has teachers, the worker has rewards, the sick have doctors, the elderly have care, the resident has a home, and the weak have support.
It is an inevitable requirement of the Party's mass line. Our Party's level and effectiveness of governance are not decided by the Party itself; they must and can only be judged by the people. The masses are the source of strength for leading officials to create achievements and the supreme judge of all achievements. Implementing the Party's mass line is an internal requirement for establishing and practicing a correct outlook on career achievements. The mass line is our Party's lifeline and fundamental working line. Our Party started by mobilizing, organizing, and relying on the masses. Any work of the Party must always stay committed to the principle of "everything for the masses, relying on the masses in everything, from the masses to the masses." The process of implementing the mass line is, in fact, the process of persisting in serving and benefiting the people. We must be guided by a correct outlook on career achievements, guaranteed by scientific evaluation standards, and consciously become selfless contributors dedicated to benefiting the people. We must always keep the masses in our hearts and minds, do more practical deeds that satisfy the people, fully mobilize their enthusiasm, initiative, and creativity, and follow the Party's mass line well in the New Era.
Practicing a Correct Outlook on Career Achievements through Solid Work and Responsibility
Achievements are achieved through action; only through real work can real achievements be produced. Party members and officials should solidly carry out study and education on establishing and practicing a correct outlook on career achievements. They should closely combine the implementation of the CPC Central Committee’s spirit with creative work linked to reality. In specific tasks, they should act according to objective laws and rules, engage in "grasping real work" (真抓实干, zhēn zhuā shí gàn), be brave in taking responsibility, and integrate the correct outlook of benefiting the people throughout the entire process and all aspects of their endeavors.
This should be reflected in the process of promoting high-quality development. High-quality development is the primary task of building a modern socialist country in all respects. Persisting in high-quality development must become an important component of a leading official’s outlook on career achievements. We must improve the evaluation methods for high-quality development to promote Party members and officials to earnestly practice a correct outlook on career achievements and effectively form a correct work orientation. This is no easy feat; it needs to be implemented in every link of high-quality development, using a correct outlook to drive high-quality, sustainable development. For example, in further comprehensively deepening reform, we must ensure that the fruits of reform and development benefit all people more extensively and fairly. In promoting economic construction, we must focus on solving the problem of unbalanced and inadequate development to better meet the multi-layered and diverse needs of the people. In building a culturally strong country, we must continuously satisfy the people’s growing spiritual and cultural needs and enrich their inner worlds. In ecological civilization construction, we must firmly establish and practice the "Two Mountains" theory [5] to build a Beautiful China with bluer skies, greener mountains, clearer water, and a more beautiful environment.
Focus on solving the most immediate and realistic interest problems that the masses are most concerned about. The highest standard for all the Party's work must be the fundamental interests of the broadest possible range of people. The premise of benefiting the people is to always place the people in the highest position in one’s heart; it depends on whether the people truly receive benefits, whether their lives are truly improved, and whether their rights and interests are truly protected. Party members and officials should always keep the people's livelihood, safety, and well-being in mind, and use their hearts, emotions, and strength to solve practical problems such as employment, education, social security, medical care, housing, elderly care, food safety, and social order. We must persist in shifting the focus of work downward, going deep into reality, the grassroots, and the masses, and sincerely caring about their actual hardships by doing more "sending charcoal in the snow" [6]. Whether one persists in benefiting the people should be an important criterion for assessing officials' achievements. We must continue to improve the evaluation system for official performance and perfect mechanisms for preventing and correcting deviations in the outlook on career achievements. We must improve the public service system and promote social fairness and justice so that the people’s sense of gain, happiness, and security is more substantial, more guaranteed, and more sustainable.
Persist in working hard and seeking practical results. "Great truths are simple, but solid work is essential" [7]. Doing things and taking responsibility are the duties and value of Party members and officials. To establish and practice a correct outlook on career achievements, the broad masses of Party members and officials must persist in proceeding from reality and acting according to objective laws. As long as something meets the requirements of new practices and conforms to the wishes of the masses, it must be carried out with the "nail-driving spirit" [8] of hitting one hammer after another. They should consciously establish the breadth of mind and vision characterized by "success does not have to be mine, but I must contribute to its success" [9], carry forward the style of seeking truth from facts and working hard, and truly be responsible to history and the people. We must both grasp the present and look to the long term; urgent matters should be acted upon immediately and handled strictly, while long-term tasks must be persisted over the long term and pursued with perseverance. By adhering to "drawing a single blueprint to the end" [10], we will surely turn grand goals into beautiful reality.
Resolutely oppose formalism and bureaucratism. Formalism and bureaucratism are the arch-enemies of a correct outlook on career achievements. In the process of their endeavors, the broad masses of Party members and officials, especially leading officials at all levels, must take resisting formalism and bureaucratism as an important task. They should focus on curing the chronic diseases of formalism and bureaucratism, do more things that lay a foundation and benefit the long term, and avoid "image projects" (形象工程, xíngxiàng gōngchéng) that are all show and "vanity projects" (政绩工程, zhèngjì gōngchéng) that waste money and labor. Specifically, they must not engage in being "greedy for the big and foreign" [11], acting blindly and recklessly, or playing to the gallery. Nor should they engage in being "flashy but unsubstantial" (华而不实, huá ér bù shí), opportunistic trickery, or falsifying data. Even more, they must not seek quick success and instant benefits, "drain the pond to catch the fish" [12], or exhaust the people and waste resources. On the new journey, we must always adhere to the correct outlook on career achievements of benefiting the people, and continuously create results that can stand the test of practice, the people, and history, contributing wisdom and strength to the comprehensive advancement of building a strong country and national rejuvenation.