Yan Xiaofeng: The issue of performing for political achievements is a fundamental one
The outlook on career achievements (政绩观) is the fundamental perspective and general view toward political accomplishments; it is the concrete manifestation of a leading cadre’s worldview, outlook on life, and values within the practice of governance. General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out that "the issue of the outlook on career achievements is a fundamental one." In the opening year of the "15th Five-Year Plan," the entire Party is carrying out study and education on establishing and practicing a correct outlook on career achievements. The goal is to resolve the fundamental questions of for whom achievements are created, what kind of achievements are created, and how they are created. This aims to effectively prevent and rectify deviations in the outlook on career achievements and guide Party members and cadres to practice the Party's fundamental purpose, creating actual results that can withstand the test of practice, the people, and history.
Concerns the Principle of Building a Party for the Public and Governing for the People
"Holding office for one term and benefiting the local people" [1] is the professional requirement for leading cadres. To hold office, one must have the ambition to perform great feats and the pursuit of creating achievements, while the dominant ideological motivation is the outlook on career achievements. This outlook serves as the internal drive, conceptual guide, and value standard for cadres at all levels to fulfill their duties, influencing and determining various choices made while exercising power. In every cadre’s words and deeds—how they handle problems, treat responsibilities, and view interests—the outlook on career achievements is clearly reflected. Its formation is the result of the interaction between subjective and objective factors, and a correct outlook can be established through a combination of study and education, tempering through practice, and self-cultivation and self-improvement.
The reason the issue of the outlook on career achievements is a fundamental one is that it concerns the principles of building a Party for the Public and Governing for the People (立党为公、执政为民). Our Party's original aspiration and founding mission are to seek happiness for the Chinese people and rejuvenation for the Chinese nation; this aspiration and mission are the fundamental driving forces inspiring Communists to forge ahead. Only by establishing a correct outlook on career achievements and adhering to the original aspiration and founding mission in governance can the purpose of building a Party for the public and governing for the people be practiced and implemented. If the outlook on career achievements is displaced—engaging in "image projects" [2] or "vanity projects" [3], where "achievements" become bargaining chips for promotion or vehicles for corruption—then the more and greater an official's "achievements" are, the greater the damage to the cause of the Party and the people, deviating from the purpose of building a Party for the public and governing for the people. Establishing a correct outlook can urge the governance behavior of cadres at all levels to revolve closely around building a Party for the public and governing for the people, whereas a wrong outlook will harm the Party’s cause and violate the interests of the people.
Carrying out study and education on establishing and practicing a correct outlook on career achievements provides correct directional guidance, strong spiritual momentum, and scientific practical adherence for the broad masses of Party members and cadres to strive toward realizing the strategic tasks of the "15th Five-Year Plan" period and building a modern socialist country in all respects. This is of great and far-reaching significance. Since the New Era, the Party Central Committee has deeply advanced the comprehensive and strict government of the Party, clarifying the criteria for good cadres in the New Era—being firm in belief, serving the people, being diligent and pragmatic, daring to take responsibility, and being honest and upright. It has explicitly backed and encouraged cadres who dare to take responsibility, work pragmatically, and do not seek personal gain, promoting significant results in establishing and practicing a correct outlook on career achievements. At the same time, we must see that the phenomenon of displaced outlooks on career achievements still exists within the ranks of Party members and cadres. For example, some suffer from serious formalism and bureaucratism, acting out of personal or small-group interests, being impetuous, seeking quick success and instant benefits, resorting to fraud, and acting blindly and recklessly, thereby leaving behind burdens and hidden dangers that cause public dissatisfaction. In the pursuit of achievements, some engage in unconventionality for its own sake, are fond of grandiosity, use flowery but impractical methods [4], waste money and manpower, and follow the practice of "new officials ignoring the debts of their predecessors." If these erroneous outlooks are not corrected in time, they will produce adverse consequences, affecting the realization of the main goals of the "15th Five-Year Plan" and damaging the Party’s prestige and image among the people. We must, through study and education, integrally advance "learning, inspecting, and rectifying," deeply searching for problems in the outlook on career achievements and carrying out concentrated rectification. This will make the willingness, courage, and ability to take responsibility become common practice, promoting a good start for the "15th Five-Year Plan" and providing a strong guarantee for comprehensively advancing the great cause of building a strong country and national rejuvenation through Chinese-path modernization.
Producing Achievements for the People and Producing Achievements through Practical Work
Since the 18th CPC National Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping has made many important expositions on establishing and practicing a correct outlook on career achievements, such as "benefiting the people is the greatest achievement" and "we must establish and practice a correct outlook on career achievements, persist in proceeding from reality, act according to objective laws, and consciously produce achievements for the people and produce achievements through practical work." These deeply explain the scientific connotation of establishing a correct outlook and the practical requirements for practicing it. The "Notice on Carrying Out Study and Education on Establishing and Practicing a Correct Outlook on Career Achievements throughout the Party" issued by the General Office of the CPC Central Committee explicitly puts forward the general requirements of building a Party for the public, benefiting the people, scientific decision-making, and doing solid work. Specifically, establishing and practicing a correct outlook on career achievements mainly includes the following aspects:
First, firmly establish an outlook on achievements based on building a Party for the public and taking responsibility for the Party. As the Party's cadres, they must proceed from realizing the Party's missions and tasks, be loyal to the Party, share the Party's worries, firmly protect the Party, and strive to promote the Party. They must resolutely respond to what the Party Central Committee advocates, resolutely implement what the Party Central Committee decides, and resolutely prohibit what the Party Central Committee forbids, doing their utmost to complete the duties and tasks assigned by the Party. They should work diligently and uncomplainingly for the cause of the Party and the people, seeking neither fame nor fortune, concentrating on their work without distraction, and pursuing the work entrusted by the Party as a career rather than just a profession or a "rice bowl." Party cadres must insist that power belongs to the public and not to individuals; they must be selfless, clearly distinguish between public and private interests, put the public before the private, and forget private interests for the sake of the public. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Only with a strong Party spirit and by discarding selfish motives can we ensure that the outlook on career achievements does not deviate." Some leading cadres have impure motives, tying their work to personal fame and fortune; as soon as they achieve a little success, they reach out to the organization for rewards. To address this, we must start by strengthening Party spirit and correcting this self-centered outlook on career achievements.
Second, firmly establish an outlook on achievements based on benefiting the people and prioritizing people's interests. All work of leaders at all levels must take the fundamental interests of the broadest masses of the people as the highest standard. They must effectively use the power bestowed by the people to benefit the people, revolve closely around what the people think and hope for, work for the common people with single-mindedness, and focus on solving the most immediate and practical interest issues that concern the people most. The effectiveness of all work by leaders at all levels must ultimately be tested by whether the people have truly received tangible benefits, whether their lives have truly improved, and whether their rights and interests have been truly guaranteed. "Love what the people love, and hate what the people hate" [5]; Party cadres must keep the expectations of the people in mind, sincerely listen to the voices of the masses, truly reflect the wishes of the masses, and genuinely care about the hardships of the masses. They should understand the people's situation, resolve their worries, alleviate their grievances, and warm their hearts—thinking what the people think, being anxious about what the people are anxious about, and solving the difficulties of the people. They must persist in regarding the matters the people care about as their own major tasks. Any problems strongly reflected by the masses must be handled seriously, and any behavior harming the interests of the masses must be resolutely corrected. They must understand that "gold and silver cups are not as good as the reputation among the masses" [6]; it is only truly good if the masses say so. Wherever there is a need from the people is where good and practical things can be done and where achievements can be created. Communists engage in undertakings and create achievements for the sake of benefiting the people, not for personal promotion or loss. Regarding personal reputation, status, and interests, one must think through them and see them lightly, consciously discarding the "small abacus" [7] in one's heart.
Third, firmly establish an outlook on achievements based on scientific decision-making and adhering to high-quality development. Leading cadres possess decision-making power, and how they make decisions reflects the orientation of their outlook on career achievements. Development is the Party’s top priority in governing and rejuvenating the country, and what kind of development is achieved is also governed by the outlook on achievements. Promoting high-quality development is the theme of economic and social development, and scientific decision-making is the key support for Party members and cadres to lead development and promote implementation. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "High-quality development is the primary task of building a modern socialist country in all respects, and adhering to high-quality development must become an important content of the leading cadres' outlook on career achievements." Adhering to high-quality development does not mean not wanting growth speed, but rather that we cannot simply "judge heroes by GDP growth rate." What we need is speed that is real and without "water," speed that improves people's livelihoods and ensures relatively full employment, speed where labor productivity increases synchronously, economic vitality is enhanced, and structural adjustment is effective, and speed where the quality and efficiency of economic development are improved without bringing "sequelae." We must reverse the mindset of only caring about economic growth while ignoring other undertakings, and reverse the practice of doing whatever it takes for economic growth regardless of the consequences, which ultimately results in more loss than gain. We must persist in scientific decision-making, grasp the laws of development, clarify the direction of work, and be good at "calculating the big accounts, the total accounts, and the long-term accounts" to achieve quality, efficient, and sustainable development.
Fourth, firmly establish an outlook on achievements based on doing solid work and daring to take responsibility. Taking action and responsibility is the duty of cadres. Achievements are produced through work; only real work can produce real results and result in real achievements. Cadres must have a sense of responsibility; the scale of the undertaking depends on the scale of responsibility taken, and the level of achievement depends on the level of duty fulfilled. One cannot just want to be an official without doing work, just want power without taking responsibility, or just want the glory without putting in the effort. One should not avoid difficulties or shirk responsibilities out of a sense of duty, but rather take pride in taking responsibility and feel shame in passive inaction. Within the scope of their duties, they should actively take on the heavy and difficult tasks, avoiding being "lazy officials" who eat their fill all day but do nothing [8], or "mediocre officials" who pass the buck and lack initiative. All thoughts and behaviors of lacking initiative, being mediocre and slack in governance, seeking only to protect oneself, and just getting by are incompatible with the expectations of the people and the requirements of the New Era. Leading cadres must be brave enough to "carry the heaviest burdens," "gnaw the hardest bones," and "handle the hottest sweet potatoes" [9]. At the same time, with the mental state of "the success does not have to be mine, but the success must involve my contribution," they should work hard one term after another, following through with one good blueprint to the end, and turn established scientific goals and good work blueprints into reality with their feet on the ground. It is right to want to do things and create achievements, but one cannot "start another set of programs" just for the sake of creating personal achievements. They must do practical things that the people can see, touch, and benefit from, but also do good things that lay the foundation and benefit the long term for future generations—doing both "visible work" (显功) and "invisible work" (潜功).
Firmly Establish and Practice a Correct Outlook on Career Achievements
The "15th Five-Year Plan" period is a critical period for basically realizing socialist modernization and an important period for leading cadres to start businesses and create achievements. We must profoundly grasp the fundamental nature of the issue of the outlook on career achievements, guide cadres to firmly establish and practice a correct outlook, stimulate the internal drive for entrepreneurship, calibrate the direction of creating achievements, and fully mobilize their enthusiasm, initiative, and creativity to create achievements worthy of the Party, the people, and the times.
Deepen study and education to lay a solid ideological foundation. The outlook on career achievements is centrally reflected in ideological concepts. We must strengthen study and education in terms of theoretical basis, ideological roots, and values, clearing erroneous outlooks from the mind and letting the correct outlook take firm root, guiding the governance behavior of cadres at all levels with a correct outlook. Organize Party members and cadres to deeply study General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important expositions on establishing and practicing a correct outlook on career achievements, further strengthening the concepts of building a Party for the public and benefiting the people. In establishing a correct outlook, Party spirit plays a decisive role: if Party spirit is strong, the outlook will be correct; if it is weak, the outlook will be biased. We must hold tightly to the key of Party spirit education, finding gaps, checking roots, and strengthening cultivation from the perspective of Party spirit—seeing whether ideal and belief are firm, whether public and private interests are clearly distinguished, and whether the pursuit of truth and pragmatism is persistent. When Party spirit is strengthened, the correct outlook on career achievements will have a solid foundation.
Strengthen practical training to temper responsibility and commitment. The outlook on career achievements is influenced by the social environment and requires Party members and cadres to strengthen their tempering in practice. Comprehensively advancing the building of a strong country and the great cause of national rejuvenation through Chinese-path modernization is the central task of the Party and the country on the new journey in the New Era. Realizing this great historical mission inevitably requires the whole Party to establish and practice an outlook on career achievements that conforms to the requirements of the times and lives up to the heavy trust of history. On the new journey, our country's development faces new problems, and entrepreneurship has new content. Leading cadres must integrate the practice of a correct outlook into the central work and serve the overall situation of development, withstanding the test of major struggles, major contradictions, and major risks. At critical and dangerous moments, they must dare to take responsibility, charge forward, and hold the line, demonstrating the outlook on career achievements of Communists of the New Era through actual performance and contributions.
Advance the comprehensive and strict governance of the Party to consolidate political guarantees. Comprehensively and strictly governing the Party is the distinct theme of Party building in the New Era, providing a strong guarantee for establishing a correct outlook on career achievements. Implementing the major decision-making deployments of the Party Central Committee more resolutely and powerfully is the practical requirement for the cadres' outlook on career achievements. We must effectively implement the decision intentions, target requirements, and work priorities of the major strategic tasks for economic and social development during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, promoting development with a correct outlook. More scientifically and effectively confining power in the "cage of institutions" is the institutional guarantee for establishing and practicing a correct outlook on career achievements. We must standardize the exercise of power and prevent the capricious use of power, leaving no room for erroneous outlooks to take advantage. More soberly and firmly advancing the anti-corruption struggle is an effective measure to stop erroneous outlooks from harming the cause of the Party and the people. Many erroneous outlooks are driven by private desire, and corruption cases are often accompanied by erroneous outlooks. We must integrally advance the mechanism where "one does not dare to, cannot, and does not want to be corrupt," eradicating the soil and conditions for the breeding of corruption and creating a clean and upright political ecosystem.