Fang Lei: Institutional Construction Paths for Establishing and Practicing a Correct View of Performance in the New Era
A correct outlook on performance is the concentrated expression of a leading official's worldview, outlook on life, and values in the fulfillment of their duties and responsibilities. It is the key to maintaining the correct direction in starting businesses and pursuing careers, regulating the exercise of power, and enhancing governance efficacy. General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out: "The issue of the outlook on performance is a fundamental one, concerning the principle of staying true to the Party’s purpose of serving the public and governing for the people." Currently, our country is in a critical period for advancing Chinese-path modernization. How to guide the vast numbers of officials to consciously establish and practice a correct outlook on performance through systematic and complete institutional design has become an important and urgent task of the times.
Ideology is the precursor to action, and institutions are the guarantee for long-term efficacy. Institutional building possesses fundamental, holistic, and long-term characteristics; it is the fundamental strategy for correcting deviations in the outlook on performance and promoting its solid rooting in practice. Establishing and practicing a correct outlook on performance requires both a cleansing of the ideological source [1] and the simultaneous destruction of the old and establishment of the new in the institutional sphere. Only by safeguarding the correct outlook on performance with the tracks of institutions can we prevent deviations at the source, ensuring that the original aspiration and founding mission of benefiting the people is transformed into actual achievements that can withstand the test of history and practice. Therefore, we must focus on the core link of institutional building and strive to construct a full-chain institutional system covering selection and appointment, evaluation, scientific decision-making, supervision and accountability, incentives and protections, and education and guidance. This will build a solid organizational foundation for forging a high-quality, professional cadre workforce that is loyal, clean, and responsible, and for the great cause of building a strong country and national rejuvenation.
Standardize the personnel selection and appointment system to persist in the organizational line of the correct outlook on performance. Currently, some localities face issues in selection and appointment such as emphasizing "manifest achievements" (xiǎnjì) while neglecting "potential achievements" (qiánjì) [2], and prioritizing the immediate over the long term. This leads some officials’ outlook on performance to shift toward short-term behavior. Therefore, the correct outlook on performance must be used as an important yardstick for selection and appointment, utilizing institutions to ensure that officials who are politically sound, produce outstanding results, and are recognized by the masses stand out.
We must persist in a selection and appointment orientation that emphasizes solid work, actual performance, and responsibility, resolutely refusing to use officials who are eager for quick success and instant benefits [3], who engage in fraud, who are detached from the masses, or who exhibit departmentalism [4]. In the selection and appointment process, we must gain an in-depth understanding of an official's actual work performance, comprehensively examining their starting point for action, their work style, and their actual results, and accurately identifying "manifest achievements" versus "potential achievements," and "genuine action" versus "fake performance." We must strictly implement the tenure system for leading officials and maintain the relative stability of leadership teams to avoid short-term behavior triggered by frequent changes. We should improve the system of cadre exchange and rotation, promoting exchanges across regions, departments, and fields to broaden officials' horizons and enhance their awareness of the big picture. A handover system for changes in principal responsible persons should be established to ensure continuity of work and stability of policy, putting an end to the practice of "new officials ignoring the debts of their predecessors" [5]. Simultaneously, the outlook on performance should be an important component of the inspection of political quality. Through field visits, mass interviews, and extended inspections, we should gain a deep understanding of an official's performance in major tasks and critical moments, strictly guarding the gates of politics and performance in selection and appointment.
Improve the evaluation system to establish the practical orientation of a correct outlook on performance. In reality, some evaluation systems still tend toward "GDP-only" or "indicator-only" metrics, neglecting development quality and the people's well-being. Therefore, we must construct a scientific and precise evaluation mechanism, highlighting high-quality development and mass satisfaction, and pushing officials to shift from "vying for projects and comparing growth rates" to "emphasizing actual results and planning for the long term."
We should explore the establishment of a "Six-in-One" evaluation indicator system comprising "Party building + political quality + high-quality development + improvement of people's livelihood + ecological protection + risk prevention and control." This includes increasing the weight of indicators such as people's livelihood guarantees, public services, the ecological environment, grassroots governance, and work safety, while reducing the proportion of explicit indicators like short-term economic growth rates and the number of projects. Differential evaluations should be implemented based on the functional positioning of different regions, departments, and posts to avoid "one-size-fits-all" [6] approaches. We must persist in combining regular evaluations, annual evaluations, special evaluations, and tenure evaluations, strengthening daily tracking and assessment to gain a comprehensive grasp of an official's consistent performance. Mass evaluation and third-party assessment should be introduced to increase the weight of the people's voice. We should utilize big data and information technology to build a performance evaluation platform, achieving precise data collection and objective analysis to eliminate data falsification. The rigid application of evaluation results must be strengthened, linking evaluations comprehensively with selection and appointment, rank promotion, awards and honors, performance bonuses, and accountability. This forms a clear orientation where "the capable are promoted, the excellent are rewarded, the mediocre are demoted, and the inferior are eliminated."
Perfect the scientific decision-making system to emphasize source governance of the outlook on performance. In some localities, decision-making procedures lack scientific demonstration and mass participation, leading to the frequent emergence of "image projects" [7] and "vanity projects" [8], which waste resources and overdraw public trust. Therefore, we must strengthen the rigid constraints of decision-making procedures, promoting the scientific, democratic, and law-based nature of decision-making to ensure every decision can withstand the test of history, practice, and the people.
We must strictly implement the statutory procedures of public participation, expert demonstration, risk assessment, legality review, and collective discussion/decision-making to institutionally prevent "head-patting decisions" [9]. Channels for mass participation should be broadened, and the systems for public notice and hearings should be implemented, handing more "scoring rights" regarding performance to the people to ensure decisions truly reflect the people's will. We should improve the lifelong accountability system for major decisions: those who cause major losses through vanity projects or blind decision-making must be held seriously accountable even if they have been transferred, promoted, or retired. A "decision-making footprint" management system should be established to record the entire process and the responsible subjects, ensuring decisions are evidence-based and precisely targeted, forming a powerful deterrent of "lifelong accountability and retroactive investigation."
Strictly supervise the accountability system to strengthen the rigid constraints on the outlook on performance. Deviations in the outlook on performance are highly concealed and difficult to rectify; the fragmentation of supervisory power and imprecise accountability are current practical weaknesses. Therefore, we must construct a collaborative and efficient supervision system, focusing on key links to strengthen whole-process regulation and seriously holding those accountable who engage in formalism or fraud.
We should integrate supervisory forces from all sides, establishing a collaborative supervision network of "discipline inspection and supervision + organization departments + auditing organs + social supervision." This network should keep a close eye on key links such as major decision-making, project construction, fund usage, and implementation of livelihood projects, achieving whole-process and all-around supervision over officials' performance-related behavior. Technologies like big data and blockchain should be used to build a supervision platform for public power, performing real-time monitoring and early warning for performance-related behaviors to discover deviations in a timely manner. We should establish a list-based, closed-loop rectification mechanism for deviations in the outlook on performance, listing issues such as eagerness for quick success, data fraud, and creating momentum for inspections one by one, with deadlines for rectification and follow-up on efficacy. The rectification of performance deviations should be incorporated into the important content of disciplinary inspections (xúnshì) and special supervisions, carrying out regular rectifications to continuously release a signal of strict governance.
Optimize the incentive and guarantee system to stimulate the internal drive for a correct outlook on performance. Some officials are afraid to take responsibility or are unwilling to act out of fear of making mistakes; an incomplete error-tolerance mechanism and unclear incentive orientations are important reasons for this. Therefore, we must improve the mechanism for error tolerance and correction alongside positive incentives, giving officials who are brave enough to pioneer and do solid work the confidence and motivation they need, fostering a favorable atmosphere of advocating for practical work and encouraging innovation.
We must strictly implement the requirements of the "Three Distinctions" [10], refining the circumstances, standards, and procedures for error tolerance and correction. It must be clarified that officials who make mistakes due to daring to try and pioneer during reform and innovation, promoting development, or resolving contradictions shall be exempted from responsibility. This will dispel the concerns of being "afraid of making mistakes and afraid to act." We should increase the intensity of incentives for officials who practice a correct outlook on performance and show practical responsibility, improving the incentive and guarantee system that combines spiritual and material rewards, and promptly commending and publicizing officials with outstanding performance and mass satisfaction. We should explore transforming officials' "potential achievements" in fields like ecological governance, infrastructure, and livelihood improvement into cumulative and inheritable performance points to serve as an important basis for their promotion. Simultaneously, we should care for the physical and mental health of officials, improving systems for leave, medical check-ups, and psychological counseling, while strengthening the compensation and benefit mechanisms for grassroots officials to create a healthy ecosystem for career development.
Improve the education and training system to solidify the ideological foundation of a correct outlook on performance. Some officials have a shallow understanding and weak implementation of the correct outlook on performance, the root of which lies in insufficient ideological education and lack of practical tempering. Therefore, we must construct a tiered, classified education and training system that unifies knowledge and action, pushing officials to constantly calibrate their outlook on performance through theoretical study and practical experience.
The education of the outlook on performance should be included as a compulsory course in cadre training at all levels, with differentiated content set for different groups such as leading officials, young officials, and grassroots officials: for leading officials, the focus should be on strengthening awareness of the overall situation, long-term awareness, and service to the people; for young officials, the focus should be on tempering Party spirit and practical experience; for grassroots officials, the focus should be on enhancing the capacity for mass work and practical achievement. We should innovate education and training methods, comprehensively using case-based teaching, field teaching, warning education, and seminars. We should select both positive and negative typical cases for demonstration and warning, and organize officials to go deep into the grassroots frontline for practical teaching, deepening their understanding of the correct outlook on performance through solving practical problems. We should establish a study and discussion system for the outlook on performance, regularly conducting special seminars and exchanges of insights to promote the consistency of study, thought, and application, and the unity of knowledge, belief, and action. Finally, we should improve the evaluation mechanism for education and training, incorporating the study of the outlook on performance into cadre education records, establishing study files, and implementing credit management. Evaluation results should be linked to cadre awards and promotion, compelling officials to improve their learning and self-cultivation.
The outlook on performance is the "steering wheel" of one’s career, while institutional building is the "ballast stone" of a correct outlook on performance. Currently, it is urgent to use institutional building as a starting point to comprehensively guide leading officials to establish and practice a correct outlook on performance. They must always remember that "benefiting the people is the greatest achievement," persist in seeking truth from facts and doing solid work, perform more practical deeds that lay foundations, benefit the long term, and favor the people's livelihood, and resolutely put an end to behaviors characterized by quick success, formalism, and fraud. We must effectively strengthen our political, ideological, and active consciousness in reshaping the correct outlook on performance through institutional building, comprehensively enhancing our capacity for duty and governance efficacy. This will provide a strong organizational guarantee for building a modern socialist country in all respects and achieving the Second Centenary Goal, striving to write a new chapter in the modernization of national governance.
(The author is the Director of the Contemporary Socialism Research Institute at Shandong University, a Key Research Base for Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education)
Source: Guangming Daily (April 7, 2026) Editor: Huihui