A New Day of Rigorous Party Governance
Improving Party conduct is an important facet of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.
Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era was developed amid the remarkable development of the country since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC). Comprehensive and rigorous governance over the Party has been warmly welcomed by the people. And the drive to build a clean and honest government has achieved historic success. According to the 18th CPC National Congress, strict governance over the Party is a necessary requirement for the Party to uphold its historic mission, respond to the people’s needs and solve problems head-on.
Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, has always emphasized strict governance over the Party. On November 15, 2012 at a press conference held by members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the 18th CPC Central Committee, Xi declared, “Our responsibility is to work with all the comrades in the Party to uphold the principle that the Party should supervise its own conduct and run itself with strict discipline, effectively solve major problems in the Party, improve our conduct and maintain close ties with the people. By so doing, we will ensure that our Party will remain at the core of leadership in advancing the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics.” This statement years ago evidences that since the early days of his leadership, strict governance over the Party has been the focus.
The report to the 19th CPC National Congress included crucial political decisions such as the conclusion that socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era. This is an important development culminating from the historic achievements and historic changes of the past five years. The Party with Xi at its core has demonstrated tremendous political courage and a great sense of mission. It has solved many tough problems that were long on the agenda but never resolved, and accomplished many things that were wanted but never got done. Also, full and rigorous governance over the Party resulted in highly increased efficiency.
Improving Party Conduct in the New Era
Improving Party conduct has been an eternal theme of Party building. Along the 97 years of development of the CPC, efforts to this end have produced some of the greatest successes and achievements of the Party during the process of the Chinese revolution, construction and reform. And the CPC has closely linked the importance of improving Party conduct to the Party’s cause.
Party building is a journey to which there is no end. Different eras call for different tactics to improve Party conduct. Before the reform and opening-up period, the longterm “left-leaning” mistakes and the ten-year “cultural revolution” (19661976) decimated the caliber of Party conduct, so in its wake, this mission has remained a problem threatening the survival of the Party.
However, since the 18th CPC National Congress, by focusing on persisting Party conduct issues during the development of socialism with Chinese characteristics, the CPC has enhanced its tactics for improving the conduct of Party members and promoting comprehensive and strict governance over the Party. The task in the early days of reform was to arrange order out of chaos, and the mission has since evolved into a drive to strengthen the right and eliminate the wrong, both of which require improvement of Party conduct to seize the spirit of the times.
At the first collective study of the Political Bureau of the 18th CPC Central Committee, General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed that it has always been the CPC’S consistent and clear political position to combat corruption, promote political integrity and keep the Party healthy, and that building a fine Party culture and a corruption-free Party is a major political issue of great concern to the people.
Since its 18th National Congress, the CPC has launched various activities to inspire Party members to walk the straight and narrow and maintain a strict stance against the practice of formalities for formalities’ sake, unnecessary bureaucracy, hedonism and extravagance. Through great efforts, it overcame the difficulties in establishing comprehensive and strict governance over the Party and improving the conduct of Party members. Improving Party conduct is
a highlight of the CPC’S work in the new era.
Focus, System and Guarantees
Improving the conduct of principal Party members and officials is crucial. As role models of the Party, principal Party members and officials influence the conduct of the whole Party. Xi stressed on correcting the critical minority of top cadres and ensuring high-quality cadres at all levels. To meet the necessary standards, they should not only be firm in political and theoretical conviction, but also demonstrate excellent conduct.
Strengthening Party rules and enforcement of regulations guarantees better conduct of Party members. While exercising strict self-governance on all aspects of the Party, the CPC combines strengthening rules and regulations with improving conduct, turning the page on a new chapter for Party building. Xi once stressed that the Party should seriously implement comprehensive measures for improving conduct, that all regulations should be followed, and that all those who disobey the rules should be punished. He also noted that deepening reform should provide long-term guarantees for excellent conduct.
Xi has elaborated that as a ruling party guided by Marxism, the CPC should not only be guided by the great power of truth, but also conduct itself with the utmost moral quality. The power of truth is manifested by the correct theory of the Party, and the power of moral quality is displayed through excellent conduct. The CPC should combine rule-based Party governance with ruling by virtue. Regulations and punishment should be emphasized, and Party members should be guided by strong beliefs and sound morals to enhance the noble character and
In the late 1970s, China’s reform and opening up first started in Shekou, Shenzhen, in the southern province of Guangdong. During his inspection tour of Shenzhen in December 2012, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, pointed out that Shenzhen was the first Chinese city to launch the reform and opening up and remains the most influential and best-developed Special Economic Zone (SEZ).
Deng Xiaoping, the chief architect of China’s reform and opening up, designated Shekou as the pace car of economic reform and opening up. Xi Zhongxun, then first secretary of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee, called on the province to become the “first to eat the crab.” Yuan Geng, founder of the Shekou Industrial Zone, felt like he was risking his life while pressing ahead with the reform process. The great courage, wisdom, vision and sense of responsibility of those pioneers inspired the passion of later generations of reformers.
In 1978, after the conclusion of the third plenary session of the 11th CPC Central Committee, Xi Zhongxun, then first secretary of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee, and several other reform pioneers submitted a report to the CPC Central Committee proposing construction of an export-oriented industrial and trading zone, hoping to become the “first to eat the crab” in economic reform. Upon deliberating the situation, Deng Xiaoping creatively presented the idea of building SEZS and encouraged reformers to act boldly. As head of the Shekou Industrial Zone, Yuan Geng felt like he was risking his life to continue the reform and opening up. Such determination and courage reflected the difficulties and obstacles that reformers faced at the time.
Before 1979, China adopted a “big-pot” distribution system under which everyone was paid evenly irrespective of his or her performance. In 1981, Shekou formulated the slogan “time is money and efficiency is life.” In the early 1980s when most Chinese people lacked knowledge about economic efficiency, the slogan hit many ears like a “spring thunder breaking shackles on the mind.”
Many reform policies concerning new distribution systems, management systems, personnel systems, employment systems, payment systems and housing systems were incubated in Shekou. In the process, new concepts related to competition, the market, contracts, information, operational performance and vocational ethics gradually took shape, fostering the most innovative cultural and ideologiogical developments in the modern era. a.
At a crucial time when doubts ts about reform began to mount, Deng Xiaoping urged officials to o be bolder in reform and have the e courage to experiment. “We must st not act like women with bound feet, but take bold action to blaze ea a new trail after determining the right ight direction,” he declared.
The development of Nanling, a village comprised of some 100 households in Shenzhen, evidenced ed that a leader’s courage and determiination are vital to eliminating poverty. erty. In 1974, Zhang Weiji, head of the village’s First Production Unit, was s doomed to one-year public criticism sm for leading villagers in developing side businesses. In 1979, the persimmmons that the villagers were growing ing got sold to state-owned purchasers s for only 0.18 yuan per kilogram, but ut their income could increase tenfold d if they processed those persimmons ns
and sold them directly. However, operation of such a business back then risked criticism as “walking a capitalist road.” “How could socialism be superior if everyone lived in poverty?” Zhang Weiji argued.
Soon after China implemented the reform and opening-up policy, Nanling Village applied for a loan of 1.7 million yuan to improve the business environment of the locality with hopes of attracting foreign investment. Facing pushback from villagers, Zhang promised that he alone would take responsibility for the debt if the village defaulted on the loan.
In 1983, four production units in Nanling Village merged and a new village committee was established. Zhang introduced the practice of anonymous ballots to elect village leaders, the earliest known attempt for grassroots democratic autonomy in China.
In 1984, Nanling Village became the first to introduce the rural shareholding system, and villagers were rewarded dividends the same year. By then, the majority of China’s rural areas had just begun to implement the household contract responsibility system.
The courage and determination of grassroots reformers like Zhang Weiji were driven by their personal suffering from poverty and their aspirations to bring better living standards to their fellow villagers.
Before China’s reform and opening up, Shenzhen was a nondescript, secluded town, sharply contrasting Hong Kong, a bustling international financial center just across a river. As the country opened its doors, the people living in the region adjacent to Hong Kong developed wide vision and freer minds. Many went abroad to experience the outside world and learn advanced science and technology and different cultures. The reform and opening up of Shenzhen proved that openness promotes progress and seclusion leads to stagnation. The Shekou Museum of Reform
and Opening in Shenzhen Sea World Culture and Art Center is staging an exhibition commemorating the country’s 40 years of reform and opening up titled “The Story of Spring.” A paragraph in the introduction of the exhibition reads: “In 1978, as the debate on the criteria of truth heated up nationwide, the State Council of China sent a delegation on a foreign survey in hopes of learning from the advanced experiences of developed countries. A plan for comprehensive reform and opening up was taking shape. In May 1978, a delegation from the Chinese central government, headed by Gu Mu, then vice premier of the State Council, conducted a survey of five Western European countries. It was the first state-level governmental economic delegation dispatched by the government of the People’s Republic of China to developed capitalist countries since its founding in 1949.”
Back then, conducting field surveys, compiling useful lessons and introducing investment from developed countries were key measures taken by China to promote the reform and opening up.
In January 1980, Shekou officially began soliciting investment from around the world. Like a siren signaling China’s reform and opening up, this move caused global attention. On September 25, 1983, Shekou Harbor was approved by the State Council to become an open national port.
Zhang Weiji, a farmer in Nanling Village, realized that cooperation with foreign investors would bring vitality to his village. In 1979, Shenzhen began to develop processing and compensation trades (processing materials or assembling supplied components). Zhang and several villagers waited outside luxury hotels in hopes of meeting businesspeople from Hong Kong. Eventually, they found several Hong Kong investors who would go on to build factories in their village. e.
After Zhang Weiji retired, his son Zhang Yubiao was elected secretary of the Party branch of Nanling Village. As the village was s built into a community, he became e its Party chief. Born in 1974, Zhang ng Yubiao witnessed the dedication of his forefathers in pushing the reform rm and opening up as well as Shenzhen’s en’s transition from a small fishing village into a modern metropolis. He e hatched a plan to develop Nanling g as more than just a village or communiunity, but from a global perspective.
Four decades ago, Deng Xiaoping declared that “poverty y is
not socialism.” In 2012, Xi Jinping stressed that “our mission is to meet the aspirations of the people for a better life.” In the 1980s, the CPC Central Committee decided to establish the Shenzhen SEZ with hopes that Shenzhen would lead the country’s reform and opening up and socialist modernization and blaze a new trail for achieving prosperity for the country, fostering the rejuvenation of the nation and improving the well-being of the people.
On May 6, 1979, more than 100 Nanling villagers including Zhang Weiji’s wife, tried to sneak into Hong Kong. Then, their son Zhang Yubiao was just five years old. About 100 households in the village in Bao’an County relied on bank loans to carry out agricultural production and lived on “resold grain” (state-purchased grain sold back to a grain-producing area in case of disaster) and government relief.
In 1980, the Regulations onspecialeconomiczonesin Guangdongprovince , proposed by the State Council, was approved at the 15th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 5th National People’s Congress, heralding the beginning of the construction of Shenzhen SEZ. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Nanling Village also merged into a fast lane of development. Under the leadership of Zhang Weiji, local villagers cooperated with investors from Hong Kong and tapped into the potential of their collective strength to develop manufacturing, tourism and trade. As a result, the collective economy of the village gradually boomed.
In 1984, Nanling became the first to open a village hospital adopting a cooperative medical-care system. Even migrant workers could enjoy free medical care in the hospital if they paid a medical insurance fee of two yuan per month. In 1986, the first industrial zone was founded in Nanling, enabling the village to transform from an agricultural economy into an industrial economy. By the end of 1991, per capita annual dividends exceeded 10,000 yuan in the village.
Deng Xiaoping’s speeches during his inspection tour of southern China in 1992 turned the page on a new chapter of the country’s reform and opening up. During this time, Zhang Weiji led Nanling villagers to build four industrial zones and introduce a dozen hi-tech companies from both home and overseas, substantially accelerating the development of local tertiary industry. In 1994, the Regulationson Joint-stock companies ins henzh en Special economic zone was enacted, and Nanling Village established a joint-stock company. Some formerly collectively-owned assets of the village were transformed into privately-owned shares. All villagers could earn dividends annually according to the shares they owned.
Since 2015, Nanling has considered equity investment substantially important. The village joined hands with Tus-holdings Co., Ltd. under Tsinghua University to establish a hitech industrial park and an investment fund of which Nanling Village holds 50 percent stake. It also invested 120 million yuan to acquire an investment company and another 300 million yuan to establish Shenzhen’s first venture capital fund owned by a community-level joint-stock company.
Zhang Yubiao has set goals of cultivating one or two excellent listed companies controlled by Nanling Village Community in three years and building its own financial platform. He hopes to ring the bell alongside villagers on the day their companies are listed on the stock market.
How should people and society progress alongside rapid economic growth? In 2017, Shenzhen formulated “six measures” to enhance local citizens’ personal quality: Enlightening the mind, enhancing morality, observing the law, promoting intelligence, advocating culture and improving physical health. According to the municipal government of Shenzhen, the talent demanded by
reform and development should not only be proficient in cutting-edge technologies, but also be of high cultural quality and socially civilized.
The greatest wish of officials in Huaide Community is to provide local residents greater spiritual assets than material wealth and to make them richer in terms of the mind rather than just financially better off.
Most Huaide residents are from the Pan clan. Their ancestors moved to the area from Xingyang, Henan Province in the late Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127). The village’s name “Huaide” literally means “cherish memories of the morality of ancestors.” In the 1990s, local residents raised funds to reconstruct their ancestral temple that was destroyed during the “cultural revolution” (1966-1976). Today, ancestral temple culture and the honor of ancestors play an important role in the administration of modern communities.
Huaide Community is exploring a path to modern community governance which would likely help enhance both social self-management