Zhang Shengen

Since the Eighteenth National Congress of CPC, the Central Committee of CPC with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core, with great political courage and shouldering spirit, targeting at the prominent problems with Party building, made a series of major deployments, and led the whole Party in opening new prospects of Party building. Comprehensively strengthening Party discipline has become the most distinctive feature of the governance of China’s new leadership, which is of great political significance and profound historical significance.

 

I. Comprehensively strengthening Party discipline is the pressing requirement of advancing our great cause

 

Socialism with Chinese characteristics was developed in the new era of reform and opening up. It was based on the long-term struggle of the Communist Party of China, and was realized under the leadership of generations of the Party leadership with relentless efforts and continuous exploration of all Chinese people at various costs. Practice had eloquently proved that socialism with Chinese characteristics was a flag of solidarity, endeavor and victory for the Communist Party of China and all the Chinese people. The completing of building a moderately prosperous society in all aspects, the accelerating of the advancement of socialist modernization and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation call for us to hold high the great banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics and unswervingly adhere to and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics.

There is no doubt that with its theoretical and practical exploration over the past dozens of years, the recognition of our Party on socialism and the knowledge on socialism with Chinese characteristics had reached an unprecedented new height. At the same time, let there be no doubt either: we should note that China’s socialism is still at the primary stage; there are still a lot of problems waiting to be figured out or solved; and our recognition and handling of many major problems are still in the process of continuously deepening. To this end, Comrade Xi Jinping pointed out, “upholding and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics are a magnificent article. Comrade Deng Xiaoping determined the basic ideas and principles of this article. The third generation of the central leadership of the Party with Comrade Jiang Zemin as the core and the Central Committee of the Party with Comrade Hu Jintao as the General Secretary both wrote brilliant chapters for this article. Now, the mission of Communists of our generation was to continue writing this article”.

 

China is today staying in a “three unprecedented” historical context. First, China is “unprecedentedly close to the center of world stage”. It means that we are now enjoying more development opportunities. However, it also means that we are facing more challenges and should shoulder more responsibilities as a big power. Second, we are “unprecedentedly close to the realization of the objective of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation”. Since the modern times, the Chinese nation has endured many trials and tribulations and was once in the most dangerous period. Since then, numerous Chinese patriots rose up one after another and fought for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, but they failed one after another. Since its founding, the Communist Party of China has struggled arduously one generation after another and gradually turned the poor and backward old China into a new China going towards prosperity, thus unfolding an unprecedented prospect of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. It is the supreme interest of the state and the most prominent political objective at this stage to complete building a moderately prosperous society in all aspects by 2020 and realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation by the middle of this century. At such crucial development stage, it is all the more important to keep a clear-headed strategy and strengthen strategic concentration. Third, we are with “unprecedented ability and confidence for realizing national rejuvenation”. Our five-thousand-year history, more than one-hundred-year struggle and over thirty-year rapid development have cultivated the faith, morale and strength for our striding towards rejuvenation. Only by holding firmly these positive factors can we be inspired to watch our adequate strategic space.

 

The “three unprecedented” historical context reminds us of that the more advanced and developed our cause, the more new circumstances and new problems we will face; the more risks and challenges we will face and the more uncertainties we will confront.

 

Upholding and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics as well as achieving the mission of the Party in the new era require the unswervingly promotion of comprehensively strengthening the Party discipline, so as to entrench the political foundation of our Party’s governance and ensure the Party’s status of being the strong core leadership of socialism with Chinese characteristics all the time.

 

II. Comprehensively strengthening Party discipline is the inevitable requirement of carrying our new great undertaking

 

The most essential feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics is adhering to the leadership of the Communist Party of China and the precondition of properly handling the issues of China is properly handling the issues of the Party. The development stage of the Party building should never lag behind the development stage of the cause of the Party and the people.

 

To forge iron, one must be strong. Comprehensively strengthening the Party discipline should first focus on resolving the prominent problems with the Party itself. As a big Party with more than 88 million members and 4.4 million Party organizations, the task of the Party building is very tremendous. Compared with the development of domestic and international situations as well as the historic responsibilities shouldered by the Party, there is still a long way to go in terms of organizational development of the Party, and way of thinking and competence of the Party members. It was mainly reflected in the following aspects: the aims and beliefs of some Party members declined and some of them even adored western social systems and values, which had become the most serious hidden peril threatening the advancement and purity of the Party; the discipline awareness especially the awareness of political discipline was weak and comply in appearance but oppose in heart to the decisions and arrangements of the Central Committee, and some of them even engage in non-organizational activities and were divided in heart and practice from the Party, which had become the primary problem destroying the political ecology in the Party; some Party organizations featured mal function and loose discipline and accountability, which had become important factors undermining the ruling foundation of the Party; some Party members featured loose working style and repeated formalism, bureaucracy, hedonism and extravagance, which had become prominent problem seriously damaging the image of the Party; some Party members and cadres committed corruption and degeneration, which led to the frequent occurrence of corruption problems; the influence of corruption cases occurred in a few senior cadres was extremely bad, which was just like worms nibbling the physical body and life of the Party. We can say that the mission of implementing Party self-management and Party discipline under new circumstances was more urgent and challenging than ever before. If the Party discipline was weak and loose, and these prominent problems remain deteriorating and unsolved, the creativity, cohesion and combat effectiveness of the Party will be seriously reduced and the flesh-and-blood connections between the Party and people will be seriously damaged. In that case, our Party will sooner or later lose its ruling status and inevitably be eliminated by history.

 

Comprehensively strengthening Party discipline is a form of inheriting and carrying forward the excellent traditions of our Party. The Communist Party of China has always been attaching great importance to Party building and taking “stringent” as the guiding principle of Party self-management. Based on the theories of party building of Lenin and Chinese reality, Comrade Mao Zedong raised the proposal of building Party ideology, which enriched the Marxist theory on political parties. At the second plenary session of the Seventh Central Committee, Comrade Mao Zedong proposed, “all comrades in the Party should make sure to continue keeping the working style of modest and prudent and guarding against rashness and arrogance; make sure to continue keeping the working style of striving and hard-working”. Under the historical background of reform and opening up, Comrade Deng Xiaoping pointed out, “under the current circumstance of historical changes, with problems piled up and tremendous job waiting to be done, it was of decisive significance to strengthen Party leadership and disciplining the working style of the Party”. In the process of establishing and improving the system of market economy, Comrade Jiang Zemin proposed the theme of “Party self-management and Party discipline” and pointed out “with the extending of the ruling time of the Party, the importance of Party building and Party discipline on its members and cadres improved”. In the new era of promoting scientific development, Comrade Hu Jintao emphasized, “we must take strengthening the Party’s governance capacity and progressiveness as the main thread, stick to Party self-management and Party discipline, and meet the requirements of being people-oriented, down to earth, honest and upright”. The history of the Party is a history of strengthening Party discipline.

 

Comprehensively strengthening Party discipline is also based on referencing experience of world political party building. Drawing lessons from political party building experience all over the world, in the process of long-term governing, if a ruling party ignores self-discipline development, anti-corruption or serving its people, it will eventually lose cohesion, lose support from the people, and lose ruling legitimacy. Since 1990s, some big parties and old parties, such as the Communist Party of the former Soviet Union, the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan, the Indian National Congress, the Indonesian Specialty Group, the Institutional Revolutionary Party of Mexico, the Kuomintang of Taiwan China, as well as the ruling parties in some Middle East and North Africa countries, have one after another lost their ruling status due to corruption, jostling, organizational disruption, absence of democracy, or ineffective governance. From this point, we can see that the rising and falling of a party is always closely related with whether it pays attention to strengthening party building. The development and prosperity of each and every successful party started from strengthening self-discipline and party building. And none of the parties lacking self-discipline could get rid of the historical destiny of declining.

 

History has suggested that, only by strengthening Party building, Party self-management and Party discipline, can we effectively avoid crisis and promote the health development of our Party.

 

III. Comprehensively strengthening Party discipline is the fundamental guarantee for carrying out our great struggle

 

The Eighteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out, the development of socialism with Chinese characteristics was a long-term and tremendous historical mission and we must be ready for carrying out great struggle with new historical features. The notion “new historical features” was with profound implications and was an important judgment of the Central Committee after comprehensively examining the overall domestic and international situations.

 

Currently, as we are carrying out reform and opening up and socialist modernization, the domestic and international situation we are facing are very different from the past by and large, there are more positive factors. However, risks and challenges should not be ignored as many of them are deep-seated ones.

 

From an international perspective, the world today is undergoing profound and complicated changes. First, the global balance of power is undergoing unprecedented positive changes the collective rising of emerging countries and developing countries is changing the global political and economic landscape, and the global governance system dominated by western countries is taking on signs of reform. However, struggle for competing dominance on global governance and international rule making is extremely fierce. Second, world economy is still undergoing deep adjustment in the wake of the international financial crisis, with recovery trend appeared but there were repeated backward motion, competition among countries increased and protectionism rose. The economic strength of developed countries relatively declined and their sense of crisis rose. The global economic governance system is facing major adjustments. Third, global cultural development is more diversified and exchange and collision among different cultures becomes more frequent. With the rapid rising of new media, the role and status of culture in the competing of comprehensive national strength become all the more prominent. Collision among cultures of different nations and clash among different thoughts and ideas become more frequent, and “civilization conflicts” deteriorated conflicts in some regions. Fourth, with the continuous rising of China’s comprehensive national strength and international status, the discourse power of China in global governance system further strengthened, and dependence on and cooperation with China from other countries increased. At the same time, psychological defense and precaution among some countries to China strengthened. Some of them even maliciously speculated the East China Sea, the South China Sea and other issues, and made every effort to curb, suppress and disturb China.

 

From a domestic perspective, China is still in an important period of strategic opportunity during which great progress can be made in development. China has become the world second largest economy, the largest manufacturing country and the world export engine, ranked among middle-and-high income countries, created incredible wanders in the history of human society development, and realized the great leap of Chinese people from standing up to getting rich and strong. However, the basic national condition that China is still in the primary stage of socialism and will remain so for a long time to come remains unchanged; the primary social contradiction between people’s growing physical and cultural demands and backward social production remains unchanged; the international status of China as the world largest developing country remains unchanged. Currently, China’s economic development entered new normal, reform and opening up as well as the building of a moderately prosperous society in all aspects entered into a crucial stage, and social conflicts entered into a period of high incidence. Standing on a higher starting point, we are witnessing unprecedented development opportunities as well as risks and challenges. On the one hand, the fundamental trend of long-term positive development of China remains unchanged: the material and technological footing such as industrial system and infrastructure is sound and solid; the economy features great potential, high tenacity and enough room for adjustment; the superiority of socialism with Chinese characteristics continues to loom larger. On the other hand, problems of unbalanced, uncoordinated and unsustainable social and economic development remain prominent, especially when China is simultaneously dealing with the slowdown in economic growth, making difficult structural adjustments, and absorbing the effects of previous economic stimulus policies, and facing increased downward pressure on our economy under the circumstance of “new normal” in terms of economic development. It is an extremely urgent task to change the extensive development model formed in the past; the structural contradictions with Chinese economy is now more prominent; the trend of ecological deterioration has not been fundamentally reversed; problems with people’s livelihood are conspicuous, with frequent occurrence of social contradictions and conflicts, and potential risks with social and economic development are increasing; the ethical quality of the people is yet to be improved, the rule of law is yet to be strengthened, and the way of thinking and competence of leading cadres are yet to be improved; situation of anti-corruption is still tough and complex. All these are important factors hindering the future development of China.

 

Under new domestic and international circumstances, we need to solve a series of new prominent problems. For instance, we need to refrain from being trapped by three pitfalls on our road to rejuvenation: the first is the Thucydides trap, which means the rise of China may cause the clash among the major powers; the second is the middle-income trap, which means we may face stagnated economic growth in the future; the third is the Tacitus trap, which means the Party alienates from the people and loses power credibility. If we could not avoid these traps, we could hardly realize our dream of improving national strength and prosperity. In addition, we may face a series of new major challenges, which include not only economic, political, ideological, social, and natural risks at home, but also international economic, political and military risks. If we could not contain the influence when major risks occurred, our national security would be seriously threatened and the process of building a moderately prosperous society would be disrupted. In terms of advancing modernization of national governance system and governance capacity, although generally speaking we’ve achieved great progress, compared with the demands of social and economic development, with the anticipation of people, or with the requirements raised by fierce global competition, there are still a lot of deficiencies or points waiting to be improved urgently. In the end, we also face the issues of how to adjust the interest distribution pattern and transfer of developing dynamic during the process of development.

 

Under new circumstance and new development stage, the tests and challenges before our Party raised by its ruling status, reform and opening up, market economy, global environment are long-term, complicated and severe ones. The perils of spiritual slack, insufficient competence, alienating from the people, and corruption are being more stridently posed in front of the Party. Therefore, we must be prepared to carry out great struggles with new historical features. To win victory of such struggle, we must comprehensively strengthen Party discipline.

 

(Zhang Shengen, Director of Department Three, Party History Research Center of the CPC Central Committee; Council member of the Chinese Association for International Understanding)