△ On January 18, Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, President of the People's Republic of China and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, delivered an important speech at the Sixth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China. Li Keqiang, Li Zhanshu, Wang Yang, Wang Huning, Zhao Leji, and Han Zheng attended the meeting. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Yao Dawei
About the Author Han Yu
Special Researcher of Beijing Xi Jinping Research Center for Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era
At the beginning of the new year, General Secretary Xi Jinping warned the whole party at the sixth plenary session of the 19th Central Discipline Inspection Commission: We must soberly realize that the battle between corruption and anti-corruption is still raging, and has shown some new stage characteristics, and there is still a long way to go to prevent all kinds of interest groups from forming a posture and "hunting" and corroding.
The general secretary's earnest teachings have once again warned the whole party: The struggle against corruption and corrosion has existed for a long time, and the slightest slack will lead to the abandonment of previous achievements; leading cadres at all levels must always maintain a sober mind of "catching up with the examination" and maintain vigilance against "corrosion" and "hunting." The intertwining of hunting and willingness to be hunted reflects from one side the seriousness and complexity of the situation in the anti-corruption struggle.
"Hunting" was originally a word in hunting, which can be understood as hunting on all sides, also known as hunting and hunting. The use of "hunting" to describe the problem of corruption of leading cadres is an image metaphor, which is used to describe that some leading cadres are regarded as corrupt targets by interest groups and co-opt them through various means and methods, so as to ultimately achieve the purpose of interest exchange. Judging from the series of major cases of violations of discipline and law investigated and handled since the Eighteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, once high-ranking cadres and down to grass-roots cadres " surrender their weapons, they will become "intermediaries" for interest groups to obtain illegal benefits, and willfully use the public power in their hands to engage in various kinds of interest transmission, thus eventually alienating public power into "private power" for a small number of people or small groups to make profits. At the same time, leading cadres are deeply immersed in the "hunting circle" and "comfort nest" that have long been set up by interest groups, and gradually move toward the road of no return in life.
In the popular TV series "In the Name of the People" a few years ago, Gao Yuliang, deputy secretary of the Handong Provincial Party Committee and secretary of the Political and Legal Committee, could be said to be full of awe-inspiring righteousness and feelings for the people, but it was not long before the illegal interest group seized the fatal weakness of his greed, carefully selected young women for targeted public relations, and finally hit Gao Yuliang's "death hole" and made him fall into a gentle trap. Many of the character archetypes and storylines in this TV series are derived from real life.
"Birds of high flying are easy to die of eating; fish of deep pools are easy to die of bait." Encirclement and defense, merit and defense, are all contests between us and the weaknesses of human nature. Many leading cadres only see the bait in the hands of the hunters, but they do not see the sharpening of the knife behind the power rent-seeking. In the face of all kinds of temptations of interests, is it to throw away armor, surrender weapons, and let greed triumph over self-discipline? Or do you not forget your original intention, move forward on the right path, and uphold the clean and honest nature of communists? Facts have proved that the key to whether or not leading cadres eventually fall into the "prey" of interest groups lies in themselves: If their ideals and convictions are shaken, they will inevitably lose their way; they will eventually forget their desires in pursuit of arrogance and extravagance.
"Playing iron also needs to be hard." Once the values of leading cadres are distorted, it is very easy to be "hunted" by people with impure motives, and the success rate of "hunting" is extremely high, almost a hundred shots! Only by effectively solving the "general switch" problem of world outlook, outlook on life, and values will we not be "hunted", and even if we are "hunted", it is difficult to be pulled into the water. Jiao Yulu knew that his son "watched white dramas" and not only severely criticized and paid back the tickets, but also led a group of people from the county party committee to formulate the "Ten Prohibitions for Cadres"; Yang Shanzhou's youngest daughter Yang Huiqin was about to give birth, and his son-in-law used a forest bus to take care of his mother-in-law to Baoshan; Yang Shanzhou had to pay 376 yuan for fuel and tolls; Comrade Zhou Enlai's "Ten Family Rules" and so on were all examples of strictly controlling the "general switch." When righteousness and righteousness are awe-inspiring, others dare not offend; "unwilling" to be hunted, the hunters naturally "do not dare" to hunt, and it is difficult to hunt successfully.
In addition to requiring the broad masses of leading cadres to adhere to the bottom line and transform "weak ribs" into "armor," it is also necessary to strengthen supervision and discipline enforcement, and build an integrated system and mechanism that does not dare to be corrupt, cannot be corrupted, and does not want to be corrupt. The ancients said: "He who is good at curing the sick will heal where he is sick; he who is good at saving the evil will be the source of his illness." The "place of illness" is power, the "source of disease" of corruption is also power, and the "point of strength" of "hunting" is all power. The cadres who are "hunted" have formed a long-term and stable relationship of interest with the "hunters", and they are deeply trapped in them and it is difficult to extricate themselves.
The reason why many top leaders who have violated discipline and the law have been reduced from "good cadres" to "prisoners under the ranks" is because their ideals and convictions have wavered and they have been "hunted" externally, and even more because their daily management and supervision are ineffective. Grasping the key point of strengthening supervision, preventing, and curbing the corrosion of power is the key to ensuring that the anti-corruption struggle advances in depth and achieves a complete victory. In addition, an important reason why bribe-givers are bold is that the cost of breaking the law is too low. It is necessary to persist in the main tone of "strictness" for a long time, persist in investigating bribery and bribery together, prevent only punishing those who accept bribes but allowing those who pay bribes to go unpunished, and create and maintain a clean and healthy political environment.
Image source: Xinhua News Agency
Editor-in-charge: Xu Hao