Enlightenment from the experience of the Communist Party of China in strengthening discipline building

General Secretary Xi Jinping delivered an important speech at the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, emphasizing that the study and implementation of the newly revised disciplinary regulations should be taken as an opportunity to carry out a centralized discipline education in the whole party. With the approval of the Party Central Committee, Party discipline study and education will be carried out throughout the Party from April to July 2024. To carry out the study and education of party discipline, it is necessary to draw rich nourishment from the party's history. The Communist Party of China (CPC) has always attached great importance to the building of party discipline and provided a strong guarantee for safeguarding the party's unity and unity and realizing the party's line, principles and policies. Especially since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core has clearly put forward the thesis that strengthening the construction of discipline is the fundamental policy of comprehensively and strictly governing the Party, and has incorporated the construction of discipline into the overall layout of Party building, highlighting the important position and role of discipline construction in Party building, and strengthening the construction of discipline with unprecedented strength.

Over the past 100 years and more, the party has inherited and developed the Marxist theory on party building, insisted that the party should manage the party and administer the party strictly, and persisted in strengthening the party's discipline building.

It is necessary to enhance ideological understanding and give full play to the role of discipline building as a sharp tool for curing both the symptoms and the root causes

Thought is the precursor to action. The premise of strengthening the party's discipline building is to strengthen the sense of discipline and fully understand the important position and role of discipline building in party building. To sum up, the building of party discipline is the fundamental guarantee for maintaining the unity and unity of the party, and is a sharp weapon for comprehensively and strictly administering the party to cure both the symptoms and the root causes.

The building of party discipline is the fundamental guarantee for safeguarding the party's unity and unity. Strict discipline is the essential attribute of a Marxist political party. Western bourgeois parties also have certain disciplinary requirements for their members, but these requirements are relatively loose. In order for a proletarian political party to be strong and effective and to shoulder the historical task of liberating all mankind, it must have strict discipline requirements for its members, otherwise the party will become a scattered sand with no combat effectiveness to speak of. In 1859, Marx pointed out in a letter to Engels: "Party discipline must be absolutely maintained, otherwise nothing will be accomplished." "Strict discipline is the essential characteristic of a Marxist political party, which is determined by the organizing principle of democratic centralism of a Marxist party. Without this, it would not be a Marxist party. The Communist Party of China is a Marxist political party organized by revolutionary ideals and iron discipline. During the years of the revolutionary war, the strengthening of discipline ensured the victory of the new democratic revolution throughout the country. After reform and opening up, grasping party style and party discipline has ensured the smooth progress of reform, opening up, and modernization. In the course of long-term struggle, strict discipline has become the glorious tradition and unique advantage of our party. At present, the mainland has entered a new stage of building a modern socialist country in an all-round way and marching toward the second centenary goal. At the same time, profound changes have taken place in the world, the country, and the party, and the situation we are facing is becoming increasingly complex. Under such circumstances, what can we rely on to maintain the unity of the party and lead the people to strive for the realization of the great dream? The most fundamental thing is to rely on two things: one is to rely on ideals, and the other is to rely on discipline. Without strict discipline and each party doing its own thing, it will not be possible to form the unified will and action of the whole party, and our party itself will lose its cohesion and combat effectiveness, still less will it be possible to lead the people of the whole country in carrying out great struggles, advancing great causes, and realizing great dreams.

The building of party discipline has a deterrent effect on all kinds of conspicuous problems existing within the party. To administer the party strictly in an all-round way, the key lies in "governance," and it is necessary to give prominence to the orientation of problems, so that the management of the party and the party can truly change from being loose and soft to being strict and hard. In addition to strengthening ideological education, it is also necessary to strengthen discipline and restraint. Ideological education focuses on self-discipline, and discipline building focuses on other disciplines. Strengthen discipline and restraint and warning punishments, promote self-discipline through other disciplines, and promote the continuous implementation of various measures to comprehensively and strictly govern the party. Without strict discipline, thousands of measures to comprehensively and strictly administer the party will fail. After the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core has made a breakthrough in formulating and implementing the eight regulations of the Central Committee, which have become an important discipline within the Party, and has incorporated the Party's political construction into the overall layout of Party building in the new era and put it in the first place, resolutely put an end to the "seven haves", and safeguarded the authority of the Party Central Committee and centralized and unified leadership with iron discipline. Party discipline mainly includes political discipline, organizational discipline, integrity discipline, mass discipline, work discipline, and life discipline, covering all aspects of party life, clarifying the rules of behavior of party organizations and party members in all aspects, and at the same time, party discipline must be rigidly enforced. The extensiveness of the party's discipline and its compulsory implementation determine that it has a deterrent and deterrent effect in comprehensively and strictly administering the party, and is an effective weapon for resolving outstanding problems within the party.

The building of party discipline has an early warning and preventive effect on all kinds of conspicuous problems existing within the party. General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed that "strengthening the construction of discipline is the fundamental policy of comprehensively and strictly governing the party". Judging from the nature and content of party discipline, party discipline is stricter than state law, which reflects the advanced nature of party members. Therefore, by grasping the building of party discipline and ensuring strict discipline, party members and cadres will not slide into the abyss of breaking the law and committing crimes, and will avoid the situation of suddenly becoming "good cadres" into "prisoners under the ranks." Judging from the implementation of party discipline, on the one hand, it is emphasized that discipline must be strictly enforced and violations of discipline must be investigated, and on the other hand, it is emphasized that punishment must be imposed and treatment of diseases and salvation of people. To comprehensively and strictly administer the party, the emphasis is on strengthening the building of discipline. Persist in grasping small things as early as possible, prevent micro problems, and make full use of the "four forms" of supervision and discipline enforcement, so that "red face and sweating" become the norm, light party discipline punishment and organizational adjustment have become the majority of disciplinary violations, heavy party discipline punishments and major job adjustments have become a minority, and serious violations of discipline and suspected crimes have become a very small number of criminal responsibility, so that the relationship between "trees" and "forests" has been correctly grasped, and the punishment of a very small number of people and the education of the majority have been realized, so as to prevent small problems from evolving into major problems. This early warning and preventive role of the party's discipline building has made it a fundamental policy for comprehensively and strictly administering the party. In the report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, General Secretary Xi Jinping for the first time clearly included the party's "political construction" and "discipline construction" in the overall layout of party building, clarified the leading position and role of political construction in party building, and the status and role of discipline construction in comprehensively and strictly governing the party. This is a summary of the experience of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core in deepening the great practice of comprehensively and strictly governing the party, and it is the deepening and expansion of the overall layout of party building.

We must enhance our political position and strive to enhance the political nature of discipline building

Strengthening the party's discipline building is a very political task, and we must first look at it from a political point of view and make efforts to enhance the political nature of discipline building. This is not only an intrinsic requirement and a strong guarantee for raising the level of the party's political construction, but also an inherent and inevitable requirement for ensuring the direction and effect of the party's discipline building.

To enhance the political nature of the party's discipline building, it is necessary to give prominence to political discipline as the primary and fundamental principle in discipline building. General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed that to strictly enforce party discipline, the first thing is to strictly enforce political discipline. From the point of view of importance, political discipline regulates the political orientation, political stance, political speech, and political behavior of party organizations at all levels and all party members, and this is the fundamental guarantee for maintaining the unity and unity of the party. If political discipline cannot be established, strict, or not properly enforced, it will inevitably lead to a complete failure of other disciplines, and the party will fall into a state of weakness and slackness. From the point of view of harmfulness, the violation of political discipline by party members and cadres has done the greatest damage to the party, and it has alienated the party from morality and actually disintegrated the party politically. Judging from the specific content, political discipline involves the political line, political system, ideology, and so on, and is an extremely important task for the party and the state, and has a bearing on the political security and overall work of the party and the state. Judging from the interrelationship between the six disciplines, political discipline is the most important, the most fundamental, and the most crucial discipline, and observance of the party's political discipline is an important basis for observing the party's overall discipline; if political discipline cannot be grasped and the fundamental political orientation and political stance go wrong, discipline in other areas will soon be broken through. On the other hand, no matter what discipline is violated, if it is allowed to develop, it will eventually erode the party's ruling foundation and undermine the party's political discipline.

The reason why political discipline is the most important, the most fundamental, and the most crucial discipline is, fundamentally speaking, determined by the nature of our party. As a Marxist political party, our party must take a clear-cut stand and stress politics. The primacy and fundamental position of political construction in the overall layout of party building determines that we must put the building of political discipline in the first place in the building of party discipline.

To enhance the political nature of the party's discipline building, we must uphold and strengthen the party's overall leadership; we must strengthen the "four consciousnesses" and strictly enforce political discipline and political rules; we must take the "two safeguards" as the starting point and the end result of discipline building; we must improve our political position and implement the political requirements in all aspects, links, and the whole process of discipline building, and in the daily work of supervising discipline enforcement and accountability. It is necessary to carry out the political requirements in the supervision within the party, focus on upholding the party's leadership, strengthening party building, comprehensively and strictly administering the party, maintain the party's advanced nature and purity, and solve the problem of lax and soft management of the party; adhere to the functional orientation of political inspections, further enhance political positions, deepen political inspections, and regard the "two safeguards" as the fundamental political tasks of inspection work. It is necessary to carry out the requirements of a political nature in the enforcement of discipline, persist in being strict with the law, discipline before the law, and coordination between discipline and law, give prominence to the political and serious nature of the enforcement of discipline, enhance political discernment and sensitivity, give prominence to the primary and fundamental position of political discipline, and put political discipline and political rules in the forefront. It is necessary to implement political requirements in the course of accountability within the party, focus on investigating the main responsibility, supervisory responsibility, and leadership responsibility of party organizations and party leading cadres who have derelict their duties and responsibilities in party building and the party's cause, and promote party organizations and party-member leading cadres at all levels to "regard party building as the greatest political achievement" and earnestly shoulder the political responsibility of managing the party and governing the party.

We must persist in being problem-oriented and strive to improve the pertinence of discipline construction in the times

At the same time, the party's discipline building must also keep pace with the times in close connection with the development and changes of the times, the changes in the composition of the contingent of party members, and the changes in the outstanding problems within the party, and constantly improve the relevance of the times.

With the advent of the upsurge of the Great Revolution, the Party's organization developed rapidly, and the number of Party members increased dramatically, but after the counter-revolutionary coup d'état of "April 12", the revolution encountered difficulties and setbacks, and some people defected to the enemy because they were pessimistic and disappointed about the future of the revolution. In this context, the Fifth National Congress of the Party highlighted the issue of intra-Party discipline, pointing out: "Strict Party discipline is the most important obligation of all Party members and all Party departments at the beginning", "Party discipline is very important", and "It is advisable to attach importance to political discipline and should not apply Party discipline mechanically in daily life". During the period of the Agrarian Revolutionary War, Comrade Mao Zedong put forward the "three major disciplines and eight points of attention" in view of the situation in which it was impossible to survive and develop without winning over the masses. After that, during the War of Liberation, our party emphasized that "the revolution is invincible by strengthening discipline"; in the early days of the founding of new China, our party demanded that the whole party, especially the party's senior cadres, strengthen their consciousness of safeguarding the party's unity and unity; and in the early days of reform and opening up, our party emphasized the rectification of the party's style and the maintenance of party discipline.

In the new era, party building is facing new problems and challenges. The "four major tests" are protracted and complex, the "four dangers" are acute and severe, the factors affecting the party's advanced nature and purity still exist, the conspicuous problems such as impure ideology, impure politics, impure organization, and impure work style have not been fundamentally resolved, and some party organizations and party-member cadres have problems such as weak awareness, lax thinking, weak implementation, and blurred responsibility in the building of discipline. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that party discipline and state law cannot become "plasticine" and "scarecrow", whether it is because of "legal blindness" leading to violations of discipline and law, or intentional violations of laws and regulations, they must be investigated, otherwise a "broken window effect" will be formed. He stressed: "The party must manage the party and administer the party strictly. "The more complex the situation facing the party and the more arduous the tasks it shoulders, the more necessary it is to strengthen the building of discipline, the more necessary it is to safeguard the unity and unity of the party, and ensure that the whole party has a unified will, unified action, and marches forward in unison. Without iron discipline, there will be no unity and unity of the party, the party's leadership and ruling ability will be greatly weakened, and it will be difficult to effectively play the role of the core of leadership. The CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core has paid close attention to the strict implementation of discipline and embodied the strict and strict requirements, emphasizing that discipline is stricter than the law and discipline is before the law, insisting on putting strict observance of political discipline and political rules in the first place, insisting on putting political discipline and political rules in the forefront, and exploring the "four forms" of supervision and discipline enforcement, etc., which has fundamentally reversed the lax and soft situation of governing the party and governing the party.

Facts have proved that in view of the changes in the situation and tasks, only by highlighting the orientation of problems and constantly reforming and innovating can we effectively improve the pertinence of the times in the party's discipline building. Facing the future, to strengthen the building of discipline, it is necessary not only to advance in an all-round way, but also to persist in being problem-oriented; to focus on grasping discipline in which aspect of discipline there are conspicuous problems; and to focus on solving problems in which link there are conspicuous problems in the formulation and implementation of discipline. It is necessary to exert efforts in key areas and key links, keep pace with the times in reform and innovation, achieve an overall leap in key breakthroughs, continuously improve the pertinence of the times in the construction of discipline, and give better play to the important role of discipline in comprehensively and strictly administering the party.

We must persist in systematic thinking, adhere to party spirit, party style, and party discipline at the same time, and make overall plans to promote discipline supervision and other supervision

The building of party discipline does not exist in isolation, but is an integral part of the systematic engineering of party building. Therefore, viewing and planning the party's discipline building from the overall situation and overall situation of party building is an important experience in promoting the party's discipline building over the past 100 years, especially since the beginning of the new era. The rich theoretical, practical and institutional achievements of the Party's discipline construction in the new era are an important part of the historic achievements of comprehensively and strictly governing the Party in the new era, and an important support for building a system of comprehensive and strict governance of the Party. The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China put forward the task of improving the system of comprehensively and Improving the system of comprehensively and strictly administering the party is a systematic project, and further strengthening the party's discipline building is one of the important sub-elements, sub-systems, and sub-projects. To improve the system of comprehensively and strictly administering the party, it is required to put the building of discipline in a more prominent position, so that the iron discipline can "grow teeth" and exert authority, and at the same time, cadres will pay attention to, be vigilant, and know how to stop, so that the whole party can form a high degree of consciousness of abiding by rules and discipline.

It is necessary to adhere to the party spirit, party style, and party discipline at the same time. General Secretary Xi Jinping profoundly pointed out: "Party spirit, party style, and party discipline are organic wholes, party spirit is the foundation, party style is performance, and party discipline is the guarantee." "Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core has made a breakthrough from the beginning of formulating and implementing the eight regulations of the Central Committee, and has continued to carry out centralized education within the Party while persevering in upright conduct and discipline, so as to promote the whole Party to have firmer ideals and beliefs, stronger Party spirit, stricter discipline, and outstanding results in comprehensively and strictly governing the Party. On the new journey, we must grasp the foundation of theoretical arming and party spirit education, unremittingly use Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era to forge the soul, and transform Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era into a powerful force for strengthening ideals and tempering party spirit. It is necessary to adhere to strict discipline and rectify the style of work, continue to deepen the rectification of the "four winds", rectify formalism and bureaucracy with heavy fists, resolutely eliminate privileged thinking and privileged behavior, and promote the normalization and long-term effect of the construction of work style. It is necessary to carry out in-depth study and education on party discipline, so that party members and cadres can learn discipline, know discipline, understand discipline, and abide by discipline, figure out what the party's discipline and rules are, figure out what they can do and what they can't do, engrave compliance with rules and discipline in their hearts, internalize it as a code of words and deeds, further strengthen the sense of discipline, strengthen self-restraint, improve immunity, enhance political determination, discipline determination, moral determination, and resistance to corruption, and always be loyal, clean and responsible.

It is necessary to make overall plans to promote discipline supervision and supervision in other fields. Party discipline clearly defines the code of conduct for Party members in all aspects, and discipline building is essentially an important aspect of intra-Party supervision, which needs to be interconnected with other forms of supervision and give full play to the overall synergy. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core has not only promoted the party's discipline construction and discipline supervision to create a new development situation in an all-round way, but also promoted the reform of the stationed institutions, realized the full coverage of the stationed supervision, played the role of the sword of inspection and supervision, continuously improved the strategic pattern of inspection and inspection, and further promoted the reform of the national supervision system to achieve full coverage of supervision and supervision. Through unremitting efforts, the cage of the system has become more and more firmly established, and a power supervision pattern of discipline supervision, supervision and supervision, stationed supervision, and patrol supervision has been gradually formed, and a cohesive power supervision pattern has been explored, and a successful path to solve its own problems and jump out of the historical cycle rate under the condition of long-term governance has been explored, and a set of effective power supervision system and discipline enforcement system has been constructed. The Chinese Communists have answered the "cave question" with actions, and solved the "Goldbach conjecture", a worldwide problem of self-supervision, and national governance. On the new journey, it is necessary to further strengthen systematic thinking, earnestly take supervision as an internal element of governance, improve the party's unified leadership, comprehensive coverage, authoritative and efficient supervision system, promote the normalization and institutionalization of discipline supervision, supervision supervision, stationed supervision, and patrol supervision, and coordinate and promote the integration of various supervision forces, procedural fit, and work integration, promote the continuous transformation of institutional advantages into governance efficiency, and continuously improve the level of ability to govern the party and continuously improve the ability to govern the party, and continuously improve the ability to govern and lead.

We must persist in building the party ideologically, strengthening the party by discipline, and governing the party by system in the same direction

Ideological party building, party discipline and party governance, and party governance by system are both self-contained and interrelated, and together constitute the "housekeeping skills" of the Chinese communists to solve the world's problems of self-revolution and self-supervision.

The Communist Party of China is a product of the integration of Marxism with the Chinese workers' movement. In July 1921, the First National Congress of the Communist Party of China adopted the "Program of the Communist Party of China", which clearly stated that "the revolutionary army must work with the proletariat to overthrow the power of the capitalist class", "recognize the dictatorship of the proletariat until the end of the class struggle", "abolish the private ownership of the capitalists", and "unite with the Third International". This shows that from the very beginning of its founding, the party has enshrined Marxism as its "true scripture" and set communism as its highest ideal. However, doctrine and a program are not enough. The doctrine and the program only clarify the direction and tell everyone which direction to take. How should we proceed in a loose and separate way, or should we move forward together in unison? The First Party Congress did not solve this problem. It was at the Second National Congress of the Communist Party of China that this issue was clearly put forward and initially resolved. In July 1922, the Second Party Congress decided to join the Third International, in effect accepting the principle of democratic centralism established by Lenin for the Third International. The "Constitution of the Communist Party of China" adopted by the congress also set aside a special chapter to clearly stipulate the party's discipline and embody the principle of democratic centralism in party building. It can be said that the First and Second National Congresses of the Party have laid the foundation for combining ideological party building with strengthening the party with discipline.

Later, in terms of ideological party building, the Gutian Conference held in 1929 highlighted the correction of various non-proletarian ideas existing in the party and laid down the principle of ideological party building. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Party proposed to promote the great project of Party building, the most important of which was to focus on consolidating the Party ideologically. The Yan'an Rectification Movement was a major ideological consolidation of the party's great creation and a successful practice, and enabled the whole party to achieve new unity and unity on the basis of Marxism. From the rectification of work style and party rectification in the early days of new China to the comprehensive rectification of the party in the early days of reform and opening up, and from the "three stresses" education to the current party discipline study and education, all the centralized education within the party has started with ideological education. This shows that the party has always attached importance to ideological party building.

In terms of discipline and strengthening the party, Comrade Mao Zedong clearly summed up the principle of "four obediences" and emphasized that "the line is the 'royal road' and discipline is the 'hegemonism,' both of which are indispensable," thus ensuring that the whole party marches forward in unison. Strict discipline and fine work style enabled the party and the people's army to win the hearts and minds of the people and win a nationwide victory in the revolution. After the reform and opening up, the party Central Committee re-established the party's discipline inspection organs, and put the maintenance of party discipline and the effective improvement of the party's work style in a prominent position. In view of all kinds of erroneous and negative phenomena that violate discipline and law, such as "looking at money in everything," eating and drinking lavishly, abusing power for personal gain, and doing things in its own way, Comrade Deng Xiaoping pointed out: "How can we unite and organize ourselves in such a big country? On the one hand, we rely on ideals and on discipline on the other," and "only when we have ideals can we achieve them by having discipline."

For a Marxist political party, party discipline is a mandatory constraint on party members. It is precisely because of strict discipline that a Marxist political party has a cohesive fighting capacity and can continue to grow and develop. However, party discipline cannot be mechanically enforced. The enforcement of discipline must not only rely on compulsion, but also on consciousness. Coercion is for a few people at the time, and consciousness is for the majority of the time. Observing discipline is the bottom line requirement for party members, and for party members of a Marxist political party, they should not be satisfied with not touching the bottom line of discipline, but should have higher requirements, that is, they should have lofty ideals and beliefs, party spirit cultivation, and spiritual pursuit. With the support of lofty ideals and convictions and a strong cultivation of party spirit, party members can enhance their consciousness of observing discipline. While persisting in building the party ideologically and strengthening the party through discipline, it is also necessary to pay attention to governing the party by system, and fix and uphold the good experience and good practices of the party's discipline building in the form of laws and regulations for a long time.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core has learned from historical lessons and lessons, and adhered to the close integration and co-direction of ideological party building, discipline and system governance. Strengthen theoretical arming and party spirit cultivation, emphasize building a solid foundation of faith, replenishing spiritual calcium, and stabilizing the rudder of thought, requiring the whole party to establish the concept that the revolutionary ideal is higher than the sky, constantly replenish calcium and strengthen bones, consolidate the foundation and cultivate the yuan, arm the mind with Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, and always be a firm believer and faithful practitioner of the lofty ideals of communism and the common ideal of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Strengthen discipline and restraint, put discipline and rules in the forefront, use iron discipline to maintain the unity and unity of the party, and give prominence to political discipline and political rules; explore the use of the "four forms" of supervision and discipline, persist in grasping small things as early as possible, prevent micro problems, punish the former and punish the latter, treat the sick and save people, so that party members and cadres know awe, guard against fear, and abide by the bottom line, so that discipline can truly become an important weapon for managing the party and governing the party. Adhere to the system of governing the party and governing the party in accordance with regulations, adhere to the practice and exploration first, summarize and refine the last, and timely solidify the achievements in reform and exploration into the party's internal laws and regulations, tighten the cage of the system, and realize the system construction to keep pace with the times. For example, in 2015, 2018, and 2023, the Party Central Committee revised the "Regulations on Disciplinary Actions of the Communist Party of China" three times, concretizing the disciplinary requirements in the Party Constitution and Party rules on the basis of practical exploration, so that discipline can truly become the ruler of governing the Party.

Historical experience has shown that without the guidance of the "true scriptures" and without ideals and convictions, we will inevitably lose our way; without discipline and restraint, we will inevitably fall apart; and without institutional guarantees, it will be difficult for us to achieve long-term peace and stability. To govern the party, we must adhere to the combination of self-discipline and other discipline, high standards and the bottom line, positive advocacy and negative prohibition, and persist in building the party ideologically, strengthening the party with discipline, and governing the party by system in the same direction.

Source: China Discipline Inspection and Supervision News