Interpretation of the New or Revised Key Provisions of the Regulations on Disciplinary Actions of the Communist Party of China (1)

Party discipline is studied daily

Compared with the 2018 Regulations, 16 new articles have been added and 76 articles have been amended, further tightening the cage of the dense system and providing important guidelines for comprehensively strengthening the party's discipline construction. In order to help everyone deeply study, understand, and implement the "Regulations", in view of some of the key provisions added or revised to the "Regulations", the comrades of the Laws and Regulations Office of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the State Supervision Commission, who participated in the revision of the "Regulations", gave an authoritative interpretation from the background of the revision, understanding and implementation. There are a total of 15 interpretations, and everyone is invited to learn them one by one.

Regarding not sanctioning and not pursuing party discipline responsibility

[Article]

Article 19: Party members who violate Party discipline shall be given warnings or serious warnings, but in any of the circumstances provided for in article 17 of these Regulations or as otherwise provided in the specific provisions of these Regulations, they may be given criticism and education, ordered to inspect, admonished, or organized disposition, and Party discipline sanctions may be waived. A written conclusion shall be made on the waiver of sanctions for Party members who violate discipline.

Where Party members have signs or tendencies in work style and discipline, or where violations of Party discipline are minor, they may be given reminders to talk, criticized and educated, ordered to inspect, and so forth, or admonished, and Party discipline sanctions are not to be given.

Although the behavior of Party members causes losses or consequences, but is not caused by intention or negligence, but is caused by force majeure and other reasons, Party discipline responsibility is not to be pursued.

[Interpretation]

The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China emphasized that we should adhere to the combination of strict management and benevolence, strengthen all-round management and regular supervision of cadres, implement the "three distinctions", and encourage cadres to dare to take responsibility and act actively. Judging from the investigation, a difficulty in the implementation of the "three distinctions" lies in how to distinguish whether the behavior of party members and cadres causes consequences or losses, and how to distinguish between "unintentional" or "intentional", so as to promote the party organizations and party members and leading cadres to dare to use and use the fault-tolerant and error-correcting mechanism, and accurately achieve the responsibility for the person in charge, the person in charge, and the support for the officer, so as to eliminate the worries of the majority of party members and cadres to devote themselves to entrepreneurship, reform and innovation, and promote development. The revision of the "Regulations" adheres to the unity of seeking truth from facts and subjectivity and objectivity, emphasizes that violations of discipline need to have both objective violations and subjective responsibility, and clarifies the basic rule that party discipline responsibility will not be pursued for acts that are not intentional or negligent. To this end, the third paragraph of Article 19 is added, which stipulates that "if the behavior of Party members causes losses or consequences, but is not intentional or negligent, but is caused by force majeure or other reasons, Party discipline responsibility shall not be pursued". The purpose of such a provision is to comprehensively and accurately grasp the subjective and objective elements of the behavior of Party members and cadres, and to distinguish between acts carried out on the basis of force majeure, unforeseeability, emergency avoidance, and other reasons, and the wrongful acts carried out out intentionally or negligently, so as to prevent and correct the problem of arbitrary action without examining the specific reasons, and to avoid dampening the enthusiasm of Party members and cadres due to purely objective attribution, which leads to the phenomenon of passively "avoiding responsibility", looking ahead and looking backwards, and being timid.

At the same time, the second paragraph of Article 19 is newly added, which clarifies the circumstances under which sanctions will not be given, stipulating that "if a Party member has a symptomatic or tendentious problem in work style and discipline, or if the violation of Party discipline is minor, he may be given a reminder to talk, criticize and educate, or be ordered to inspect, or be admonished, and shall not be punished by Party discipline." The addition of this content echoes the revision of Article 5 of the "Regulations" on deepening the use of the "four forms" of supervision and discipline, and further strengthens the handling method of the first form, which not only reflects the responsibility at every turn, bites the ears and sleeves in a timely manner, and sweats with a red face, but also insists on the adaptation of mistakes, responsibilities, and punishments, so as to prevent the emergence of two wrong tendencies of ineffective accountability or abuse of punishment.

On the whole, through this revision and improvement, Article 19 of the "Regulations" is divided into three paragraphs, which stipulates that punishment shall be waived, no punishment shall be given, and party discipline responsibility shall not be pursued, and on the whole a systematic norm has been formed for the corresponding punishment of different situations such as general discipline violations, minor discipline violations, and non-discipline violations. This provides a legal basis for accurately determining the nature of behavior and implementing differential treatment, and lays a basic system for party discipline punishment for the accurate implementation of the "three distinctions", which is conducive to the unity of strict management and supervision and encouragement of responsibility, and the combination of punishment and education, so as to better stimulate the enthusiasm, initiative and creativity of the majority of party members and cadres, and create a good environment for officials to start a business.

On the interface between discipline and law

[Article]

Article 30: Where Party organizations discover during disciplinary review that Party members have conduct provided for in the Criminal Law, which does not constitute a crime but must be pursued for Party discipline responsibility, or has other illegal conduct such as undermining the order of the socialist market economy or violating the administration of public security, harming the interests of the Party, the State, or the people, they shall give sanctions ranging from warnings to expulsion from the Party in light of the specific circumstances.

Anyone who violates state financial and economic discipline by committing illegal conduct in financial and economic activities such as revenue and expenditure of public funds, tax administration, state-owned asset management, government procurement management, financial management, and financial accounting management, shall be dealt with in accordance with the provisions of the preceding paragraph.

Where Party members have conduct that has the conditions to lose their Party membership, such as soliciting prostitution or ingesting or injecting drugs, and seriously tarnishes the Party's image, they shall be expelled from the Party.

[Interpretation]

General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed that it is necessary to adhere to the organic unity of governing the country according to law and governing the party according to regulations, pay attention to the convergence and coordination of internal party regulations and national laws, and party members must not only strictly abide by laws and regulations, but also strictly abide by the party constitution and other party rules, and put forward higher requirements for themselves. During the investigation, many comrades hoped to further clarify the scope of illegal acts that should be punished by party discipline and better promote the convergence of discipline and law. The revised "Regulations" have made detailed provisions in three paragraphs in Article 30.

First, the first paragraph has been amended, and in view of the illegal acts that are frequent and prone to occur in practice, it is substantiated to stipulate that if a Party member commits other illegal acts such as "undermining the order of the socialist market economy, violating the administration of public security, etc.", harming the interests of the Party, the state, and the people, he shall be punished according to the specific circumstances.

The second is to add a paragraph as the second paragraph, adding a new provision on party discipline punishment for violations of state financial and economic discipline, clarifying that "those who violate state financial and economic discipline by committing illegal acts in financial and economic activities such as public fund revenue and expenditure, tax management, state-owned asset management, government procurement management, financial management, and financial accounting management" shall be given party disciplinary sanctions depending on the circumstances. This is an important change. These violations could have been included in the illegal acts provided for in the first paragraph, but in view of the serious violations in the financial and economic fields at present, in order to implement the requirements of the Party Central Committee for strict financial and economic discipline, the punishment for violations of financial and economic discipline has been further highlighted.

In the process of revising the "Regulations", there are opinions proposing to add a chapter to the sub-provisions to specifically stipulate the punishment for violations of financial and economic discipline. With regard to financial and economic discipline, there is a chapter on "violations of financial and economic discipline" in the sub-provisions of the 2003 Regulations, with a total of 14 articles, most of which can be covered by national laws and regulations such as the Budget Law, the Government Procurement Law, the Tendering and Bidding Law, and the Accounting Law. At that time, in the "Regulations", there was no strict distinction between violations of discipline and violations of the law, and there were a large number of provisions on illegal and even criminal acts in the sub-provisions. For example, in addition to violations of financial and economic discipline, there are also acts of embezzlement and bribery, undermining the socialist economic order, dereliction of duty, and obstructing the order of social management. When the Regulations were revised in 2015, 79 articles that overlapped with national laws, including the chapter on violations of financial discipline, were deleted in accordance with the principle of discipline before law and separation of discipline and law. At the same time, in order to solve the problem of Party discipline punishment for illegal acts, a clause on Party discipline sanctions for illegal acts committed by Party members has been added to the General Provisions. Subsequently, the relevant acts that violate the national financial and economic discipline shall be punished in accordance with the provisions of the General Provisions on the convergence of discipline and law. After the revision of the "Regulations" in 2015, the party's discipline characteristics have become more distinct, forming a "six disciplines" system, which has been determined by the party constitution of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and has continued to this day. On the basis of adhering to the principle of separating discipline from law and the "six disciplines" style, the current revision of the "Regulations" does not add other discipline classifications to the sub-provisions, but devotes a special paragraph to Article 30 of the articles on the convergence of discipline and law in the general provisions, stipulating party discipline punishment for violations of state financial and economic discipline. In the course of enforcing discipline, if a Party organization discovers the above-mentioned acts, it must not only pursue legal responsibility in accordance with national laws and regulations, but also pursue Party discipline responsibility in strict accordance with the "Regulations".

The third is to add a paragraph as the third paragraph, adding provisions on party discipline sanctions for party members who have illegal acts such as pornography and drugs, clarifying that "party members who have prostitution or drug use or injection of drugs and other conditions to lose party membership, and seriously tarnish the party's image, shall be expelled from the party." This is mainly due to the fact that the party constitution stipulates that party members should take the lead in practicing the core socialist values and the socialist concept of honor and disgrace. The masses of the people have very high demands on the moral standards of party members, and party members and cadres are morally corrupt, and no matter how talented the people are, they will not accept it, and party discipline must severely punish party members for their serious immorality and anomie. Party members who have violated the law such as pornography and drugs shall be given strict party disciplinary sanctions, and the "Regulations" have previously had relevant provisions. This amendment is reaffirmed and emphasized, and is intended to send a strong signal that such violations will not be punished severely.

Make friends and act as a political swindler

[Article]

Article 55: Those who engage in speculation, befriend political swindlers, or are exploited by political swindlers, are to be given serious warnings or removal from internal Party positions;

Those who act as political swindlers are to be removed from internal Party positions, placed on Party probation, or expelled from the Party.

[Interpretation]

Article 55 of the "Regulations" has been added, which clearly stipulates the punishment for engaging in speculation, befriending or being used by political swindlers, and acting as political swindlers. At the Second Plenary Session of the 20th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed the need to severely crack down on those so-called political swindlers with "backgrounds"; at the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, General Secretary Xi Jinping further stressed the need to vigorously crack down on all kinds of political swindlers and strictly prevent the principle of commodity exchange from being brought into the party. Making friends and acting as political swindlers is a typical type of problem discovered in discipline enforcement and supervision in recent years. The main manifestations of political swindlers are as follows: First, they are accustomed to disguising their identities, some pretending to be leading cadres or their relatives, friends, and staff members around them, and some claiming to be "connected to the sky" and "there are people above," and so on; second, they are good at packaging their behavior; some forge group photos with leading cadres, take high-end cars, and go in and out of high-end hotels; some create the false impression of mastering "inside information" by spreading political rumors, and some even forge official documents, and so on Some boast that they can find connections to help others run for official positions, and some claim to be able to help cadres who violate discipline and law intercede to eliminate disasters, erase problems, evade accountability, and so on. The methods and rhetoric of some political swindlers are not clever or even very clumsy, but there are still leading party cadres who believe in the truth, regard them as their guests, and are willing to be used and deceived by them, and even take the initiative to make friends. Judging from the practice of discipline enforcement and law enforcement, there are political swindlers behind many serious corruption problems. At present, the soil and conditions for the emergence of corruption have not yet been completely eradicated, and one of the manifestations of this is that erroneous ideological concepts are still deep-rooted, and they are accustomed to taking "special paths" and enjoying "special care" when encountering problems, blurring the boundaries between right and wrong, and also providing conditions for political swindlers. Make friends and even act as political swindlers, seriously polluting the political ecology. Resolutely punishing such non-organizational behaviors that have serious political harm is conducive to strengthening the party's political construction and promoting party members and cadres to be loyal and honest to the party.

Source: Bagui Pioneer, China Journal of Discipline Inspection and Supervision

Review: Huang Zhijun

Editor: Wu Yuting