Strengthen Discipline, and Revolution Will Be Invincible

A famous slogan put forward by Mao Zedong during the China’s People's Liberation War, which was a concise summary of the fact that discipline is an important guarantee of revolutionary victory.

In September 1948, the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee adopted a resolution focusing on strengthening discipline. Then on January 1, 1949, the People's Daily publicly published Mao Zedong's comment on "the army marches forward and the production grows by an inch. Strengthen the discipline and the revolution is invincible.”

The slogan was adapted to the needs of the revolutionary war situation at that time, quickly overcame the disorganization in the Party and the army due to the long dispersion in the guerrilla war and ensured the unity of the Party Central Committee's political and military orders; it was also necessary to ensure the unity of the Party's central government and military orders and the effective command of the entire Party and army in strategic battles against the enemy.

In September 1948, the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee adopted the “Resolution on the System of Requesting Instructions by Central Offices, Branch Offices, Military Area Commands, Central Military Commission Branches and Front Committees to the Central Government”, which clearly stipulated the scope of reporting to the Central Committee in all work. Around this time, Mao Zedong also drafted documents for the CPC Central Committee, such as "On Setting Up a System of Reports", "The Work on Land Reform and of Party Consolidation in 1948”, "Instructions on Strictly Implementing the System of Reports”, “On Strengthening the Party Committee System”, “On the September Meeting” and so on. All these documents repeatedly emphasized the need to adhere to democratic centralism and strengthen discipline.

The Central Committee demanded that all local Party organizations and the army must implement a strict and complete system of requesting reports. Thereafter, the whole Party and army launched a struggle against the undisciplined anarchy, against the wrong attitude of not asking for instructions beforehand and not reporting afterwards, and against the dangerous tendencies regarding the places under their jurisdiction and the army under their command as an independent country, thus greatly strengthening the centralized and unified leadership of the Central Committee over the local units, enhancing the unity of the Party and the army, and creating the necessary prerequisites for winning the War of Liberation.

Discipline has been the fine tradition and unique advantage of the CPC, and the manners always paying attention to discipline and strengthening discipline have constituted an important condition for the success of the Party's cause. Hence, the slogan "Strengthen the discipline and the revolution will be invincible" provided a solid organizational and disciplinary guarantee for the CPC to win the final victory of the whole country, which still has practical guiding significance today.