The Party Exercises Self-Discipline and Is Strict with Its Members

The consistent requirements and fine traditions of the CPC are also the basic principles and guidelines for governing the Party and strengthening self-building emphasized by the Communist Party of China after it has achieved its ruling position, especially since the Reform and Opening-up. The Party should conduct strict self-governance. As a comprehensive requirement for strengthening Party building, the first thing is to govern our own affairs well, and strictly govern the Party ideologically, organizationally, stylistically, institutionally and in combating corruption and upholding integrity. It is necessary to act in strict accordance with the Party Constitution and in accordance with the Party’s systems and regulations; to strictly require, educate, govern and supervise Party members, especially leading cadres; to stress Party spirit and principles in the inner-Party life, to carry forward righteousness, and to oppose unhealthy tendencies; to strictly enforce Party discipline and insist that everyone is equal in front of discipline.

The Party should conduct strict self-governance. Organizationally, Party committees at all levels should establish and improve the responsibility system for Party building and form a work pattern featured with the unified leadership of the Party committee and the joint governance of all relevant departments. One level higher is responsible for another level lower and priority is given to the implementation in each level. Since its founding, the Communist Party of China has attached unremitting importance to the management of the Party. After the founding of New China and the Communist Party became the ruling Party, the importance of managing the Party and governing the Party was emphasized.

On January 21, 1962, the CPC Central Committee’s instruction on the “Minutes of the National Organization Work Conference” clearly stated that “the Party should conduct the self-governance”. When Deng Xiaoping, then general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, met with comrades attending the National Organization Work Conference and the National Supervision Work Conference in November 1962, he pointed out that “the Party should conduct self-governance, especially govern the Party members and cadres. For the ruling Party, the most important thing is the problem of cadres if the Party is to conduct self-governance”. After the Reform and Opening-up, the problem of Party building has become prominent, with the shift of the Party’s central work to economic construction, and the diversification of economic components and social organizations caused by the reform. In 1987, the 13th CPC National Congress proposed that we must “conduct strict self-governance” in the process of Reform and Opening-up. After the political disturbance subsided in 1989, in view of the phenomenon that the Party did not supervise its own conduct to varying degrees within the Party, Deng Xiaoping pointed out, “our Party should be supervised, and it must be supervised”.

In view of the lax administration of the Party, Jiang Zemin stressed that “in running the country, we must first govern the Party, and we must run it with strict discipline.” The 4th Plenary Session of the 17th CPC Central Committee proposed that “the task of supervising the Party’s own conduct and running the Party with strict discipline is more onerous and urgent than ever before.” Since the 18th CPC National Congress, Xi Jinping has further put forward the strategic thought of “exercising full and rigorous governance over the Party”, on the basis of “supervising its own conduct and running itself with strict discipline”. It is determined by the nature of the Communist Party of China that the Party. The high standard of the Party’s advanced nature and purity determines the strict requirements for the Party to supervise its own conduct and run itself with strict discipline. It is also determined by the position and historical mission of the Party in the national and social life. The Communist Party of China is the ruling Party, and the challenges and tests it faces are severe. The Party’s advanced nature and ruling position are not inborn, so it will not naturally be done once and for all. Doesn't administer and supervise the Party, there may be problems or even major problems, resulting in not only the failure of the Party's cause, but also the danger of perishing the Party and the country.

In order to ensure that the Party supervises its own conduct and runs itself with strict discipline, the Communist Party of China has successively carried out ten large-scale education activities for Party members from the launch of Reform and Opening-up to the eve of the 19th CPC National Congress: the Party rectification movement from 1983 to 1984, the activities of learning from Deng Xiaoping’s Southern Talks in 1992, the “three stresses” education activities from 1996 to 2000, and the study and education activities of the important thoughts of “Three Represents” in rural areas from the end of 2000 to 2002, educational activities to maintain the advanced nature of Communist Party members from 2005 to 2006, learning and practicing the scientific concept of development from 2008 to 2010, activities of “striving for excellence” from May 2010 to July 2012. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the Communist Party of China has made a new exploration in supervising the Party’s conduct and enforcing strict discipline from the perspective of the survival of the Party and the state. In December 2012, the CPC Central Committee first adopted the eight-point decision on improving Party and government conduct and maintaining close ties with the masses.

Xi Jinping questions what our Party relies on and on what reasons the Party governs while supervising its own conduct and running itself with strict discipline? The answer is on strict discipline. How does the Party supervise its own conduct and run itself with strict discipline? It starts from the political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee. The comrades of the political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee should take the lead in inheriting and carrying forward the Party's fine work style.

The practical activities of mass line education carried out by the whole Party from 2013 to 2014 are required to firmly grasp the main line of strengthening the construction of the Party’s ruling ability, advanced nature and purity, persist in emancipating the mind, reform and innovation, and insist that the Party should manage the Party and administer the Party strictly, in accordance with the general requirements of controlling the total amount, optimizing the structure, improving quality and giving full play to its role. Strive to build a contingent of Party members with firm belief, good quality, moderate scale, reasonable structure, strict discipline and outstanding role, so as to consolidate the organizational foundation of the Party in power.

Xi Jinping put forward eight requirements for strict administration of the Party at the summary meeting of the Party’s mass line education and practical activities on October 8, 2014:

(1) To implement the responsibility of running the Party with strict discipline;

(2) To adhere to the close combination of ideological Party building and system governance;

(3) To strictly enforce the political life within the Party;

(4) To persist in strict management of cadres;

(5) To continuously and deeply improve the work style;

(6) To strictly enforce the discipline of the Party;

(7) To give full play to the role of people's supervision;

(8) Deeply grasp the law of running the Party with strict discipline.

In 2015, special education on “Three Stricts and Three Earnests” was carried out among leading cadres at and above the county and department level, requiring them to “be strict in self-development, exercise of power and self-discipline; be earnest in making plans, opening up new undertakings and upholding personal integrity”, that is, the Party dare to be really strict and do it in the long-term, so that our Party will always stand in an invincible position.