Strengthen and Improve the Leadership of the Party

Deng Xiaoping put forward the important thought of strengthening the leadership and building of the Party in order to meet the requirements of the new period of Reform and Opening-up. The basic connotation is, on the premise of adhering to the Party's leadership, strengthening the Party’s self-building in the spirit of reform, striving to improve and perfect the Party's leadership system, the Party’s ways and methods of work, and solving all kinds of new contradictions and problems encountered by the Party in its advance, improve the Party’s ability to govern and lead.

On June 25, 1979, when attending the meeting of Party members and responsible persons of the 2nd Session of the 5th National people’s Congress, Deng Xiaoping stressed that “it is really necessary to establish the legal system, especially senior cadres should abide by the legal system. In the future, the first rule of the leadership of the Party committee is to ensure that the law can work and be effective. Before there is no legislation, we can only act in accordance with the policy; after the law is enacted, we will act firmly in accordance with the law”. In January 1980, Deng Xiaoping made it clear for the first time at the cadre meeting convened by the Central Committee: “In order to uphold the Party's leadership, we must strive to improve the Party's leadership.” At the enlarged meeting of the political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee in August of the same year, he pointed out that the purpose of reforming the leadership system of the Party and the state is not to weaken the leadership of the Party or to loosen the discipline of the Party but to uphold and strengthen the leadership of the Party and to uphold and strengthen the discipline of the Party. In a large country like China, if we want to unify the thinking and strength of more than a billion people to build socialism, there is no Party composed of Party members with a high degree of awareness, discipline and the spirit of self-sacrifice, which can truly represent and unite the masses of the people, without such a unified leadership of the Party, it is impossible to imagine that it will only fall apart and accomplish nothing. This is the truth deeply realized by the people of all ethnic groups throughout the country in their long-term struggle and practice.

The unity of our people, social stability, democratic development and national unity all depend on the leadership of the Party. The core of adhering to the four Cardinal principles is to adhere to the leadership of the Party. The leadership of the Party cannot be shaken. The problem is that the Party should be good at leading and constantly improve leadership in order to strengthen the ability of leading. To strengthen and improve the leadership of the Party, we must concentrate on Party building and make it full of new vigor and vitality.The most important thing is to strengthen ideological and political work and improve the Party's work style.

In 1992, Jiang Zemin specifically expounded the issues of strengthening Party building and improving Party leadership in the report of the 14th CPC National Congress. He stressed that to uphold, improve and strengthen the Party's leadership, we must conscientiously study the theory of building socialism with Chinese characteristics, enhance the consciousness and firmness of implementing the Party's basic line, strengthen the construction of leading bodies, train successors to the socialist cause, maintain close ties with the masses, resolutely overcome negative corruption, uphold and consolidate the Party's ruling position, and separate the functions of the Party and the government. In order to improve the Party's leadership, we must correctly handle the relationship between the Party's leadership and law-based governance, reform and improve the leadership system of the Party and the state, correctly handle the relationship between the Party and the government, and solve the problem of how the Party is good at leading.

The leadership of the ruling Party over the state power system, including political leadership, ideological leadership and organizational leadership, it is realized by exerting political influence, recommending important cadres, properly managing Party organizations and Party members in the organs of power, putting forward propositions on major state affairs and turning them into the will of the state through legal procedures.

Therefore, in the process of being in power, we should pay more attention to improving the Party's style of leadership and governance, ensuring that the Party leads the people to govern the country effectively, and pay more attention to perfecting the democratic system and enriching democratic forms, to ensure that the people carry out democratic elections, democratic decision-making, democratic management and democratic supervision in accordance with the law. We should pay more attention to the important role of the rule of law in national governance and social management, safeguard the unity, dignity and authority of the country's legal system, and ensure that the people enjoy a wide range of rights and freedoms in accordance with the goal of establishing a socialist administrative system with Chinese characteristics. We will further promote the separation of government from enterprises, government and capital, government and social affairs, and build a service-oriented government with scientific functions, optimized structure, clean and efficient, and the satisfaction of the people. Persist in using the system to manage and manage people, and protect the people's rights to know, participate, express and supervise; it is necessary to ensure that the power of decision-making, enforcement and supervision restrict and coordinate with each other, and ensure that state organs exercise their powers in accordance with legal authority and procedures. We will improve the system of openness of Party affairs, government affairs, judicature and affairs in various fields, improve the systems of inquiry, accountability, economic responsibility audit, resignation and dismissal, and strengthen inner-Party supervision, democratic supervision, legal supervision and supervision by public opinion. Let the people supervise the power and exercise power in an open and transparent way. Strengthening the Party's leadership and improving the Party's leadership are dialectical and unified in the practice of the Party's leadership in building socialism with Chinese characteristics. If we do not adhere to and strengthen the leadership of the Party, it is impossible to improve the leadership of the Party; the purpose of improving the leadership of the Party is to better uphold and strengthen the leadership of the Party.

The report of the 18th CPC National Congress pointed out that it is necessary to persist in establishing the Party for the public and being in power for the people, strengthen and improve the Party's leadership, adhere to the core role of the Party in overall control and coordination of all parties, maintain the Party's advanced nature and purity, enhance the Party's creativity, cohesion and combat effectiveness, and improve the Party's scientific governance, democratic governance and governance according to law.