Profoundly Understand the Significance of Doing the United Front Work Well Under the New Situation

Part of Xi Jinping's Speech at the Central United Front Work Conference on May 18, 2015. Contained in in Selection and Compilation of Important Documents since the 18th National Congress (Vol. 2)

The speech emphasized that the people's aspiration and support are the key to the success or failure of the cause of the Party and the people, which is the greatest politics. The essential requirement of United Front work is to achieve great solidarity and unity to the greatest extent, and what this work resolves is winning people's heart and strength.

This is a major strategic issue that our Party should resolve with great care and effort when governing the country. In recent years under the leadership of the Party Central Committee, the United Front has held high the banner of patriotism and socialism, firmly grasped the themes of great solidarity and unity, and greatly promoted economic and social development, helped maintaining social harmony and stability, and made important contribution in promoting the unification of the motherland.

Generally speaking, Party committees and leading comrades at all levels attach great importance to the United Front work, but there are some comrades who don’t pay due attention to the United Front Work and devote much less to it. It is necessary to realize that the historical status, internal and external situation we are faced and mission of our Party have changed greatly.

To do a good job in the united front work in the new situation, we must master its laws, adhere to principles, and pay attention to methods, the most fundamental thing is to adhere to the Party's leadership, and the policies and measures adopted must be conducive to maintaining and consolidating the Party's leadership and its governing status. To do the United Front work well under the new situation, we must correctly handle the relationship between uniformity and diversity. The nature of United Front work to seek for uniformity and diversity. The key to correctly handling the relationship between uniformity and diversity is to persist in seeking common ground while reserving differences and respect and accommodate differences.

We should have a clear-cut position on the issues that jeopardize the leadership of the CPC, the socialist regime, the state system and the rule of law, and the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people, we should not allow them to prevail in the name of diversity, this is the political bottom line, which we cannot allow to be shaken. We should constantly consolidate the common ideological and political foundation, fully develop democracy, respect and embrace differences, and try our best to find the greatest common divisor of all sides through patient and meticulous work.

To do the United Front work well under the new situation, it is necessary to be good at developing friendships and making friends. The united front is a task for people, and the purpose of establishing the United Front work is to expand the strength of common struggle. We should make friends in a wide range, the more friends you have, the better, of course we can develop personal friendship with non-Party people, but it should be subordinated to public friendship, which is an issue of principle, rules and discipline.

The multi-Party cooperation and political consultation system led by the CPC is a basic political system of our country. We should uphold and improve this system to CPC, try our best to better reflect the strength and efficacy of this system and we should focus on giving full play to the positive role of democratic parties and non-Party personages. We need to improve the content, forms and procedures of consultations, establish and improve the mechanism of exchange of information and getting feedback, increase the channels and platforms to create opportunities for discussion and deliberation, so that consultation mechanism can play a better role in building consensus and can optimize decision-making.

We should explore effective forms of and establish institutional guarantees, for improving orderly democratic participation and democratic supervision. We should support democratic parties in strengthening their ideological, organizational, and institutional development, especially in building their leadership groups, and help them improve their ability to grasp politics, participate in deliberations and discussions of state affairs, improve their organizational leadership, ability to cooperate and work together, and ability to solve their own problems.The united front work aimed at non-Party intellectuals is the basic and strategic united front work.

We should better master ways to develop contacts and to deal with the non-Party intellectuals, especially with those skilled at ideological and political work.

We should attach great importance to and do a good job in the united work aiming at the intellectuals in new economic and social organizations, and guide them to play positive roles; and in order to promote the healthy development of the non-public ownership economy and the healthy growth of people in the non-public ownership economy, we must adhere to the principles of solidarity, service, guidance, and education, and encourage and support with one hand, education and guidance with the other hand, and focus on their thinking and their difficulties. Provide targeted guidance to guide non-public economy people, especially the younger generation, to become rich and think rich, and to be patriotic, dedicated, innovative, law-abiding, honest, and contributing.

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry is the bridge and link between the Party and the government to connect with non-public economy people. The united front work must be effectively covered by the chamber of commerce, and the guidance, and service functions of the chamber of commerce can be used to ensure the correct direction of the chamber of commerce.

Religious work is essentially mass work, and it is necessary to fully implement the Party ’s policy on freedom of religious belief, manage religious affairs according to law, adhere to the principle of independence and self-management, and actively guide religions to adapt to socialist society.

It is necessary to adapt to the new situation and doing practical and good work in Hong Kong and Macao, Taiwan and overseas Chinese affairs.

It is necessary to increase the training, selection and use of non-Party representatives, and work hard to cultivate a contingent of non-Party representatives who consciously accepts the leadership of the CPC, unswervingly follow the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and has strong representation ability and who can participate in and discuss politics.

The united front work is the work that concerns the entire Party, and it must be highly valued and taken seriously by the whole Party and implemented jointly by all.

Party committees at all levels must place united front work at an important position. Leading cadres at all levels must take the lead in studying, propagating and implementing the United Front policies and regulations, taking the lead in participating in important United Front activities, and making friends with non-Party people.

We should insist and adhere to the united front work pattern in which this work is implemented under the unified leadership of the Party committees, together with the leadership and coordination of the relevant United Front Work Departments plus all parties concerned assuming their own responsibilities, thus forming combined task force. We should strengthen the building of the ranks of united front cadres, so that they can carry forward the fine style of work, treat people with sincerity and humility, treat people equally, be honest and upright, truly win the respect and recognition of non-Party people and unite them to fight with our Party.