Remarks on Several Norms of Intra-Party Political Life under New Conditions and the Intra-Party Supervision Regulations

During the Sixth Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the CPC in 2016, Xi Jinping explained to the participants of the Plenary meeting the drafting of “Several Norms of Intra-Party Political Life under New Conditions” and the “Intra-Party Supervision Regulations”. The “Remarks” by Xi Jinping mainly discusses the drafting of the document from four aspects.

(1) Remarks on the drafting of the two documents. The drafts serve the requirements of improve the "four comprehensives" strategic layout, requirements of deepening the comprehensive and strict governance of the Party, and requirements of resolving the outstanding contradictions and problems existing within the Party.

(2) On the drafting process of documents. In the past 8months, various departments in different regions have put forward many good opinions and suggestions on the two draft documents and the drafting team carefully sorted out and studied these opinions and suggestions, made important modifications. The Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau convened several times to review the drafts. It is unanimously agreed that adhering to the centralized and unified leadership of the Party's Central Committee and establishing and maintaining the core of leadership of the Party are the common aspirations of the whole Party and the people of all nationalities and provide fundamental guarantees for maintaining the correct direction of the development of the Party and the state.

(3) Principles and basic framework of the drafted documents. Drafting principles are as follows: First is to inherit and carry forward fine traditions and valuable experiences of the Party, highlight the theme of comprehensively and strictly governing the Party, strictly enforcing the Party discipline. Second is to adhere to the Party Constitution as the fundamental basis, and paying special attention to respecting, implementing and maintaining the Party constitution. Third is to adhere to the problem-oriented approach, focus on the weak links in the political life and supervision within the Party, and earnestly seek solution of such problems as vulgarization, arbitrariness and dilution of the political life within the Party, as well as to the problems of imperfection, inadequate coverage, ambiguous responsibilities and poor implementation problems in the Party's internal supervision system. Fourth is to insist on overall coordination, strengthen top-level design and systematic planning, we should work hard to handle the relationship between the new and old regulations besides old regulations and other intra-Party norms and regulations, so as to keep pace with the times as well as to achieve consistency among them.

(4) Two issues which need to be highlighted. Firstly, about the relationship between the new guidelines and the 1980 guidelines norms and between the old and new norms, they are all interrelated and in one continuous line, which must be followed in the political life of the Party at present and in the future.

He called the 1980 norms as "ground-breaking," and added that the principles and provisions featured are still relevant today, such as objectives and basic norms for intra-Party political life, a collective leadership system, opposition to arbitrary rule by any individual, upholding the Party's centralism and unity, abiding by Party code of conduct, and promoting intra-Party democracy, among other principles.

The second is about laying focus on senior officials in implementing the two documents. The “Remarks” emphasizes that in order to strengthen the building of the Party, strengthening and standardizing the political life and supervision within the Party, we must pay attention to leading officials, especially the principal leading officials.

Through Xi Jinping’s remarks on the two important documents within the Party, the spirit of these two important documents were clearly, accurately and effectively grasped by the whole Party, and it also expounded that comprehensively and strictly governing the Party prposed by the CPC Central Committee has won the hearts of both the people and the Party members, all of which has been conducive to the promotion and implementation of these two important documents.