BEIJING — The Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee held a meeting on Jan 31.
The meeting was held to review a report from the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee after it heard and discussed the work reports of the leading Party members groups of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), the State Council, the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the Supreme People’s Court (SPC), and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP), as well as the work report of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee. Those attending the meeting also reviewed a summary report on the theoretical study program for the whole Party to study and implement Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, a guideline on consolidating and expanding what has been achieved in the study program, and the CPC regulations on disciplinary inspection. Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, chaired the meeting.
Attendees of the meeting fully endorsed the work of the leading Party members groups of the NPC Standing Committee, the State Council, the CPPCC National Committee, the SPC and the SPP, as well as of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, since the 20th CPC National Congress, and approved their work plans for the year 2024. It was agreed at the meeting that the five leading Party members groups have followed the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, kept in mind the overall work of the Party and the country when performing their duties and fulfilling their responsibilities, and acted in earnest to improve themselves. They have contributed to economic growth and social stability and secured a good start to their work on all fronts. Under the leadership of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and its standing committee, the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, for its part, has been proactive and self-motivated in its work. It has done a lot of work in promoting the implementation of the CPC Central Committee’s decisions and arrangements, improving the institutional development of Party regulations, and guiding the growth and reform of people’s organizations, among other areas.
It was stressed at the meeting that 2024, marking the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, is a pivotal year for fulfilling the objectives of the 14th Five-Year Plan. The leading Party members groups of the NPC Standing Committee, the State Council, the CPPCC National Committee, the SPC, and the SPP must follow the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. They must uphold the centralized and unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee, which is the highest political principle, and focus on advancing Chinese modernization, a task of the greatest political importance, to continuously do a good job in implementing strategic decisions made at the 20th CPC National Congress. They must prioritize high-quality development, deepen reform and opening up, and ensure that the key tasks set at the Central Economic Work Conference are carried out to the letter, so as to raise the quality of our economy and promote its growth within a reasonable range. They must have a correct understanding of what it means to perform well, to improve people’s well-being and maintain social fairness and justice. And they must ensure both high-quality development and high-level security, prepare for worst-case scenarios, and strengthen their awareness and capacity to carry out struggles. They must earnestly fulfill their principal responsibility of exercising full and rigorous Party self-governance, take the lead in implementing the CPC Central Committee’s eight-point decision on improving conduct and the gist of the detailed rules for the implementation of the decision, and set examples by themselves in strengthening the Party’s self-reform in a down-to-earth manner. The Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee should strengthen its sense of political responsibility, earnestly perform its duties, strengthen its self-improvement, and continue to accomplish with high quality all tasks assigned by the CPC Central Committee.
It was noted at the meeting that since the launch of the theoretical study program concerning Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, the whole Party has closely followed the general requirements of studying the Thought, strengthening Party consciousness, emphasizing practice, and making new achievements. With focus on the theme and main line of the study, the entire Party has set clear goals and tasks, and given prominence to forging soul, increasing intellect, rectifying conduct and promoting work through the study. The study, combined with doing a good job in the first year of implementing the guiding principles of the 20th CPC National Congress, has helped solve problems that hinder high-quality development, and address the problems that the people are concerned about the most, and prominent problems in Party building, and thus achieved the desired goals.
It was stressed at the meeting that efforts must be continued to promote the study of the Party’s new theories, and educate and guide Party members and officials to gain a clear understanding of the way, direction, methods and intellect for performing their duties, foster inner strength, enhance cohesion and forge the Party’s soul by studying the theories. It is imperative to continuously solve problems and deliver good results through making rectifications and formulating regulations, so that the people can feel that their concerns are being addressed. It is essential to continue improving conduct, and act on the principle that the Party’s line, theories and policies must be publicized, fact-finding missions conducted, and people’s complaints received at the primary level, and officials must solve specific problems on the spot if necessary. The mass line in the new era must be followed, and pointless formalities and bureaucratism must be tackled, so that burdens on grassroots levels can be substantially alleviated. It is imperative to further consolidate Party work at grassroots, strengthen primary-level governance through Party building, and ensure that primary-level Party organizations and every Party member play a key, exemplary and vanguard role. Efforts must be continuously made on the implementation of policies by doing solid work, taking concrete measures and pursuing results so as to turn what has been achieved from the theoretical study program into the outcomes of high-quality development. Party committees and leading Party members groups at all levels should undertake the important political task of consolidating the gains from the program, and bear the primary responsibility for earnestly putting such gains into practical work.
It was noted at the meeting that since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, the CPC has revised the Regulations of the Communist Party of China on Discipline Inspections three times, promoted discipline inspections and improved the systems and regulations for the Party’s self-reform. It is essential to uphold the positioning of political inspections, and firmly uphold Comrade Xi Jinping’s core position on the Party Central Committee and in the Party as a whole and uphold the Central Committee’s authority and its centralized, unified leadership as a fundamental task. On that basis, inspections should oversee how power is exercised and responsibility is fulfilled, how leadership teams and their heads perform their duties and how the people’s major concerns are addressed. In addition, political supervision should be specific, targeted, and regular.
It is imperative to see that the follow-up rectification of problems yield tangible results. This calls for the fulfilling of duties rigorously, the refining of mechanism in this regard, and putting to good use the achievements of political inspections, so that both symptoms and root causes of the problems are addressed. It is imperative to give full play to the comprehensive supervisory role of inspections, and promote the coordination between inspections and other means of supervision to create a synergy. A fine network of supervision should be established, with inspections by higher-level and lower-level Party committees coordinating with each other. A good job must be done to study, disseminate, and implement the Party’s regulations on inspection work and strengthen the self-improvement of inspection teams so as to continuously standardize the inspection work.
Other issues were also deliberated at the meeting.
