Summary: Xi Jinping, in a speech marking the CCP's 105th anniversary, outlined six "outstanding traits" that he said explain the Party's enduring success: pursuing truth, rooting itself in the people, shouldering historical missions, following development trends, daring to struggle, and self-reform. He argued that these qualities are why history and the people chose the Party, enabling it to fundamentally change China's destiny and achieve national rejuvenation. The article did not mention any accompanying officials or discuss the United States or U.S.-China relations.
Summary: The article, authored by a Renmin University professor, highlights President Xi Jinping's emphasis that a rigorous organizational system is the strength of a Marxist party, tracing the CCP's 105-year history of building such a system. It details the establishment of a hierarchical structure from central to grassroots levels, with over 543 million primary-level organizations, and the cultivation of a politically steadfast cadre. Key lessons include upholding centralized leadership, integrating ideological and institutional governance, and adhering to democratic centralism and self-reform. The piece concludes that the Party must continue to strengthen its organizational system to transform political and organizational advantages into decisive advantages for modernization. No mention is made of the United States or U.S.-China relations.
Summary: The article emphasizes that the people are the foundation of the Party and the state, quoting Xi Jinping's assertion that "the country is the people, and the people are the country," and that the people's support is central to the Party's rule. It underscores the people-centric nature of Marxism and the Communist Party of China's historical reliance on the masses from revolution to reform. The piece highlights Xi's leadership in prioritizing people's interests, such as poverty alleviation and environmental protection, framing "serving the people" as the ultimate political achievement. The article reiterates that the Party's legitimacy and long-term governance depend on its deep connection to the people's needs and trust. No U.S.-China relations or accompanying officials are mentioned.
Summary: The article emphasizes that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) remains deeply rooted in the people, asserting that "江山就是人民、人民就是江山" (the country is the people, and the people are the country). It highlights the party's commitment to governance for the public, wholehearted service, and unwavering solidarity with the masses. The piece declares that this bond gives the party a foundation unshakable by any storm. No specific official or accompanying figure is mentioned. The article does not reference the United States or U.S.-China relations.
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Summary: The article, citing President Xi Jinping, emphasizes that philosophy and social sciences are vital for national development and reflect a country's comprehensive power. It calls for ideological liberation to foster innovation, advocating for critical and innovative thinking, improved institutional support, and a democratic academic atmosphere. The piece stresses strengthening basic theoretical research through strategic patience, better funding and evaluation mechanisms, and talent cultivation. It also urges scholars to connect theory with practice by investigating real-world problems and focusing on major national issues like Chinese-style modernization. Finally, it promotes academic integrity and rigorous scholarship through ethical conduct and reformed evaluation systems.
Summary: The article highlights the critical role of the Chinese Communist Party's organizational system in achieving leadership, citing Xi Jinping’s assertion that a "tight organizational system is the strength of a Marxist political party." It details the Party’s historical evolution from its founding to the present, emphasizing the establishment of a hierarchical structure with 543.1 million grassroots organizations by 2025. Key achievements include building a cadre of politically reliable officials and institutionalizing democratic centralism as the core leadership principle. The text underscores the necessity of maintaining the Party’s centralized authority and integrating organizational discipline with ideological education. It concludes by stressing that strengthening the organizational system is essential for translating political advantages into governance success in the new era.
Summary: In a speech at the 105th anniversary of the CPC, Xi Jinping urged young people to "run the historical relay race" on the new journey. The article, written by the executive vice president of the Central School of the Communist Youth League, argues that Xi Jinping's thought on party building provides a key framework for youth to understand the CPC, socialism with Chinese characteristics, and Chinese-style modernization. It calls for disseminating this thought as a complete theoretical system rather than fragmented knowledge, linking party building to governance effectiveness. The author stresses that youth should grasp the holistic structure of the "Fourteen Persistences" and see how party capacity translates into national governance outcomes. Finally, the piece emphasizes transforming theoretical understanding into practical engagement and identity, connecting the party's mission with youth development.
Summary: Xunzi's theory of "li" (ritual/propriety) is defined as "nourishment" (yang), arising from the need to regulate human desires and prevent social chaos caused by unchecked competition for limited resources. He argues that ritual must both satisfy natural human wants and restrain excessive indulgence, serving to "nourish the body, nourish the emotions, and nourish the mind" for holistic individual and societal well-being. For Xunzi, the ultimate goal is the sustainable fulfillment of all people's needs, prioritizing practical welfare over abstract moral duty. He further advocates for hierarchical distribution of benefits based on status, virtue, and merit to incentivize good behavior and unify individual and collective interests. While acknowledging potential limitations, he believed this system could empower rulers to maintain order and bring prosperity to all, influencing later dynastic governance.
Summary: Zhang Yanyuan's "Record of Famous Paintings" is highlighted as the first comprehensive history of Chinese painting, establishing "naturalness" (ziran) as the core aesthetic principle. The article details his view that painting originates from nature rather than mechanical imitation, emphasizing "intent" (yi) over mere formal likeness. Zhang distinguishes "true painting" as embodying life force, achieved through a spontaneous, almost unconscious creative state that blends intention and non-intention. He ranks "naturalness" as the highest artistic quality, equating it with the Daoist ideal of unadorned simplicity. The discussion remains focused on classical Chinese art theory, with no reference to the United States or U.S.-China relations.
Summary: The London University SOAS Library, founded in 1917 alongside the School of Oriental Studies, initially served as a tool for training colonial administrators in Asian and African languages. Following post-war reports by Lord Scarborough (1945) and William Hayter (1961), the library received British government funding to become a national center for area studies, expanding its collection to over 1.3 million volumes in 400+ languages. In recent years, the library has established a "Decolonisation Action Group" to reform cataloging systems, support Global South publishers, and facilitate the repatriation of rare materials, breaking from Eurocentric traditions. It now functions as a public cultural space, hosting exhibitions on topics such as South-South migration and refugee narratives, while fostering critical research on global inequality. The library’s evolution reflects a conscious effort to transform its colonial-era archives into resources for decolonized scholarship, though no mention is made of the United States or U.S.-China relations.
Summary: Vice Governor of Shaanxi Province published an article emphasizing that agricultural modernization is central to China's overall modernization, quoting President Xi Jinping's call to protect and creatively integrate ancient farming civilization with modern elements. The article highlights the enduring spiritual, scientific, and open values of traditional farming, arguing they bolster food security, ecological harmony, and rural governance. It outlines four pathways—value guidance, cultural revival, ancient-modern fusion, and external communication—to transform farming heritage into a driving force for rural revitalization and agricultural power. No mention of the United States or U.S.-China relations.
Summary: In a speech commemorating the CPC's 105th anniversary, Xi Jinping outlined six "incomparable excellent qualities" that explain the Party's enduring success: unwavering pursuit of truth, deep roots among the people, assuming historical missions, aligning with development trends, daring to struggle, and continuous self-reform. The article contrasts these traits with Western parties' electoral short-termism and implicitly criticizes U.S. hegemonic behavior, such as "zero-sum games" and "extreme pressure" on China. It reaffirms that under Xi's leadership, the CPC will continue to uphold these qualities to advance Chinese-style modernization and national rejuvenation. The piece also emphasizes that the Party's ability to self-correct and adapt ensures its long-term vitality and dominance in Chinese politics.
Summary: The article identifies the mismatch between human resource supply and demand as a key challenge in China's employment sector, advocating for expanded vocational education and lifelong skills training. It references the "15th Five-Year Plan," which calls for improving matching mechanisms and increasing government investment in vocational training and education. The piece is from the *Study Times* think tank, offering an in-depth discussion on vocational education's role in addressing this issue. No U.S. or U.S.-China relations are mentioned.
Summary: The article, authored by the head of the Chinese Academy of Personnel Science, argues that China is transitioning from a quantity-based demographic dividend to a quality-based talent dividend, requiring a modern vocational education system to address structural labor mismatches. It highlights that the "jobs without workers" and "workers without jobs" paradox is driven by skills shortages, especially in high-tech fields, and calls for data-driven adjustments to vocational training based on industrial, spatial, and demographic trends. The piece proposes mechanisms for dynamic curriculum updates, deeper industry-education integration, lifelong skill development, and a national qualifications framework to ensure supply-demand alignment. It emphasizes that such reforms are essential for sustaining China's modernization and converting its workforce into a driver of "new quality productive forces." No mention is made of the United States or U.S.-China relations.
Summary: The article attributes China's structural employment mismatch—simultaneous labor shortages and surpluses—to a disconnect between vocational education and industry needs. It notes that market adjustments alone cannot resolve this, but recent vocational education reforms, including the revised Vocational Education Law and expanded bachelor-level programs, have helped fill gaps in sectors like smart manufacturing and new energy. The author calls for further policy-driven improvements, such as aligning curricula with industrial chains and establishing dynamic professional adjustment mechanisms, as outlined in the "15th Five-Year Plan" and the Education Strengthening Plan (2024–2035). Key measures include deepening school-enterprise collaboration, building lifelong vocational training systems for displaced workers, and reshaping social perceptions to elevate the status of skilled labor. The piece underscores that resolving these imbalances requires a systemic overhaul of vocational education to support high-quality economic development.
Summary: The article argues that standardization in joint operations command is critical for modern warfare, especially as AI and quantum technologies accelerate combat into "second-level" decision cycles. It calls for standardizing command terminology, control links, data systems, technological means, and training to integrate diverse forces and enhance system-of-systems capabilities. The US Department of Defense's "Agent Network" project is cited as an example of leveraging AI for battlefield management and decision support. The text emphasizes that standards must dynamically adapt to evolving warfare demands to maintain competitive advantage. No specific Chinese officials are quoted as accompanying these statements.
Summary: The article provides a technical analysis of nighttime aviation operations, emphasizing that night takeoff and landing capabilities are critical for all-weather combat readiness. It details three core support systems—visual navigation aids, precision instrument guidance, and environmental monitoring—which together ensure safety and operational efficiency. The piece describes differentiated support modes for routine training, adverse weather, and emergency scenarios, adapting procedures to balance safety with sortie generation. Future development priorities include智能化 (intelligent) upgrades, enhanced mobility for field operations, and full-chain integration of support modules. No U.S. or bilateral relations are mentioned.
Summary: The article recounts the history of the MiG-15 fighter jet, particularly the one flown by combat hero Wang Hai, in the Korean War, emphasizing its role in the nascent People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) achieving a historic transformation against U.S. air power. It details the Soviet Union's decision, following negotiations between Stalin and Mao, to supply these jets starting in 1950, which allowed China to directly confront the U.S. F-86 "Sabre." The narrative highlights specific victories by Chinese pilots, including the downing of American aces like Davis, demonstrating the PLAAF's rapid combat effectiveness. Beyond the battlefield, the article notes how the import of MiG-15 parts laid the foundation for China's domestic aviation industry, leading to the development of later fighter jets like the J-5 and J-6. The 079 MiG-15 is presented as a symbol of China's military spirit and technological progress, having enabled the PLAAF to match the world's best air forces.
Summary: At the 2026 Zhejiang Southwest Revolutionary Old Area Development Forum in Lishui, party secretary Wu Shunze outlined ten key achievements over the past five years, including economic growth equivalent to "half a new Lishui," top-tier environmental rankings, and progress in common prosperity. The forum featured the release of three major reports on revitalization cases, ecological product value mechanisms, and industrial investment opportunities. Accompanying Wu were descendants of revolutionary figures, such as Su Yu's grandson Su Zhijun and Liu Ying's grandson Liu Hongyu, who praised Lishui's new developments. The event also launched a "Lishui City Development Partner" program, bringing in think tanks, research institutes, and enterprises like the China Center for Information Industry Development and the International Bamboo and Rattan Center. The forum emphasized integrating "red roots" (revolutionary heritage) with green development, focusing on new quality productive forces and common prosperity for the old revolutionary base areas.
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By: 学习时报编辑部
"The fundamental reason why the Communist Party of China has been able to continuously forge glory in its 105 years of struggle, and why history and the people have chosen the Communist Party of China, lies in the fact that our Party possesses excellent traits that no other political party or political force can compare with." General Secretary Xi Jinping, at the celebration of the 105th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, systematically summarized the Communist Party of China's incomparable excellent traits, profoundly elucidating the key code to why the Communist Party of China is capable. It is precisely because it possesses the excellent traits of unswervingly pursuing truth, deeply rooting itself in the people, bravely bearing historical missions, conforming to the trends of development, daring and being adept at struggle, and focusing on strengthening itself, that history and the people have chosen the Communist Party of China. Through its struggles, the Communist Party of China has continuously forged glory, fundamentally changed the future and destiny of the Chinese people, opened up the correct path for realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, demonstrated the powerful vitality of Marxism, profoundly influenced the course of world history, and forged a powerful Communist Party of China. The Chinese nation has ushered in the great leap from standing up, growing rich, to becoming strong, writing the most magnificent epic in the thousands of years of Chinese history. Standing at a new historical starting point, we must combine new realities, strengthen our confidence, and continue the struggle. We must continuously carry forward and enhance the Party's excellent traits, ensure that the Party never deteriorates, changes its color, or loses its flavor, always possesses strong creativity, cohesion, and combat effectiveness, and continuously create new achievements worthy of the times and the people.
Unswervingly Pursuing Truth, Always Keeping the Correct Direction Forward
The long river of history flows endlessly; the light of truth illuminates the journey of rejuvenation. In modern times, the Chinese nation fell into the tragic situation of internal and external troubles. Achieving national independence, people's liberation, national prosperity, and people's happiness became the historical tasks of the Chinese people. However, the old-style peasant wars reached a dead end; the self-strengthening movements and reformism that did not touch the feudal foundations repeatedly encountered obstacles; the revolutions led by the bourgeois revolutionaries and various other schemes of Western capitalism all failed one after another. "All paths were blocked." The salvo of the October Revolution brought Marxism-Leninism to China, which was seeking a way to save the nation and the people, providing the Chinese people with a direction forward and a new choice. As Mao Zedong pointed out: "Only this action guide, only this stand and method, are the revolutionary science, the only correct policy for guiding us to understand the revolutionary object and guide the revolutionary movement."
"The highest ideal of life lies in seeking the truth." Marxism scientifically reveals the laws of the development of human society, illuminating the path for humanity to explore its own liberation. For 105 years, our Party has regarded Marxism as a powerful ideological weapon for understanding the world, grasping laws, pursuing truth, and transforming the world. It has insisted on emancipating the mind, seeking truth from facts, advancing with the times, and being pragmatic and realistic. It has focused on revealing and applying truth in the movement of social contradictions, been adept at testing and developing truth in practice, and continuously guided new practices with new theories, ensuring that the cause of the Party and the people advances in the correct direction. From then on, Chinese Communists began the great journey of pursuing truth, revealing truth, and steadfastly practicing truth, continuously endowing Marxism with new contemporary connotations, and making the realization of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation an irreversible historical process.
Pursuing truth is a great undertaking, but also an extraordinarily arduous quest. During the revolutionary struggle, Chinese Communists, mainly represented by Comrade Mao Zedong, combined the basic principles of Marxism-Leninism with China's specific realities, theoretically summarized a series of unique experiences accumulated through hard exploration and immense sacrifice, opened up the correct revolutionary path of encircling the cities from the countryside and seizing political power by armed force, established Mao Zedong Thought, and pointed the correct direction for seizing victory in the New Democratic Revolution. During the period of socialist revolution and construction, our Party carried out a "second combination" of the basic principles of Marxism-Leninism with China's specific realities, enriched and developed Mao Zedong Thought in light of new realities, and put forward a series of important thoughts on socialist construction. During the new period of reform, opening up, and socialist modernization, Chinese Communists adhered to and developed Marxism starting from new practices and the characteristics of the times, established Deng Xiaoping Theory, formed the important thought of the "Three Represents" and the Scientific Outlook on Development, scientifically answered a series of basic questions concerning building socialism with Chinese characteristics, such as the development path, development stage, fundamental tasks, development momentum, development strategy, political guarantee, national reunification, diplomacy and international strategy, and the leadership and relying forces. They formed the theoretical system of socialism with Chinese characteristics, leading China's development to achieve great achievements that have attracted worldwide attention. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Chinese Communists, mainly represented by Comrade Xi Jinping, have adhered to combining the basic principles of Marxism with China's specific realities and with the excellent traditional Chinese culture, closely focusing on answering major contemporary questions such as what kind of socialism with Chinese characteristics to uphold and develop in the new era and how to uphold and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics, what kind of powerful modern socialist country to build and how to build a powerful modern socialist country, and what kind of long-term governing Marxist political party to build and how to build a long-term governing Marxist political party. They have continuously deepened theoretical achievements in understanding the laws of Communist Party governance, socialist construction, and human society development, and established Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.
Advancing with the times, sharing the destiny with the people, and answering the major questions raised by the times and practice are the secrets to Marxism’s eternal vitality. For 105 years, the Party has treated science with a scientific attitude, pursued truth with a spirit of truth, regarded Marxism as a "powerful ideological weapon" and a "great tool of understanding," continuously promoted the Sinicization and modernization of Marxism, embraced all the outstanding achievements of human civilization with a broad mind, and used the scientific theory of the Sinicized and modernized Marxism to guide great practice. Unlike Western political parties that arbitrarily change their ruling platforms and oscillate their policy lines for electoral interests, the Communist Party of China has always adhered to the fundamental stance of Marxism, with theoretical innovation coming down in one continuous line and advancing with the times. It not only adheres to the basic principles of scientific socialism but also enriches the theoretical connotation according to the development of the times. It is precisely because of the unswerving pursuit of truth that the Party, amidst the fog of revolution, construction, reform, and the new era, has seen the road clearly, stood firm in the wind and waves, always remained on the right side of history, and firmly grasped the direction forward for national rejuvenation. As General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: "The reason why the Communist Party of China is capable and why socialism with Chinese characteristics is good ultimately lies in the fact that Marxism works, especially the Sinicized and modernized Marxism works."
Deeply Rooted in the People, Always Possessing a Solid Foundation
The question of "for whom" is a fundamental and principled question. It not only reveals the nature of a political party but also clearly marks the party's own positioning. From the day of its founding, the Communist Party of China has inscribed the people on its banner and integrated them into its blood. Being born for the people, thriving because of the people, always standing firmly with the people, thinking together with the people, working together with the people, and striving for the interests of the people are the fundamental starting point and落脚点 (purpose) of building, developing, and strengthening the Party. For 105 years, no matter how the times have changed or how the situation has shifted, the Communist Party of China has always remembered that the rivers and mountains are the people, and the people are the rivers and mountains. It has always consciously practiced the fundamental purpose of serving the people wholeheartedly, continuously realized, safeguarded, and developed the fundamental interests of the vast majority of the people, won the trust and support of the masses, and possessed a solid foundation that no storm can shake.
When collective strength is mobilized, nothing is unconquerable; when collective wisdom is employed, nothing is unachievable. General Secretary Xi Jinping profoundly pointed out: "All governing activities of the Communist Party of China and all governance activities of the People's Republic of China must respect the principal position of the people, respect the people's pioneering spirit, learn from the people, and deeply root the growth of political wisdom and the enhancement of governance capabilities in the people's creative practice." From the Agrarian Revolutionary War "arousing hundreds of millions of workers and peasants to work together," to the War of Resistance Against Japan "four hundred million people all exerting their efforts, united in heart and spirit to don the military uniform"; from the War of Liberation "the surging tide of small pushcarts and stretcher teams," to the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea "the entire nation willing to devote its material and financial resources," letting the world know that "the Chinese people are now organized, and they are not to be trifled with"; from unleashing the enthusiasm of the people as masters of the country to set off a new upsurge in building socialism, to respecting the pioneering spirit of the masses to set off a wave of rural and urban reform, the Party has always held the interests of the people high above its head, while always relying on the people to continuously gain strength and achieve victory. Since the new era, the people-centered development thought has further consolidated the principal position of the people. Adhering to putting the people first has been written into the Party's third historical resolution as an important historical experience. The principal position of the people has been more fully and comprehensively demonstrated. It has not only consolidated the central position of the people as historical subjects but has also elevated the people's subject consciousness, subject ability, and subject value to an unprecedented level in the great journey of the new era, becoming the deepest source of strength for promoting Chinese-style modernization. The cause of the Party and the country has achieved historic achievements and undergone historic changes.
The people's stance is the fundamental political stance of the Communist Party of China, profoundly clarifying the fundamental question of what the Communist Party of China is and what it should do. The Communist Party of China comes from the people, is rooted in the people, and serves the people. The Party's foundation lies in the people, its bloodline lies in the people, and its strength lies in the people. The people are the root of our Party's life, the foundation of its governance, and the source of its strength. They are not only a vast ocean of strength but also a vast ocean of wisdom, the decisive force in comprehensively building a powerful modern socialist country. In contrast to some Western political parties that are keen to contact the masses as an election strategy, the mass line adhered to by the Communist Party of China has always been concrete rather than abstract, substantive rather than formal. Standing among the broadest masses of the people, with its consistent original aspiration and mission, the Communist Party of China has continuously pushed national development, national progress, and people's happiness to new heights, and has also won the heartfelt support of hundreds of millions of Chinese people. On the road ahead, whether facing high winds and choppy waters or raging waves, the people will always be our most solid reliance and our greatest confidence. Deeply rooted in the people and standing firm with the people, the Communist Party of China will always possess a solid foundation.
Bravely Bearing Historical Missions, Always Grasping Strategic Initiative
Original aspirations inspire strength; missions guide the direction. General Secretary Xi Jinping profoundly pointed out: "The Party's original aspiration and mission are the concentrated expression of the Party's nature, purpose, ideals, beliefs, and goals. They inspire the Party to always adhere to them and spur the Party to move forward steadfastly." For 105 years, all the struggles, all the sacrifices, and all the creations made by our Party uniting and leading the Chinese people boil down to one theme: realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Our Party firmly shoulders the heavy responsibilities entrusted by history and the people, insists on unifying long-term goals and stage goals, adapts to changes in the principal social contradiction to establish central tasks, formulates and implements correct lines, principles, and policies, and ensures the firm grasp of the leadership and initiative in the development of the cause.
For 105 years, the Communist Party of China has always formulated and adjusted periodic goals according to the needs of the situation and tasks, based on the actual circumstances of different historical periods. It has led the people through unremitting efforts to build a country that was "poor and blank" into a remarkable "prosperous and booming China," achieving a historic leap from lagging behind the times to catching up with the times and then leading the times. During the New Democratic Revolution, the main task facing the Party was to strive for national independence and people's liberation. The Party united and led the people to overthrow the three big mountains of imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucratic capitalism, establishing the People's Republic of China where the people are the masters of the country. This made the long-suffering Chinese nation completely stand up, creating fundamental social conditions for realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. During the period of socialist revolution and construction, the Party promoted the transformation from New Democracy to socialism. Facing the difficult start of a country with a hundred things to be done, the Party united and led the people to establish the basic system of socialism, put forward a series of strategies and policies from political, economic, and military aspects, proposed the general line for the transition period, adjusted foreign strategy according to the situation, proposed the strategy of dividing the world into three parts, led the people to complete the socialist revolution, continuously advanced socialist construction, established an independent and relatively complete industrial system and national economic system on the basis of a poor and blank country, provided valuable experience, theoretical preparation, and material foundation for creating socialism with Chinese characteristics in a new historical period, and laid the fundamental political prerequisite and institutional foundation for realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. During the new period of reform, opening up, and socialist modernization, the Party made the historic decision to shift the focus of the work of the Party and the state to economic construction and implement reform and opening up. It concentrated on construction and devoted itself to development, formulating a development strategy of basically achieving socialist modernization by the middle of the 21st century through a three-step approach. Our country strided forward to catch up with the times, achieving a historic breakthrough from a relatively backward state of productive forces to the world's second-largest economy. This provided the institutional guarantee full of new vitality and the material conditions for rapid development for realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. As socialism with Chinese characteristics entered a new era, the Party united and led the people with confidence and self-reliance, upholding fundamental principles and breaking new ground. It completed the historical tasks of eradicating absolute poverty and building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, achieved the first centenary goal, and smoothly embarked on the new journey of achieving the second centenary goal. The GDP has reached the 140 trillion yuan mark, major scientific and technological achievements have emerged in droves, many difficult problems that were long desired to be solved but could not be solved have been solved, and many major things that were long desired to be done but could not be done have been accomplished. This has provided more complete institutional guarantees, more solid material foundations, and more proactive spiritual strength for realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
Having traversed the past of suffering and glory, walking in the present of rapid changes, and moving towards the bright and grand future. In the 105-year journey, unlike Western political parties that are inherently limited by election cycles and short-term governance, the Communist Party of China has always anchored its original aspiration and mission. With the consciousness and ability to recognize changes, respond to changes, and seek changes, it has overcome difficulties, fought risks, met challenges, timely optimized and adjusted strategies and policies, accurately grasped and handled the entry points and focal points of work, and firmly grasped the destiny of China's development and progress in its own hands. On the new journey of the new era, we must firmly grasp the historical mission of the Communist Party of China in the new era, comprehensively promote the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation with Chinese-style modernization, maintain strategic resolve and firm confidence in victory, combine the steadfastness of strategy with the flexibility of tactics, step by step turn the established action plan, strategic goals, and work blueprint into reality, and continuously advance the great cause of building a powerful country and national rejuvenation.
Conforming to the Trends of Development, Always Staying at the Forefront of the Times
Only by observing the situation can one control the situation; only by going with the trend can one strive to be ahead. Looking at history, both in China and abroad, those pioneers who dare to stand at the forefront of the tide and are good at planning according to the situation can always open up new horizons at critical turning points in history; while those conservatives who follow the beaten track and are complacent and conservative are inevitably left behind by the waves of the times. Whether a political party can always maintain a leading position in the course of history fundamentally depends on whether it possesses the ability to grasp the general trend of the times and conform to the trends of development. Only a political party that clearly recognizes its historical position and keeps pace with the times can truly grasp the historical initiative in the development of its cause. For the Communist Party of China, this kind of consciousness of advancing with the times has long been sublimated into an essential attribute deeply rooted in its spiritual bloodline, becoming an excellent trait that enables the Party to traverse more than a hundred years of wind and rain while maintaining youthful vitality.
From the day of its birth, the Communist Party of China has always stood on the right side of history and on the side of human civilization and progress. With a high degree of historical consciousness, it has insight into the general trend of world development. With a broad world vision, it grasps the theme of the times. In its profound observation of the conditions of the world, the nation, and the Party, it leads the Chinese nation towards great rejuvenation. During the New Democratic Revolution, our Party, proceeding from the fundamental interests of the Chinese nation, accurately discerned the new situation in which the contradiction between Japanese imperialism and the Chinese nation had become the principal contradiction. It established the broadest possible anti-Japanese national united front, uniting and leading the people to fight for national survival, for national rejuvenation, and for human justice. After the founding of New China, faced with the reality of a hundred industries waiting to be developed and severe external blockade, the Party deeply discerned the popular sentiment and historical direction, completed the socialist transformation, established the basic system of socialism, and achieved the most extensive and profound social change in the history of the Chinese nation. During the new period of reform, opening up, and socialist modernization, faced with the rapid development of the world economy, science and technology, and the easing of relations between East and West, the Party, with a profound world vision, insight into the profound evolution of the international landscape, and scientifically made the major judgment that peace and development had become the theme of the times. With extraordinary political courage, the Party broke ideological shackles, further emancipated and developed social productive forces, significantly improved people's lives, significantly enhanced comprehensive national strength, and significantly raised international status. Entering the new era, focusing on the overall strategic situation of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and the major changes unseen in a century in the world, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core conforms to the people's aspiration for a better life, coordinates both domestic and international situations, leads high-quality development with the new development concept, promotes the building of a community with a shared future for mankind, and elevates China's economic strength, scientific and technological strength, and comprehensive national strength to a new level, successfully advancing and expanding Chinese-style modernization. This series of great changes is not only a conscious adherence to the laws of historical development but also an active leadership of the general trend of the times.
Opportunity always favors those who dare to stand at the forefront of the times, to innovate and forge ahead. Those who break away from the times, are conservative and rigid are doomed to be eliminated by the times. Currently, the historical trend of peace, development, cooperation, and win-win is irresistible, but hegemonic acts such as the strong bullying the weak and zero-sum games still cause deep harm. Our country's development is in a period where strategic opportunities and risks and challenges coexist, and uncertain and unpredictable factors increase. The more complex the situation, the more we must clearly grasp the dynamic evolution of our national conditions and the theme of the times, and always grasp the historical initiative in the development of the cause. Insist on combining history with reality, theory with practice, and domestic with international. We must not only accurately study and judge the transformation of the principal social contradiction but also base ourselves on the reality of the primary stage of socialism, and clearly recognize our country's international positioning as the largest developing country. We must be good at strategically understanding, analyzing, and judging major historical issues, timely adjusting and optimizing strategies and tactics, while also seeing our institutional advantages and governance efficiency. In the midst of changing situations, we must firmly hold onto strategic goals without wavering, not be afraid of any risks, and concentrate our efforts on building a solid foundation for our own development. Dare to break away from fixed thinking patterns and path dependence, cultivate new opportunities amidst crises, open up new horizons amidst changes, continuously update cognitive frameworks, and avoid using old methods to solve new problems. Participate in global governance with a more open and inclusive mind, promote the implementation of the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, the Global Civilization Initiative, and the Global Governance Initiative, embrace the achievements of human civilization, and enrich ourselves through exchange and mutual learning. Act as a responsible major country to provide constructive solutions to global problems, injecting more positive energy into world peace and development while benefiting the Chinese people.
Daring and Being Adept at Struggle, Always Maintaining the Confidence in Victory
Contradiction is the fundamental driving force for the development of things, and where there is contradiction, there is struggle. Daring to struggle is the innate political gene of our Party and a distinct character forged in a century of practice. The revolutionary and critical nature of Marxism determines that Communists must change the world through concrete actions. The Communist Party of China was born in a time of internal and external troubles and national crisis. Along its journey, it has achieved survival, gained development, and won victories through struggle. History repeatedly proves that all achievements gained by the Party and the people did not fall from the sky but were obtained through continuous struggle. Without struggle, there would be no national independence and people's liberation; without struggle, there would be no reform, opening up, and socialism with Chinese characteristics; without struggle, there would be no historic achievements in the new era. As General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: "We are now in a time when a boat reaches the middle of the current where the waves are steeper, and a person climbs halfway up the mountain where the path is steeper. It is a time when advancing becomes increasingly difficult and dangerous, but retreating is not an option, and advancing is a must." Only by daring and being adept at struggle can we not fear any risks or be confused by any interference, and firmly grasp the historical initiative amidst raging waves.
The Communist Party of China created history through struggle, and it will surely win the future through struggle. During the New Democratic Revolution, facing the grim situation where the enemy was stronger and we were weaker, the Party, with the heroic spirit of "daring to make the sun and moon shine in a new sky," led the people in bloody battles with indomitable spirit. From the spark of Jinggangshan to the snowy mountains and grasslands on the Long March, from the War of Resistance Against Japan to the War of Liberation, it overthrew the three big mountains and established a new China where the people are the masters. During the period of socialist revolution and construction, facing the imperialist blockade and the situation of poverty and backwardness, the Party, with the strategic foresight of "a single punch opens up, sparing a hundred punches from coming," made the historic decision to resist US aggression and aid Korea, to defend our homes and country. Under extremely difficult circumstances, it successfully developed the "two bombs and one satellite," enhancing China's influence in the world. During the new period of reform, opening up, and socialist modernization, facing numerous obstacles such as ideological rigidity and institutional constraints, the Party, with the boldness to "cut a bloody path," established special economic zones and promoted reform and opening up. From the "first blast of the mountain" in Shekou to the "Shenzhen speed" of "three floors in a day," it wrote a brilliant chapter in the history of the development of the Chinese nation. Entering the new era, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, with a strong historical initiative, has waged a great struggle with many new historical features, carried out an unprecedented anti-corruption struggle, and with the mission and responsibility of "offending thousands of people, not failing 1.4 billion," has eradicated diseases and brought order out of chaos. Facing extreme pressure from individual countries, it has maintained strategic resolve, dared to unsheath the sword, firmly safeguarded national dignity and core interests, and firmly grasped the initiative in development and security through tenacious struggle. In the great practices of revolution, construction, reform, and the new era, the forms of struggle vary, but the spiritual character of daring to struggle and being adept at struggle comes down in one continuous line, and the confidence in victory becomes increasingly firm through major tests.
Those adept at warfare are invincible and do not miss the enemy's chances of defeat. Seeking security through struggle leads to security; seeking security through compromise leads to the demise of security. Seeking development through struggle leads to development; seeking development through compromise leads to the decline of development. Only by daring to struggle and being adept at struggle can we open up new horizons for the development of the cause. The struggle of us Communists has direction, stance, and principles. It has always been aimed at contradictions, problems, risks, and challenges, with the goal of promoting high-quality development and advancing Chinese-style modernization. The great struggle on the road ahead is long-term, complex, and arduous. We must enhance our sense of urgency, adhere to bottom-line thinking, be vigilant in peace, prepare for danger, and take precautions. We must be prepared to withstand major tests of high winds, choppy waters, and even raging waves. Responsibility and struggle are a kind of spirit; what is most needed is selflessness and fearless courage. We must strengthen our ambition, pride, and confidence, not believe in evil, not fear ghosts, not be afraid of pressure, and dare to advance in the face of difficulties. The ability to struggle is not innate; one can only learn to struggle through struggle, and grow and improve through struggle. We must undergo strict ideological tempering, political training, practical training, and professional training. In complex and severe struggles, we must experience storms, see the world, and strengthen our bones, continuously creating new great achievements.
Focusing on Strengthening Itself, Always Full of Vitality and Vigor
To defeat others is to be strong; to defeat oneself is to be invincible. An advanced Marxist political party is not born that way; it is forged through continuous self-reform. The reason why the Communist Party of China has always maintained exuberant vitality and vigor lies in its constant spirit of self-reform, the courage to turn inward, and its continuous purification, transcendence, and self-renewal. The Communist Party of China clearly recognizes that to strike iron, one must be tough. It is adept at examining itself against the requirements of the times, alerting itself with a strong sense of crisis, perfecting itself with the spirit of self-reform, attaches great importance to its own construction, resolutely eliminates all factors that harm the Party's advanced nature and purity, eliminates all viruses that erode the Party's healthy body, and becomes stronger and more powerful through revolutionary forging.
For 105 years, the Communist Party of China, with its extremely strong self-correction ability and self-repair ability, has comprehensively strengthened Party building and maintained the health of the Party's body. During the New Democratic Revolution, the Party drew lessons from the mistakes of the failure of the Great Revolution and the failure of the fifth counter-"encirclement and suppression" campaign, leading the Chinese revolution onto the correct path. After the failure of the Great Revolution, the August 7th Meeting emphasized: "The revolutionary party of the working class, to correct its own mistakes, must only openly criticize these mistakes, and must enable all party members to participate in this criticism." The Party promptly corrected the mistake of right-opportunism within the Party, and the Chinese revolution began its historic transition from the failure of the Great Revolution to the rise of the Agrarian Revolutionary War. The Zunyi Meeting pointed out: "The Party bravely exposed this mistake, educated itself from the mistake, and learned how to better lead the revolutionary war to complete victory. After the Party exposed this mistake, it was not weakened, but strengthened." The Party waged a thorough struggle against the erroneous thinking of "left" dogmatism and adventurism, and while correcting the erroneous military and organizational lines, it further established a revolutionary line suitable for China's actual conditions. The Party carried out the Yan'an Rectification Movement, whose main contents were rectifying the style of study, the style of work, and the style of writing, criticizing mistakes such as subjectivism, sectarianism, and Party stereotypes, greatly improving the Party's Marxist ideological level and enhancing the unity and solidarity of the whole Party. During the period of socialist revolution and construction, the Party, based on the new tasks of Party building raised by governing the whole country, carried out multiple intra-Party rectification movements, effectively improving the ideological understanding, theoretical level, and political quality of Party members, strengthening the relationship between the Party and the masses, greatly improving the Party's style of work, purifying the political ecology within the Party, and effectively purifying the Party's organizational body. During the new period of reform, opening up, and socialist modernization, the Party, with extraordinary political courage, made the major decision to thoroughly negate the "Cultural Revolution," re-adjusting the direction of national development and bringing the country back onto the track of modernization. Since the new era, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has insisted that to govern the country, the Party must first govern the Party, and that governing the Party must be strict, and strictness must follow the rule of law. It has included comprehensive and strict governance of the Party in the "four comprehensive" strategic layout. From formulating and implementing the Central Eight-Point Regulation to continuously carrying out centralized education within the Party; from building the "four beams and eight pillars" of the Party and state supervision system to persistently rectifying work styles and enforcing discipline, promoting the anti-corruption struggle to achieve an overwhelming victory and comprehensively consolidate it. Our Party, with the tenacity and perseverance of always being on the road, has grasped strict ideology, strict supervision, strict discipline, strict governance of officials, strict work style, and strict anti-corruption. It has turned inward, used severe punishments to bring order out of chaos, curbed some unhealthy tendencies that had long not been curbed, corrected some stubborn and chronic diseases that had not been eliminated for many years, fundamentally reversed the situation of lax and soft Party management and governance, opened up a new realm of self-reform for a century-old major party, significantly enhanced the Party's creativity, cohesion, and combat effectiveness, and the Party has become stronger through revolutionary forging, radiating new powerful vitality and vigor.
Engels said: "A political party that knows its own purpose, and also knows how to achieve this purpose, a political party that truly wants to achieve this purpose and possesses the indomitable spirit indispensable for achieving it — such a political party will be invincible." The strong spirit of self-reform and the powerful ability of self-reform are the distinctive signs that distinguish the Communist Party of China from other political parties in the world, and are also the important reasons for the Communist Party of China's long-lasting prosperity. On the new journey, we must, with the sobriety and firmness of always being on the road, persistently promote comprehensive and strict governance of the Party, adhere to strict tones, strict measures, and strict atmospheres for the long term, handle all aspects of comprehensive and strict governance of the Party with higher standards and more concrete measures, profoundly advance the great new project of Party building in the new era, and continuously use the governance of the Communist Party of China to lead the governance of China.
The examination papers of the times are always new; the struggle never stops. The incomparable excellent traits of the Communist Party of China are intrinsically connected and interlocking. Pursuing truth is the ideological guidance, rooting in the people is the foundation of strength, bearing the mission is the main line of struggle, conforming to trends is the historical consciousness, daring to struggle is the spiritual confidence, and strengthening itself is the fundamental guarantee. These are the key codes to why the Communist Party of China is capable. On the new journey, we must deeply understand, consciously inherit, and carry forward these excellent traits. Continuously forge the soul with truth, take the people as the foundation, navigate with the mission, orient with the trend, temper through struggle, strengthen through self-reform, continuously enhance the Party's political leadership, ideological guidance, mass organization, and social appeal, unite and lead all Chinese sons and daughters to strive with determination and march forward courageously, comprehensively promote the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation with Chinese-style modernization, and write a more beautiful future for the Chinese nation.
Return to TopBy: 何虎生
The Party's strength comes from its organization; the Party's overall leadership and all the Party's work must be realized through the Party's strong organizational system. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "A tight organizational system is the advantage and strength of a Marxist political party." Over the past 105 years, the Party has always used organizational system building to consolidate the Party's unity and centralized unity, and to promote the growth and strengthening of Party organizations. Embarking on a new journey, guided by Xi Jinping's thought on Party building, Party organizational construction focusing on perfecting an organizational system that is interconnected from top to bottom and capable of strong execution has reached a new level, providing a strong organizational guarantee and gathering powerful progressive strength for comprehensively building a modern socialist country.
Historic achievements in the construction of the Chinese Communist Party's organizational system
Over the past 105 years, the Chinese Communist Party has consistently strengthened its sinews and bones through the construction of its organizational system, focusing on the structure, the contingent, and the system to tighten the organizational system, laying a solid organizational foundation for the Party to move from victory to new victories.
The Party has persisted in advancing the construction of the organizational system, building an organizational system framework that is interconnected from top to bottom and capable of strong execution. "Only when all levels of Party organizations are sound and impeccable, forming a tight organizational system that is interconnected from top to bottom and capable of strong execution, can the Party's leadership be 'like the body commanding the arm, like the arm commanding the finger.'" Upon its founding, the Party began to construct an organizational system, empowering the Party's cause with organizational advantages. The first program of the Chinese Communist Party proposed that "this Party recognizes the Soviet system of management," and clearly stated the goal of "organizing workers, peasants, and soldiers." The Party's Second National Congress Constitution established the organizational structure of the Central Executive Committee and the National Congress, the Regional Executive Committee, the Local Executive Committee, and the Local Branch (with groups under it), which was the prototype of the later three-level organizational structure. After the founding of New China, the Party's Eighth National Congress Constitution proposed the concept of "primary-level Party organizations" and clarified their tasks, penetrating the "last kilometer" of the organizational system and succinctly summarizing the levels of the Party's organizational system as "central Party organizations," "local Party organizations," and "primary-level Party organizations," which are still in use today. Since the 18th National Congress of the Party, our Party has revised the Party Constitution multiple times and has continuously tightened the Party's organizational system in practice. As of the end of 2025, the whole country has 3,202 local Party committees at various levels, and the Party currently has 5.431 million primary-level organizations, forming an organizational system where each level supervises the next, ensuring that each level manages its own affairs and leads the levels below, with great emphasis on strengthening the foundation at the primary level, providing strong support for the Party to become the world's largest ruling party with significant global influence.
The Party has persisted in the organizational line serving the political line, forging a contingent of organizational work cadres who are politically firm, structurally sound, and of excellent quality. The political line determines the direction; the organizational line solves the problem of "who does it and how," and Party cadres and members are the steadfast practitioners of the political line and the organizational line. The "Outline of the Resolution on Organizational Issues" adopted at the Party's Sixth National Congress proposed the concept of the "organizational line." The Gutian Conference clarified the relationship between the Party's political construction and organizational construction, and between the political line and the organizational line, by stating that "the Party organization must be able to undertake the Party's political tasks." After the political line is determined, "the cadres become the decisive factor"; therefore, cadre selection must be "appoint people on their merits" and "must draw from all corners of the country." After reform and opening up, Deng Xiaoping further emphasized that the organizational line ensures the implementation of the political line, and the selection of Party cadres and members must adhere to the Party's political line and ideological line. Since the 18th National Congress of the Party, General Secretary Xi Jinping creatively proposed and adhered to the Party's organizational line for the new era, "focusing on organizational system construction, striving to cultivate high-quality cadres who are loyal, clean, and responsible, and striving to gather outstanding talents from all fields who are patriotic and dedicated," forging a contingent of organizational work cadres who are politically sound, highly capable, and worthy of the era's heavy responsibilities, continuously promoting the high-quality development of the Party's organizational work.
The Party has persisted in governing the Party with systems, forming a systematic, complete, scientific, and standardized institutional system to guarantee the construction of the organizational system. Over 105 years, the Party has inherited and promoted the fine tradition of using systems to manage the fundamental, the overall, and the long-term in the field of organizational system construction. In June 1927, the "Revised Constitution Resolution of the Third National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party" clearly established democratic centralism as the guiding principle for Party departments. The Party has comprehensively guaranteed the construction of the organizational system by improving the system of Party committees at all levels, establishing an intra-Party reporting system, perfecting the Party's disciplinary inspection system, and standardizing the intra-Party election system. After reform and opening up, Deng Xiaoping proposed "boldly reforming outdated organizational systems and personnel systems." In the new era, the Party has taken institutional construction as the main line to promote the systematization, standardization, and scientificization of the organizational system. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Democratic centralism is our Party's fundamental organizational principle and leadership system." In May 2021, the "Regulations on the Work of the Chinese Communist Party Organization," a leading, comprehensive, and basic backbone regulation concerning organizational work, was promulgated, comprehensively regulating organizational work through top-level institutional design. The institutional system with the Party Constitution as the foundation and democratic centralism as the core has been continuously improved, becoming a strong institutional guarantee for the construction of the organizational system.
Valuable experiences from over a hundred years of the Party strengthening organizational system construction
The Chinese Communist Party has accumulated valuable experience in tightening the organizational system, providing historical experience for further planning organizational construction from the overall situation of Party building.
Adhering to the authority and centralized unified leadership of the Party Central Committee, taking the Party's political construction as the guide, is the key to tightening the Party's organizational system. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that Party building in the new era "is a systematic project in which the Party's political construction takes the lead and all other aspects of Party building work in concert and combine their forces." Tightening the Party's organizational system "requires, as the key, adhering to the authority and centralized unified leadership of the Party Central Committee, and as the foundation, achieving the 'Two Upholds' (两个维护 - liǎng gè wéihù, "two upholds," upholding General Secretary Xi Jinping's core position and the authority and centralized uniform leadership of the Party Central Committee)." Adhering to the centralized unified leadership of the Party Central Committee is the highest principle of the Party's leadership and the root and soul of our organizational work. Political construction determines the effectiveness of all other Party construction work, and the construction of the organizational system ultimately serves to uphold the Party's leadership. Only by taking the Party's political construction as the guide and running political standards and political requirements throughout the entire process and all aspects of organizational system construction can Party organizations be built into solid fortresses that strengthen the Party's overall leadership and advance the Party's political construction.
Persisting in the simultaneous application of ideological Party building and institutional governance of the Party, building a solid ideological dam and institutional foundation, is the basic experience of the Party in tightening the organizational system. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Strict governance of the Party relies on education and also on institutions; the two are one soft and one hard, and must work in the same direction and exert force at the same time." The key reason why the Party has grown from small to large, from weak to strong, is that the Party has both used innovative theory to unify the whole Party and used strict institutions to regulate the operation of Party organizations. Organization is the "form," and thought is the "soul"; "molding the soul" can make Party cadres and members rectify the source and consolidate the foundation ideologically, build a solid foundation of ideals and convictions, strengthen the ideological and moral defense line, enhance the ability to resist corruption and prevent degeneration, and increase the cohesion of Party organizations; institutional governance of the Party is the guarantee, establishing rigid norms for the operation of the organizational system, ensuring that Party organizations resolutely implement the Party's political line, ideological line, organizational line, and mass line, and struggle against all erroneous thoughts and behaviors. The two combine internally and externally, with soft and hard measures working together, jointly shaping and maintaining the Party's tight organizational system.
Persisting in and improving democratic centralism is the Party's fundamental organizational principle and an important institutional guarantee for the normal conduct of intra-Party political life. Democratic centralism is an important marker that distinguishes Marxist political parties from other political parties. As a long-term ruling Marxist political party, the Chinese Communist Party always uses organizational institutions to ensure that the wisdom and strength of the whole Party are concentrated and used in one place, fully leveraging the advantage of the socialist system for concentrating resources to accomplish large undertakings. Centralism on the basis of democracy and democracy under the guidance of centralism are mutually conditional and highly unified, fully stimulating the initiative, proactiveness, and creativity of Party organizations at all levels, while ensuring that local and primary-level organizations implement the major decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee more resolutely and forcefully. When democratic centralism is implemented well, the organizational operation mechanism is smooth, and Party organizations are strong, forceful, and operate in an orderly manner.
Persisting in putting the people first, firmly establishing a view of the masses, and implementing the Party's mass line is the source of strength for the Party to promote the construction of the organizational system. "To fight for and hold the country is to win and keep the people's hearts." Tightening the organizational system is precisely to forge strong and forceful Party organizations, making them the reliable pillars that the people can depend on. The Party has always regarded putting the people first as the value orientation of organizational construction, and maintaining close ties with the masses as the lifeline running through the organizational system. It is because the Party's organizational network is rooted among the masses that it can run through the operational logic of this organizational system: from the decisions and deployments mapped out by the Party Central Committee, to the downward and upward transmission by local organizations, and then to primary-level organizations listening to public sentiment, observing public opinion, and resolving public concerns. At the same time, the masses are the ultimate judges of the effectiveness of the organizational system's operation. Only by effectively serving the masses and making them feel the warmth and strength of the Party organization can the advantages and role of the organizational system be truly realized.
Persisting in daring to engage in self-revolution, promoting the Party's organizational system to keep pace with the times through upholding fundamental principles and breaking new ground (守正创新 - shǒu zhèng chuàng xīn, "uphold what is correct and innovate," maintaining correct principles while constantly innovating), is the secret to the Party's use of strengthening the organizational system to forever maintain its advanced nature and integrity. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Daring to engage in self-revolution is our Party's most distinctive character and also our Party's greatest strength." Organizational departments are important forces in promoting self-revolution and must adhere to the methodology of upholding fundamental principles and breaking new ground. Adhere to the highest political principle of the centralized unified leadership of the Party Central Committee, the fundamental organizational principle of democratic centralism, and adhere to the organizational line serving the political line; flexibly adjust organizational forms and optimize system operation mechanisms according to new situations and new tasks. "Upholding fundamental principles" is to ensure that the political attributes of Party organizations do not change and that their bastion role is not weakened; "breaking new ground" continuously stimulates the vitality and vigor of Party organizations. The two are unified in the great practice of the Party using the spirit of self-revolution to keep pace with the times and tighten the organizational system.
Weaving and building a strong Party organizational system, continuously transforming the Party's political and organizational advantages into advantages for securing victory
Embarking on a new journey, the construction of the organizational system requires adherence to higher standards and stricter requirements. It is necessary to summarize historical experience, adhere to the organic unity of firmly grasping the political direction, activating the talent engine, and perfecting institutional mechanisms, continuously transforming the Party's political and organizational advantages into advantages for securing victory.
Regard adhering to the centralized unified leadership of the Party Central Committee as the primary political task of organizational work, providing fundamental guidance for the construction of the organizational system. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: "Prominently grasp the Party's political construction and forge impeccable political capability." Guide Party organizations at all levels to consciously use Xi Jinping's thought on Party building to plan and advance Party building, continuously strengthen political loyalty education and Party spirit tempering, so that all Party members are always in high consistency with the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core in terms of political stance, political direction, political principles, and political path. Organizational work cadres must regard upholding the authority and centralized unified leadership of the Party Central Committee as the most fundamental political discipline and political rule, and resolutely struggle against thoughts and behaviors that weaken, empty, or dilute the Party's leadership. Lead by example, make good use of the weapon of criticism and self-criticism, resolutely sweep away political dust and remove ideological viruses, ensuring that Party organizations at all levels always become strong and tenacious combat fortresses that effectively realize the Party's leadership.
Implement the Party's organizational line for the new era, build strong organizations, equip strong leadership teams, use cadres well, and mobilize talents, providing solid support for the construction of the organizational system. Only when the Party's central organizations, local organizations, and primary-level organizations are all strong and forceful and fully play their roles can the advantages and power of the Party's organizational system be fully demonstrated. In the organizational system, the Party Central Committee is the "command center" that is the sole authority, local organizations are the "hubs" connecting the upper and lower levels, primary-level organizations are the "nerve endings" that implement deployments, and Party cadres and members are the "cells" of the Party's body. If the foundation is not solid, the earth will shake and the mountains will tremble; strengthening the primary level and building a solid foundation should be a long-term plan and a fundamental strategy. It is necessary to promote the construction of Party organizations in traditional fields, and also innovate the establishment and operation methods of Party organizations in new economic organizations, new social organizations, and new employment groups, expanding the coverage and organizational strength of primary-level Party organizations, ensuring that the organizational network extends horizontally to the edges and vertically to the bottom. At the same time, we must adhere to the principle of the Party managing cadres, and through normal, long-term, and in-depth political training, ideological tempering, practical training, and professional training, cultivate organizational work cadres who "emphasize politics, value fairness, have professional competence, and excellent style," using their own excellence to promote the high-quality development of organizational work.
Adhere to democratic centralism as the core, perfect the supporting institutional system that guarantees the operation of the organizational system, and ensure the organizational strength through institutional advantages. Democratic centralism is the overarching backbone that leads the "four beams and eight pillars" of the organizational system. Adhere to the "four obediences" (四个服从 - sì gè fúcóng, "four obediences," the individual obeys the organization, the minority obeys the majority, the lower level obeys the higher level, and the entire Party obeys the Central Committee), perfect the specific rules for combining collective leadership with individual division of responsibilities, fully develop democracy to widely absorb suggestions from Party organizations and members to aid scientific decision-making, and also be adept at correctly centralizing, resolutely upholding the authority and centralized unified leadership of the Party Central Committee, ensuring that the organizational system is unified in steps and efficient in action up and down. Establish and perfect a complete organizational system including organizational setup, organizational life, organizational operation, organizational management, and organizational supervision. Perfect basic organizational systems such as the work of Party leading groups, the work of Party branches, and the education and management of Party members, implement the intra-Party organizational life system, perfect the intra-Party supervision system and link it with other forms of supervision, and build an organizational system that is rigorous in selection and appointment, rigorous in education and training, rigorous in assessment and evaluation, and rigorous in management and supervision, transforming institutional advantages into organizational effectiveness.
(The authors are professors at the School of Marxism Studies, Renmin University of China, and researchers at the Research Institute of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.)
By: 本报评论员 翟月荧
The people are the fundamental source of strengthening the Party and rejuvenating the nation. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out, "The country is the people, and the people are the country; to fight for the country and to defend the country is to defend the hearts of the people," and "The people's stand is the fundamental political stand of the Communist Party of China, and is the distinctive hallmark that distinguishes a Marxist political party from other political parties." These important expositions profoundly reveal that the fundamental starting point and ultimate goal of our Party in establishing, developing, and strengthening itself is to be born for the people, to thrive because of the people, and to strive for the people's interests.
The people's character is the most distinctive quality of Marxism. Marx and Engels pointed out in the Communist Manifesto: "All previous movements were movements of the minority, or movements in the interests of the minority. The proletarian movement is the independent movement of the vast majority, in the interests of the vast majority." Always being with the people and striving for the people's interests is the fundamental distinction between a Marxist political party and other political parties. Since the day of its founding, the Communist Party of China has engraved the word "people" in its heart, established and adhered to the fundamental purpose of serving the people wholeheartedly and the Party's mass line in long-term practice, and always maintained a flesh-and-blood connection with the people. Our Party has led the people in enduring thousands of hardships and advancing wave after wave, wading through ten thousand dangers and marching forward courageously, tenaciously resisting when invaded by strong powers, fighting bloody battles when the land was torn apart, striving vigorously when the country was poor and blank, and striving to be the first in the course of the times. It has always thought and worked together with the people, winning their heartfelt support and firm backing, vividly interpreting that the people are the solid foundation of the republic and that the people are the greatest source of strength for our Party's governance.
The masses of the people contain the wisdom and strength for governing the country and managing the Party. A history of the Communist Party of China's development is a history of struggle that is all for the people and relies on the people. During the New Democratic Revolution period, the Party relied on the people to fight for the country, from mobilizing hundreds of millions of workers and peasants to join the revolutionary torrent to "Daring to sacrifice for a great cause, daring to make the sun and moon shine in a new sky," creating a brand new republic where the people are the masters of the country. During the Socialist Revolution and Construction period, the Party led the people in transforming heaven and earth, relying closely on the people to consolidate the regime, completing the socialist revolution, and eliminating all systems of exploitation. During the new period of Reform and Opening Up and Socialist Modernization, the Party respected the people's pioneering spirit, from the exploration of the household contract responsibility system to the pilot trials of special economic zones. Every step of reform and opening up originated from the practical creation of the people, propelling China to catch up with the times in great strides. Since the 18th National Congress of the Party, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has always adhered to a people-centered approach, committed to safeguarding, realizing, and developing the fundamental interests of the broadest majority of the people. From winning the largest battle against poverty in human history to solidly advancing common prosperity for all people; from building the world's largest social security safety net to deeply waging the battle to protect blue skies, clear waters, and clean soil (蓝天碧水净土保卫战) — every decision and deployment, every concrete action, all manifest the "two-way march" of the Party and the people, vividly interpreting the governing belief of Communists: "The people's worries are what I must think about; the people's hopes are what I must act upon."
Delivering benefits to the people is the greatest political achievement. To test the effectiveness of all our work, ultimately we must see whether the people have truly gained tangible benefits, whether their lives have truly improved, and whether their rights and interests have truly been safeguarded. Xi Jinping's thought on Party building is a profound embodiment of the spiritual realm of "I will be selfless and live up to the people," and it is a scientific theory written in the lights of ten thousand homes and in the hearts of the common people. Cultivate a deep sentiment for the people: handle good things well and do solid things solidly, so that the people's sense of gain is more substantial, their sense of happiness is more sustainable, and their sense of security is more guaranteed. Nurture genuine feelings for the people: through heart-to-heart communication and emotion-to-emotion exchange, understand the language of the masses, be familiar with their demands, be anxious about what the masses are anxious about, think about what the masses think about, and think about issues, make decisions, and handle affairs with deep affection for the people. Skillfully devise practical policies that benefit the people: the list of benefits comes from the list of problems; the annoying, worrying, and distressing matters strongly reflected by the ordinary people are the focal points and breakthroughs of work. Distinguish the differentiated needs of different groups, fully consider local financial resources, the people's capacity to bear costs, and actual conditions, and devise truly precise and feasible practical policies. Diligently implement practical actions that benefit the people: the masses not only look at what we say but also at what we do and how well we do it. We must start from the needs of the masses, begin with the most realistic interest issues and the most prominent contradictions and challenges, solve the difficult and troubling matters that the masses strongly reflect, not engage in showy projects or stack "bonsai" displays, so that the masses can feel and benefit from it.
Popular sentiment is the greatest political matter. The Party comes from the people, is for the people, and relies on the people. It must deeply root the mass viewpoint and mass line in thought, concretely implement them in action, focus on solving the interest issues that the masses care about most and are most realistic, continuously enhance the people's trust and confidence in the Party, and consolidate the most reliable class foundation and mass foundation for the Party's long-term governance.
Return to TopDeeply rooted in the people, always possessing a solid foundation. Our Party bears in mind that the mountains and rivers are the people, and the people are the mountains and rivers (江山就是人民、人民就是江山), upholds the principle of building the Party for the public and exercising governance for the people (立党为公、执政为民), consciously practices the fundamental purpose of serving the people wholeheartedly (全心全意为人民服务), and steadfastly stands with the people, thinks together with the people, and works together with the people, possessing a solid foundation that no storm can shake.
Return to TopBy: 王怀超 孙红林
General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Philosophy and social sciences are important tools for people to understand and transform the world, and are important forces driving historical development and social progress. Their level of development reflects a nation's thinking ability, spiritual character, and civilizational quality, and embodies a country's comprehensive national strength and international competitiveness." A country without prosperous philosophy and social sciences cannot walk at the forefront of the world. The level of development of philosophy and social sciences embodies a country's thinking ability, spiritual character, and civilizational quality, and concerns a nation's spiritual outlook and development prospects. To prosper and develop China's philosophy and social sciences is an even more arduous and complex systematic project, involving a wide range, heavy tasks, and great responsibilities. It requires using one's brains and making great efforts to create an academic ecology conducive to innovation.
To promote innovation in philosophy and social sciences, first of all, we must emancipate the mind. Emancipating the mind is a magic weapon for the Communist Party of China to continuously achieve victory. For over 100 years, every major theoretical breakthrough by the Communist Party of China, every new concept, new thought, and new viewpoint it has proposed, has been the fruit of daring to emancipate the mind. For philosophy and social science workers to achieve emancipation of the mind, they should focus on the following three points. First, establish critical thinking. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Philosophy and social sciences must have a critical spirit, which is the most valuable spiritual quality of Marxism." If one blindly 墨守成规 (mò shǒu chéng guī - "cling stubbornly to old ways," to stick to old rules and blindly follow dogma), one cannot discover contradictions in social operation, institutional shortcomings, and pain points of development. Only with a rational scrutinizing eye can one produce theoretical results that truly solve practical problems. Second, establish innovative thinking. The purpose of breaking is to establish. To achieve true establishment, one must study new situations and solve new problems. Actively leverage information technology, go deep into practice and the masses, find problems from them, propose solutions, and raise them to the theoretical level to form new theoretical achievements. Third, strengthen institutional construction to safeguard the emancipation of the mind. Scientifically define fault-tolerant conditions and error-correction mechanisms, refine standards and draw red lines from the aspects of problem generation motives, nature, consequences, and handling methods, so that researchers can unload their burdens, relieve mental stress, and travel light. Philosophy and social science researchers should uphold the concepts of democracy and equality, engage in equal discussion and debate on different academic schools and viewpoints, create an academic atmosphere that encourages academic contention and is tolerant, generous, and democratic, so that ideas are generated through collision and understanding is sublimated through contention.
Strengthen basic theoretical research and produce more original results. First, maintain strategic focus and be willing to sit on the "cold bench." Philosophy and social sciences include many disciplines, and each discipline faces two aspects of research tasks: one is basic theoretical research of the discipline, that is, research on basic theoretical issues concerning the survival and development of the discipline; the other is theoretical thinking and generalization of a series of major practical issues. Basic theoretical research is strategic and fundamental, and is the academic support for each discipline. This long-term basic work requires that all philosophy and social science researchers maintain strategic focus, be willing to sit on the "cold bench," focus on a certain basic theoretical issue, and make selfless contributions. Keep in mind the "country's most important matters," and firmly establish the thought of writing books and establishing scholarship for the people. Only by remembering what the country and nation need, what the people expect, inheriting and carrying forward fine traditions, and linking one's personal academic research pursuit with the fate of the nation, can one truly strengthen research confidence and be able to sit on the "cold bench." Establish a realistic spirit of pursuing truth. The research and innovation of basic theory is a complex process of continuous thinking and repeated verification. Only by establishing a realistic spirit of pursuing truth can researchers avoid being disturbed by immediate interests, not be discouraged by temporary failures, stabilize their minds, endure loneliness, solidly practice basic skills, and truly be able to sit on the "cold bench." Second, improve institutional mechanisms conducive to stimulating basic theoretical research. Increase funding for basic theoretical research, ensure research funds, and encourage researchers to 厚积薄发 (hòu jī bó fā - "accumulate thickly and express thinly," to have solid preparation before making a breakthrough). Improve the evaluation mechanism for academic achievements, and establish an evaluation mechanism that matches the achievements of basic theoretical research. The acquisition of basic theoretical research results requires long-term effort, and the effect of its theoretical value may take even longer to manifest. Therefore, evaluating the research results of basic theory should place more emphasis on quality, examining their academic value and their supporting role for applied research. Establish a mechanism for transforming basic theoretical research results into applied research results, reform the income distribution mechanism, guarantee and enhance the interests of basic theoretical researchers, further improve the conversion rate of basic theoretical research results, and stimulate the enthusiasm of researchers. Third, strengthen the construction of the talent team for basic theoretical research. People are the most active factor; advancing basic theoretical research ultimately depends on high-level specialized talents. Strengthen the independent cultivation of basic theoretical research personnel, cultivate and create a number of first-class leading talents, strengthen the backbone force, and vigorously cultivate reserve talents. Adhere to the combination of "bringing in" and "going out," both actively introducing overseas outstanding talents and actively sending talents abroad, to grow together through exchange and mutual learning.
Integrate theory with practice, strengthen theoretical thinking on practical issues. First, face practice, go deep into the front line, go deep into the masses. "Problems are the voice of the times; answering and guiding the solution of problems is the fundamental task of theory." To discover problems, one must pay attention to real society. Investigation and research are heirlooms of the Communist Party of China and the basic method for doing all work well. Master the various techniques of investigation and research, including how to scientifically determine the scope of research, research objects, research methods, and research outlines. Under current conditions, special attention should be paid to using information technology and giving full play to the advantages of online research. Through down-to-earth investigation, master a large amount of first-hand materials, and be good at using philosophical thinking to generalize real problems from them. The people are the creators of history, are on the front line of practice, have personal experience of real social problems, have a deep understanding of the concrete manifestations of problems, and can also reflect problems from different angles. Actively approach people from different regions and industries, go deep into their work and life, communicate with them face-to-face and heart-to-heart, and understand, analyze, and summarize problems from them. Each era has its core problems, but each discipline also faces its own unique problems. Different disciplines focus on different angles of the same problem, and the understanding they obtain will naturally differ. Philosophy and social science workers must proceed from reality, face reality, highlight disciplinary characteristics, combine common problems of the times with problems with disciplinary individuality, extract specific problems that can be studied from them, and make problems concrete. Second, be good at grasping main contradictions and main problems. The essence of problems is contradictions. Grasp the contradiction, and you find the problem; solve the problem, and you resolve the contradiction. Contradictions have primary and secondary, and problems are also divided into main problems and secondary problems. Be good at grasping the main contradiction. To find problems from real society, focus on finding the main problems. The greatest reality of China today is to comprehensively build a modern socialist country, and comprehensively promote the great cause of building a strong country and national rejuvenation through Chinese-style modernization. Conducting philosophy and social science research must take this as the center, and conduct comprehensive analysis and research on the fields involved, such as economy, politics, culture, society, ecological civilization, and Party building, and summarize key problems.
Devote oneself to research, think deeply, and produce more high-quality masterpieces. First, enhance "foot strength, eye strength, and brain strength," promote the rise from perceptual knowledge to rational knowledge, and create academic achievements with autonomy and originality. Base ourselves on China, tread on the earth, face the great practice of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and create high-quality masterpieces rich in thought and philosophy. Second, enhance "pen strength," strive to explain profound things in a simple way, making it easy to understand. Things are the unity of content and form; good content needs a suitable form to carry it. High-quality masterpieces not only need innovative content, but also need to enhance "pen strength," achieving conciseness, interesting speech, explaining the profound in simple terms, and being engaging, to facilitate dissemination.
Advocate and establish a fine academic style. First, consciously practice and promote the fine academic style of Marxism. Insist on starting from oneself, taking the lead. Establish good academic ethics, consciously abide by academic norms, and unify being a person, doing things, and doing scholarship. Have deep feelings for family and country, stabilize the mind, endure loneliness, keep the bottom line, maintain one's true character, and be determined to do great learning and real learning. Put social responsibility first, and realize personal value in establishing virtue and establishing faith for the motherland and the people. Dare to say "no" to bad academic conduct, consciously resist, dare to criticize, and be brave in supervision, so that bad academic conduct has no place in the academic circle, and strive to purify the academic ecology. Second, strengthen institutional construction, improve the academic achievement evaluation and professional title review system, and enhance rigid constraints. Build a multi-level and diversified evaluation mechanism. Adhere to concrete analysis of concrete problems, do not adopt a "one size fits all" approach, and establish differentiated academic achievement evaluation mechanisms for different disciplines and different types of research results, such as basic research and applied research. Adhere to the dialectical unity of quality and quantity, with quality as the main focus. Reform the professional title promotion system for philosophy and social science workers, and promote the transformation of evaluation standards from focusing on quantity to focusing on quality, with quantity and quality coexisting. Improve the disciplinary system and increase the intensity of disciplinary action. Academic research institutions must proceed from reality and create a clean, upright, and positive academic ecology.
Return to TopBy: 何虎生
The Party’s strength comes from its organization; the Party’s overall leadership and all its work must be realized through the Party’s strong organizational system. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: “A tight organizational system is the advantage and strength of a Marxist political party.” Over the past 105 years, the Party has always used organizational system building to consolidate its unity and centralized, unified leadership, and to promote the growth and strengthening of Party organizations. Stepping onto a new journey, under the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Party Building, Party organizational construction, with the focus on improving an organizational system that is vertically connected from top to bottom and capable of resolute execution, has reached a new level, providing a strong organizational guarantee and gathering powerful forward-driving strength for comprehensively building a modern socialist country.
Historic Achievements in the Building of the Chinese Communist Party’s Organizational System
Over the past 105 years, the Chinese Communist Party has always strengthened its bones and muscles through organizational system building, focusing on structure, ranks, and institutions to tighten the organizational system, laying a solid organizational foundation for the Party to advance from victory to new victories.
The Party has persisted in advancing organizational system building, constructing an organizational system framework that is vertically connected from top to bottom and capable of resolute execution. “Only when all Party organizations at every level are sound and competent, forming a tight organizational system that is vertically connected from top to bottom and capable of resolute execution, can the Party’s leadership be ‘like the body commanding the arm, like the arm commanding the finger.’” From the moment of its founding, the Party set about constructing its organizational system, empowering the Party’s cause with organizational advantages. The first program of the Chinese Communist Party proposed “this Party recognizes the Soviet management system,” and clearly stated the goal of “organizing workers, peasants, soldiers and laborers.” The Party Constitution adopted at the Second National Congress established the organizational framework of the Central Executive Committee and the National Congress, the Regional Executive Committees, the Local Executive Committees, and the Local Branches (with subgroups beneath them), which was the prototype of the later three-level organizational structure. After the founding of New China, the Party Constitution of the Eighth National Congress proposed the concept of “grassroots Party organizations” and specified their tasks, penetrating the “last kilometer” of the organizational system, and concisely summarizing the levels of the Party’s organizational system into “Party central organizations,” “Party local organizations,” and “Party grassroots organizations,” which remain in use to this day. Since the 18th National Congress of the Party, our Party has amended the Party Constitution multiple times and, in practice, continuously tightened the Party’s organizational system. By the end of 2025, there were 3,202 local Party committees at all levels nationwide and 5.431 million existing grassroots Party organizations, forming an organizational system in which each level grasps the level below, the current level is well-run to lead the level below, and great efforts are made at the grassroots to strengthen the foundation, providing robust support for the Party to become the world’s largest governing party with significant global influence.
The Party has persisted in having the organizational line serve the political line, forging a contingent of organizational work cadres who are politically firm, structurally excellent, and highly competent. The political line determines the direction; the organizational line resolves the question of “who does it and how to do it”; Party cadres and members are the steadfast practitioners of the political line and the organizational line. The “Outline of the Resolution on Organizational Issues” adopted at the Sixth National Congress of the Party put forward the concept of the “organizational line.” The Gutian Conference, by stating “it must be ensured that Party organizations can indeed undertake the Party’s political tasks,” clarified the relationship between the Party’s political construction and organizational construction, and between the political line and the organizational line. Once the political line is determined, “cadres are the decisive factor,” and therefore cadre selection must be “appointing people on their merits,” and “must be conducted in all directions and from all corners.” After reform and opening up, Deng Xiaoping further emphasized that the organizational line guarantees the implementation of the political line, and that the selection of Party cadres and members must adhere to the Party’s political line and ideological line. Since the 18th National Congress of the Party, General Secretary Xi Jinping has creatively proposed and adhered to the Party’s organizational line for the new era, “taking organizational system building as the focus, striving to cultivate loyal, clean, and responsible high-quality cadres, and striving to gather outstanding talents from all fields who love the country and make contributions,” forging a contingent of organizational work cadres who are politically competent, highly skilled, and capable of shouldering the era’s tasks, continuously promoting high-quality development of the Party’s organizational work.
The Party has persisted in managing the Party and governing it through institutions, forming a system of complete, scientific, and standardized institutions to guarantee organizational system building. Over the past 105 years, the Party has inherited and carried forward the fine tradition of using institutions to manage the fundamentals, the overall situation, and the long term in the field of organizational system building. In June 1927, the “Third Revised Draft Resolution on the Constitution of the Chinese Communist Party” clearly designated democratic centralism as the guiding principle for Party organs. The Party has comprehensively guaranteed organizational system building by improving the system of Party committees at all levels, establishing the intra-Party reporting system, perfecting the Party’s disciplinary inspection system, and standardizing the intra-Party election system. After reform and opening up, Deng Xiaoping proposed “boldly reforming inappropriate organizational systems and personnel systems.” Since the new era, the Party has taken institutional building as the main line to promote the systematization, standardization, and scientification of the organizational system. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out, “Democratic centralism is our Party’s fundamental organizational principle and leadership system.” In May 2021, the overarching, comprehensive, basic backbone regulation on organizational work, the “Regulations on the Organizational Work of the Chinese Communist Party” was promulgated, comprehensively regulating organizational work through institutional top-level design. The institutional system, based on the Party Constitution and centered on democratic centralism, has been continuously improved, becoming a strong institutional guarantee for organizational system building.
Valuable Experience from Over a Century of the Party Strengthening Organizational System Building
The Chinese Communist Party has accumulated valuable experience in tightening its organizational system, providing historical experience for further planning organizational construction from the overall perspective of Party building.
Upholding the authority of the Party Central Committee and its centralized, unified leadership, and taking the Party’s political construction as the lead, is the key to tightening the Party’s organizational system. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that Party building in the new era is “a systematic project in which political construction takes the lead and all Party building efforts move in the same direction and exert combined force,” and that tightening the Party’s organizational system “depends on upholding the authority of the Party Central Committee and its centralized, unified leadership, and fundamentally on achieving the ‘two upholds’ (两个维护 – liǎng gè wéihù, “two upholds,” i.e., upholding Xi Jinping’s core position on the Party Central Committee and in the Party as a whole, and upholding the authority and centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee).” Upholding the centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee is the highest principle of Party leadership and the root and soul of our organizational work. Political construction determines the effectiveness of all Party building efforts, and organizational system building ultimately serves to uphold the Party’s leadership. Only by taking the Party’s political construction as the lead and embedding political standards and political requirements into the entire process and all aspects of organizational system building can Party organizations be built into solid fortresses that strengthen the Party’s overall leadership and advance the Party’s political construction.
Persisting in the simultaneous, coordinated efforts of ideological Party building and institutional Party governance, and building a solid ideological dam and institutional foundation, is the basic experience of the Party in tightening its organizational system. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: “Strict governance of the Party relies on education and also on institutions; one is soft, the other hard, and they must work in the same direction and at the same time.” The key reason the Party grew from small to large and from weak to strong lies in that the Party both unifies the whole Party with innovative theories and regulates the operation of Party organizations with strict institutions. Organization is the “form”; ideology is the “soul”; “casting the soul” enables Party cadres and members to rectify the source and consolidate the foundation ideologically, strengthen the foundation of ideals and convictions, fortify the ideological and moral defense line, enhance the ability to resist corruption and prevent change, and increase the cohesion of Party organizations; institutional Party governance is the guarantee, establishing rigid norms for the operation of the organizational system, ensuring that Party organizations resolutely implement the Party’s political line, ideological line, organizational line, and mass line, and struggle against all erroneous ideas and actions. The two combine internally and externally, and the hard and the soft complement each other, jointly shaping and maintaining the Party’s tight organizational system.
Upholding and improving democratic centralism is the Party’s fundamental organizational principle and an important institutional guarantee for the normal conduct of intra-Party political life. Democratic centralism is a significant marker that distinguishes Marxist political parties from other political parties. As a Marxist political party that has been in power for a long time, the Chinese Communist Party always uses organizational institutions to ensure that the wisdom and strength of the whole Party are integrated and used in one place, fully leveraging the socialist system’s advantage of concentrating resources to accomplish major tasks. Centralism on the basis of democracy and democracy under centralism are mutually conditional and highly unified, fully stimulating the initiative, proactiveness, and creativity of Party organizations at all levels, while ensuring that local and grassroots organizations implement the major decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee more resolutely and forcefully. When democratic centralism is implemented well, the organizational operation mechanism operates smoothly, and Party organizations are strong and powerful, operating in an orderly manner.
Upholding the supremacy of the people, firmly establishing the mass viewpoint, and implementing the Party’s mass line are the source of strength for the Party in promoting organizational system building. “To take the country and to secure it, the goal is to secure the people’s hearts.” The purpose of tightening the organizational system is precisely to forge strong and powerful Party organizations, making them the reliable backbone that the people can rely on. The Party has always taken the supremacy of the people as the value orientation of organizational construction, and close ties with the masses as the lifeline that runs through the organizational system. Only by taking root among the masses can the Party’s organizational network penetrate the operational logic of this organizational system, from the decisions and deployments mapped out by the Party Central Committee, to the transmission and feedback between local organizations, and then to grassroots organizations listening to the people’s sentiments, investigating their opinions, and solving their concerns. At the same time, the people are the ultimate judges of the effectiveness of the organizational system’s operation. Only by genuinely serving the masses and making them feel the warmth and strength of Party organizations can the advantages and functions of the organizational system be truly brought into play.
Persisting in courageous self-revolution and promoting the Party’s organizational system to keep pace with the times through upholding fundamental principles and breaking new ground is the secret to the Party’s use of strengthening organizational system building to forever maintain its advanced nature and integrity. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: “Courageous self-revolution is the most distinctive character of our Party and also its greatest advantage.” Organizational departments are an important force in advancing self-revolution; they must adhere to the methodology of upholding fundamental principles and breaking new ground. Uphold the highest political principle of the centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee and the fundamental organizational principle of democratic centralism; uphold the organizational line serving the political line; flexibly adjust organizational forms and optimize system operation mechanisms according to new situations and new tasks. “Upholding fundamental principles” is to ensure that the political attribute of Party organizations does not change and their bastion role is not weakened; “breaking new ground” continuously stimulates the vitality of Party organizations. The two are unified in the Party’s great practice of tightening the organizational system in keeping with the times through the spirit of self-revolution.
Weaving and building a strong Party organizational system, continuously transforming the Party’s political and organizational advantages into advantages in victory
Stepping onto a new journey, organizational system building must adhere to higher standards and stricter requirements. It is necessary to summarize historical experience, adhere to the organic unity of firmly grasping the political direction, activating the talent engine, and perfecting institutional mechanisms, and continuously transform the Party’s political and organizational advantages into advantages in victory.
Take upholding the centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee as the primary political task of organizational work, providing fundamental guidance for organizational system building. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: “Prominently grasp the Party’s political construction and forge a strong political capability.” Guide Party organizations at all levels to consciously use Xi Jinping Thought on Party Building (习近平党建思想) to plan and advance Party building, continuously strengthen political loyalty education and Party spirit tempering, so that all Party members always maintain a high degree of alignment with the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core in political stance, political direction, political principles, and political path. Organizational work cadres must regard safeguarding the authority of the Party Central Committee and its centralized, unified leadership as the most fundamental political discipline and political rule, and resolutely struggle against ideas and actions that weaken, hollow out, or dilute the Party’s leadership. Lead by example, make good use of the weapons of criticism and self-criticism, resolutely sweep away political dust and excise ideological viruses, ensuring that Party organizations at all levels always become strong fighting bastions that effectively realize the Party’s leadership.
Implement the Party’s organizational line for the new era, build strong organizations, equip strong leading bodies, make good use of cadres, and invigorate talent, building a solid foundation for organizational system building. Only when the Party’s central organizations, local organizations, and grassroots organizations are all strong and powerful and fully play their roles can the advantages and power of the Party’s organizational system be fully demonstrated. Within the organizational system, the Party Central Committee is the “central hub” that stands uniquely above all; local organizations are the “pivot” connecting top and bottom; grassroots organizations are the “nerve endings” that implement deployments; Party cadres and members are the “cells” of the Party’s body. If the foundation is not solid, the earth shakes and the mountains tremble. Taking the foundation at the grassroots as a long-term plan and a root-strengthening strategy, it is necessary not only to advance the construction of Party organizations in traditional fields, but also to innovate the establishment and operation modes of Party organizations in new economic organizations, new social organizations, and new employment groups, expanding the coverage and organizational strength of grassroots Party organizations, ensuring that the organizational network extends horizontally to the edges and vertically to the bottom. At the same time, it is necessary to adhere to the principle of the Party managing cadres, through long-term, normalized political training, ideological tempering, practical exercise, and professional training, cultivate organizational work cadres who are “politically aware, fair-minded, professionally proficient, and have a fine work style,” and use their own competence to promote high-quality development of organizational work.
Adhere to democratic centralism as the core, improve the supporting institutional system that guarantees the operation of the organizational system, and use institutional advantages to ensure organizational strength. Democratic centralism is the penetrating backbone that commands the “four beams and eight pillars” of the organizational system. Adhere to the “four obediences” (四个服从 – sì gè fúcóng, “four obediences,” i.e., the individual obeys the organization, the minority obeys the majority, the lower level obeys the higher level, and the entire Party obeys the Central Committee), improve the specific rules combining collective leadership with individual responsibility sharing. Fully develop democracy, extensively absorb suggestions from Party organizations and members to aid scientific decision-making, and at the same time be adept at correct centralism, resolutely safeguarding the authority of the Party Central Committee and its centralized, unified leadership, ensuring that the organizational system moves in unison from top to bottom with efficient action. Establish and improve a complete organizational institutional system including organizational establishment, organizational life, organizational operation, organizational management, and organizational supervision. Improve basic organizational systems such as Party leadership group work, branch work, and Party member education and management; implement the intra-Party organizational life system; improve the intra-Party supervision system and connect it with other forms of oversight; build an organizational institutional system that strictly governs selection and appointment, strict education and training, strict assessment and evaluation, and strict management and supervision, transforming institutional advantages into organizational effectiveness.
(The authors are professors at the School of Marxism Studies, Renmin University of China, and researchers at the Academy of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.)
Return to TopBy: 廉思
At the gathering celebrating the 105th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, General Secretary Xi Jinping sent a message to the youth of the new era: "Run the historical relay race well on the new journey, pave the way with youth, let ideals shine." That the Party's cause has 后继有人 (hòu jì yǒu rén - "there are successors to carry on") — the key lies in the youth; that the Party's theory is 薪火相传 (xīn huǒ xiāng chuán - "pass the flame from one to another," to pass on knowledge or tradition) — the hope rests on the youth. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, General Secretary Xi Jinping, centering on the major epochal question of what kind of long-term governing Marxist political party to build and how to build a long-term governing Marxist political party, has put forward a series of new concepts, new ideas, and new strategies, forming Xi Jinping's Thought on Party Building (习近平党建思想), which provides the fundamental guidance for strengthening Party building in the new era. For youth, Xi Jinping's Thought on Party Building is both a scientific system on Party building and a key to understanding the Communist Party of China, understanding socialism with Chinese characteristics, and understanding Chinese-style modernization.
Grasp the theoretical system thoroughly, elucidate Xi Jinping's Thought on Party Building in holistic understanding.
The primary task of theoretical dissemination is to help youth establish holistic cognition. Xi Jinping's Thought on Party Building is a scientific theoretical system with rigorous logic, rich connotation, and systematic completeness. The "Fourteen Persistences (十四个坚持)" are an organic whole formed around the fundamental proposition of building a long-term governing Marxist political party. To do a good job of propaganda and interpretation among the youth group, we must first prevent replacing the whole with the part, replacing the theoretical system with knowledge points, and guide youth to grasp the core essence, spiritual substance, and practical requirements of Xi Jinping's Thought on Party Building through thorough integration.
From the actual situation, the channels for youth to learn the Party's innovative theories are now richer, the frequency of exposure is constantly increasing, but the problem of fragmented theoretical cognition has also emerged. Youth learn about full and rigorous governance over the Party and the fight against corruption through news reports, feel the role of primary-level Party organizations through social participation, pay attention to cadre work style and discipline construction through online platforms, and experience the effectiveness of national governance through public life. These are all important windows for youth to understand Party building. But on the other hand, due to age and experience, some youth still have cognitive limitations of "seeing events but not principles" and "seeing points but not the whole picture." Once theoretical dissemination stays at the level of event presentation and conclusion transmission, it easily forms a coexistence of high-frequency information exposure and shallow ideological acceptance.
Therefore, to do a good job of propagating and interpreting Xi Jinping's Thought on Party Building among the youth group, we must promote deepening from knowledge transmission to systematic interpretation. Among the "Fourteen Persistences," upholding the centralized and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee clarifies the highest principle of Party leadership in the new era; the Party's political construction, theoretical construction, ideological construction, organizational construction, talent construction, work style construction, discipline construction, and institutional construction constitute a basic layout that is interconnected and synergistically advanced; full and rigorous governance over the Party and the Party's self-reform run through the entire process of managing and governing the Party, revitalizing and strengthening the Party. Each aspect has its own focus and performs its own duties, yet they are interconnected and mutually supportive, jointly forming the theoretical picture and practical system of Xi Jinping's Thought on Party Building.
Only by grasping this overall structure can youth understand why the Party's political construction, theoretical construction, ideological construction, organizational construction, talent construction, work style construction, discipline construction, and institutional construction must be advanced synergistically; why full and rigorous governance over the Party runs through the entire process of Party building; and why the Party's self-reform is a powerful support for the Party to forever maintain its vigor and vitality. The significance of systematic interpretation lies in restoring scattered concepts to a complete theory, elevating specific work deployments to law-based understanding, so that youth can see the organic interconnection and synergistic effect of the system structure among the various parts of Xi Jinping's Thought on Party Building.
Reveal capacity generation, explain Xi Jinping's Thought on Party Building thoroughly in governance practice.
Party building is not an intra-party affair that operates on its own; its effectiveness must ultimately be manifested in the Party's leadership capacity, organizational capacity, and executive capacity, and transformed into national governance effectiveness. To disseminate Xi Jinping's Thought on Party Building well to youth, we must profoundly reveal the internal connection between Party building and national governance, enabling youth to understand why high-quality Party building can provide a strong political guarantee for Chinese-style modernization.
Youth understand the Communist Party of China both through the Party's history and theory and by forming judgments based on the actual performance of national governance. The comprehensive victory in the fight against poverty reflects the Party's centralized and unified leadership, tight organizational system, and advantages in mass work; breakthroughs in major scientific and technological tasks are inseparable from strategic planning, organizational coordination, cadre responsibility, and talent support; the refinement and efficiency of primary-level governance reflect the continuous enhancement of the political and organizational functions of primary-level Party organizations; the deepening of full and rigorous governance over the Party reflects the synergistic effect of party-governing responsibility, supervision mechanisms, disciplinary constraints, and institutional norms. What youth feel are concrete governance results, while theoretical dissemination must answer how these results come about, guiding youth to recognize the Party's leadership advantages through governance performance and to understand the role of Party building through the operation of institutions.
Only when actual cases undergo theoretical refining can they be transformed into stable ideological understanding. Effective interpretation should construct an analytical chain of "Party building — Party capacity — governance effectiveness": from Party building, explain how political direction is ensured, how the organizational system operates effectively, how the cadre contingent takes on responsibility and acts, and how disciplinary institutions regulate the operation of power; then, starting from these capacities, explain how the decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee are implemented, how forces from all sides are organized, how the interests and demands of the people are responded to, and how major risks and challenges are effectively handled. Through this chain, youth can understand that Party leadership is the important political foundation for the effective operation of the national governance system.
The life world of youth provides a real entry point for understanding this transformation relationship. Issues such as employment, education, housing, public services, social mobility, and digital governance all affect youth's feelings about national governance. In studying and implementing Xi Jinping's Thought on Party Building, we should be adept at starting from these real concerns, clearly explaining through which institutions and mechanisms Party building influences the operation of public policy, and how it shapes the social environment for youth growth and development. When a theoretical connection is established between Party building and youth's real experience, youth can both perceive the effectiveness of Party building from changes in public life and use Xi Jinping's Thought on Party Building to understand the political logic and institutional reasons behind these changes.
Promote the transformation of identification, bring Xi Jinping's Thought on Party Building to life in youth growth.
Enhance persuasiveness through in-depth and thorough theoretical explanation, strengthen perceptibility through real and concrete practical participation, and heighten appeal through the close connection between the Party's mission and youth growth, promoting youth from understanding theory to identifying with theory, and then from identifying with theory to transforming into conscious action.
First, the principles must be explained deeply and thoroughly. Contemporary youth have a continuously improving level of education and an increasingly broad range of information sources. They pay attention to theoretical viewpoints, and they also ask why the viewpoints hold; they pay attention to development achievements, and they also hope to understand the generative mechanisms behind the achievements. Faced with a communication environment of diverse ideologies and complex online information, we must insist on using academic theory to analyze political issues, using history to explain practical choices, and using cases to verify theoretical judgments. At the same time, we must handle well the relationship between theoretical depth and youth expression. Network-based, visualized, and interactive methods can expand the space for communication, but formal innovation cannot replace ideological content, nor can vivid expression sacrifice conceptual accuracy. Good theoretical dissemination should achieve precision in wording, approachability in expression, and weightiness in thought.
Explain theory into practice, into life. Xi Jinping's Thought on Party Building is rooted in the great practice of Party building in the new era. Youth's understanding of this thought also needs to be deepened in practice. Investigative research, grassroots training, volunteer service, comprehensive rural revitalization, scientific and technological innovation, and social governance can all become classrooms for youth to learn Xi Jinping's Thought on Party Building. Youth feel how the organizational system operates in grassroots practice, understand the people's standpoint in serving the masses, recognize the Party's organizational and mobilization capacity in urgent, difficult, dangerous, and arduous tasks, and appreciate the ideological method of seeking truth from facts in solving practical problems. Practice turns abstract theory into perceptible experience, and also turns theoretical learning into understanding formed autonomously by youth.
Speak into the hearts of youth, closely linking the Party's mission with youth growth. Xi Jinping's Thought on Party Building contains the value criteria for youth growth and talent development. A Marxist political party with firm politics, strong organization, solid work style, and clean integrity creates a good environment, development conditions, and practical stages for youth growth; youth who strengthen their ideals and convictions, increase their abilities and skills, and bravely shoulder the responsibilities of the times continuously inject youthful strength into the Party's cause. Clarifying this internal connection is to help youth establish a correct sense of historical orientation. Youthful struggle can only gain deeper meaning support and broader value space when it is integrated into the historical process of building a strong country and national rejuvenation.
(The author is the Executive Vice President of the Central School of the Communist Youth League (中央团校).)
Return to TopBy: 储昭华
Why was “rites” established? What are its essence, function, and purpose? Xunzi, at the beginning of his Discourse on Rites, uses the rhetorical question “From what did rites arise?” to lead into his thoughts, and gives a highly reality-based answer: “Man is born with desires; if desires are not satisfied, then he cannot but seek; if seeking has no measure or bounds, then he cannot but contend; contention leads to chaos, and chaos leads to poverty. The ancient kings abhorred such chaos, therefore they instituted rites and righteousness to delineate boundaries, to nurture men’s desires and supply men’s demands. They ensured that desires would never exhaust things, and things would never be exhausted by desires, and that the two would sustain each other and grow. This is the origin of rites.” From this, Xunzi concludes: “Therefore, rites are nurturing.” This judgment is the core proposition of Xunzi’s thought on rites and righteousness, running through his entire system of ritual theory. Why is it that rites take “nurturing people” as their foundation? Xunzi believed that as natural living beings, humans are born with the instinct to seek benefit and avoid harm, and to pursue comfort and pleasure. “To desire food when hungry, to desire warmth when cold, to desire rest when tired, to like benefit and dislike harm—these are what humans possess from birth,” and they are also “what the emotions cannot but entail.” These innate desires and emotional nature constitute man’s natural disposition. Human nature originates from the natural Way of Heaven; so-called “nature is what Heaven makes it to be” is an objectively given life characteristic, which even sages cannot completely eradicate, hence “even Yao and Shun could not remove the people’s desire for benefit.” Therefore, the value standards of social operation should face squarely, respect, and reasonably guide man’s natural nature and desires, achieving the proper and orderly satisfaction of human desires. However, man’s natural desires also have the characteristic of infinite expansion. Xunzi directly states: “Human emotions: in food they desire meat and grain, in clothing they desire embroidered silk, in travel they desire carriages and horses, and they also desire the wealth of accumulated surplus property; yet year after year their whole life they are never satisfied—this is human emotion.” If human nature is allowed to develop naturally and emotions are indulged, there will inevitably be a sharp contradiction between the infinite desires of individuals and the limited material resources of society, ultimately leading to endless chaos and strife, just as the Xunzi: Human Nature is Evil says: “If you follow man’s nature and indulge man’s emotions, you will inevitably come to contention and strife, leading to violating social divisions and disrupting order, and ending in violence.” On this basis, Xunzi proposes that “rites” must be taken as value norms and behavioral standards to moderate, regulate, and guide human emotions and desires. Facing the desires of human nature squarely in order to “nurture the people” and restraining the excess of emotions and desires in order to “stop chaos”—together these constitute the basis for rites taking “nurturing people” as their foundation. The regulation and restriction of natural emotions and dispositions by “rites” is by no means to repress or extinguish human nature and desires, but to restrain the unbridled overflow of emotions and desires, to avoid the chaos of social disorder, interpersonal strife, and mutual harm. Its ultimate goal is to ensure that the desires of all members of society are reasonably and sustainably satisfied. Precisely because of this, Xunzi emphasizes: “Therefore, nothing is more precious to man than life, nothing is more joyful than peace; so for nurturing life and attaining peace and joy, nothing is greater than rites and righteousness.” Xunzi divides the existence of human life into two dimensions: form and mind: “When form is complete, spirit is born; in it are stored likes, dislikes, joy, anger, sorrow, pleasure—these are called the natural emotions.” Correspondingly, the “nurturing” spoken of in “rites” is not a single-dimensional nourishment; rather, it includes the dimensions of nurturing the form, nurturing the emotions, and nurturing the mind, taking into account both the physical survival of the human body and the development of the spirit and mind. The so-called “nurturing the form” refers to the nurturing of the physical body, whose core is to maintain man’s basic survival and satisfy man’s reasonable natural sensual desires. This is an inevitable consequence of Xunzi’s theory of natural human nature. As natural living individuals, humans are born with basic desires for food, clothing, shelter, travel, rest, and comfort. The primary function of the “nurturing” of rites is to settle individual life, guarantee basic livelihood, and realize “nurturing man’s desires and supplying man’s demands,” thereby laying the most fundamental life guarantee for social order and stability. Man is not merely physical existence and sensual desires; he should also have spiritual pursuits and moral consciousness that transcend utility. The sublimation of the “nurturing” of rites lies in the “nurturing” of mind-nature and spirit—that is, the function of using rites to moisturize the human heart, educate human emotions, cultivate virtue, and guide the will, thereby promoting the continuous improvement of individual moral cultivation and spiritual realm. On this, Xunzi says: “Who knows that respect and deference nurture security! Who knows that the patterns and principles of rites and righteousness nurture the emotions!” This is the spiritual and mind-nature “nurturing” that is distinct from the nurturing of the physical body. Thus, Xunzi consistently adheres to the principle of unity of body and mind—both to nurture the physical body and satisfy reasonable material desires, and to cultivate human emotions, purify the human mind, and elevate human virtue and character, so that people may have “a calm and joyful mind, upright conduct, and abundant virtue,” achieving the sound development of the individual body and mind. At the same time, the “nurturing” of rites as spoken by Xunzi is also a universal value standard applicable to all members of society, which is an inevitable manifestation of the Confucian “the benevolent person loves others”—the essence of benevolence lies in loving all people and benefiting all beings. While affirming that all humans have the natural disposition to like benefit and dislike harm, Xunzi also clearly defines the essential characteristics of humans: “What is it that makes man human? I say: it is because he has the capacity for discrimination.” The reason humans differ from beasts is precisely that they possess the capacity for moral discrimination and self-discipline. And the “nurturing of emotions” and “nurturing of mind” by rites is precisely to guide people to break through the limitations of instinctual desires and pursue higher-level moral values and spiritual realms. The core of “rites are nurturing” lies in basing on realistic human nature, facing social reality directly, and taking people’s real life desires and actual welfare as the fundamental basis for the construction of social rites and righteousness. Compared to the self-discipline of moral obligations, the realization of people’s livelihood and welfare is the dominant value orientation of this thought. This also makes Xunzi’s thought possess a pragmatic character of 经世致用 (jīng shì zhì yòng - “manage affairs and apply to practical use,” focusing on practical application and real-world benefit), taking the greatest welfare of the greatest number of people as the ultimate aim. Furthermore, Xunzi believed that the nurturing, regulating, and rewarding of “rites” should also be graded according to people’s status, virtue, and achievements, in order to encourage people to do good and maintain social order, ultimately achieving the unity of individual interests and social overall interests. Viewed today, this thought obviously has certain limitations and practical difficulties. For example, directly linking the pursuit of moral values with the material benefits, honor, and status obtained by individuals, and treating people differently accordingly, while conducive to guiding and inspiring people to be enterprising and strive for goodness, may also dissolve the inner self-consciousness that morality should have, reducing morality to a tool for individuals to compete for honor and profit. However, at the time, the value orientation of Xunzi’s thought that “rites” should be attributed to the nurturing of the honored ruler was undoubtedly good. On the one hand, by nurturing the honored ruler with rites, the ruler is endowed with utmost authority and supreme honor, to stimulate and strengthen the ruler’s sense of responsibility and initiative, prompting him to govern diligently; on the other hand, this cultivates in the hearts of the myriad people an infinite reverence and dependence on the ruler, effectively establishing the necessary authority and appeal, so that the ruler can truly play the role of dominating, leading, and commanding the world. The combination of the two provides a realistic force support for the stability and unity of the world, thereby bringing welfare to the myriad people, and ultimately achieving an effective or even perfect unity between the ruler’s personal desires and the general interests of society. This thought also deeply influenced the ritual construction and governance concepts of successive dynasties in later generations. Xunzi acknowledged the rationality of human desires, discarded ascetic moral demands, replaced repression with guidance, and balanced the opposition between individual selfish desires and public order. At the same time, he took into account the growth of the individual body and mind and the stable development of society, both safeguarding the basic livelihood and welfare of the people and cultivating the moral mind of the people.
Return to TopBy: 孟凡萧
Natural (自然), as one of the core categories of Chinese classical aesthetics, has always been esteemed by ancient Chinese painting theory. In the process of the formation and development of the aesthetic concept of “natural,” Zhang Yanyuan (张彦远) of the Tang dynasty’s Record of Famous Paintings of All the Dynasties (历代名画记) has a pioneering contribution that cannot be ignored. Zhang Yanyuan, courtesy name Aibin, was born into the “Three Prime Ministers Zhang Family” (三相张家) and for generations his family was fond of calligraphy and painting, collecting many calligraphic works and famous paintings. Precisely because of the influence of his family’s artistic atmosphere, Zhang Yanyuan studied many works on painting theory from a young age, but he believed that the writings of predecessors were “all shallow, incomplete, and limited to a few pages,” so he took the style of the Records of the Grand Historian as a model, adopted a method combining history and theory, and wrote the Record of Famous Paintings of All the Dynasties.
The Record of Famous Paintings of All the Dynasties, as China’s first relatively systematic and complete general history of painting art, has the reputation of being the “ancestor of painting history.” The entire work consists of ten volumes, with rich content; it includes both a systematic review and summary of ancient painting studies and painting theory, and evaluations of painters and their works from remote antiquity to the Tang dynasty, covering almost all important fields of painting at that time, and can be called an “encyclopedia” of ancient Chinese painting. When constructing this grand system of a general history of painting, Zhang Yanyuan not only explicitly championed “natural” but also carried it through the ontology, creation theory, and appreciation theory of painting, forming a painting aesthetic system with “natural” as its core.
Issued from Nature (发于天然): The Natural Law of Painting Ontology
The Record of Famous Paintings of All the Dynasties opens by saying: “Painting… is issued from nature (天然), not from narration and composition.” This means painting is not a creation based on existing theories but is deeply inspired by the transformations of nature. Therefore, the essence of painting lies in following the laws of nature, a view highly consistent with Daoist philosophy. Zhang Yanyuan established “natural” as the ontological law of painting art, advocating that painting creation must take “intention (意)” as the foundation, transcend the constraints of formal likeness and technique, in order to deeply grasp and present the inner essence of the object, rather than merely depicting its external appearance. “Depicting objects must necessarily lie in formal likeness; formal likeness must complete its bone-spirit; bone-spirit and formal likeness are both rooted in the establishment of intention.” Thus, Zhang Yanyuan regarded “intention” as the core of painting creation; he believed that painting creation is the process by which the painter, using brush and ink as medium, condenses his inner “intention” into an artistic image. And this process itself must perfectly conform to the law of “natural.” For this reason, he regarded “transmitting models, copying and transferring” (传模移写), which merely mechanically reproduces the external form of things, as “the painter’s trivial matter,” considering such paintings to have only a formal shell and no vitality. True painting should transcend the shackles of formal likeness, through “exhausting the transformations of spirit, probing the subtle and profound” (穷神变，测幽微), that is, exhausting the ever-changing natural phenomena, exploring the deep and subtle principles of nature, and ultimately achieving “true formal likeness” (真形似) — a likeness that surpasses the external appearance of things and reaches directly to the inner spiritual essence of things.
To elaborate his viewpoint, Zhang Yanyuan distinguished between “true painting” (真画) and “dead painting” (死画). He believed that paintings made relying on rulers and straightedges, because they lack inner vitality, are “dead paintings”; only a painter like Wu Daozi (吴道子), who “guards the spirit with single-mindedness” (守神专一) and attains the state of fusion of object and self, can create “true paintings” full of vitality. This so-called “vitality” (生气) is actually a holistic life understanding and experience, and the recognition and pursuit of this state of “object and self as one” (物我为一) constitutes the whole meaning of “intention.” It is the result of the painter “taking the concrete phenomena of the universe and human life as objects, appreciating their forms, order, rhythm, and harmony, thereby glimpsing his own deepest soul.” In the view of Laozi and Zhuangzi, this is using the human “heaven” (天) to unite with the natural “heaven.” Therefore, Zhang Yanyuan advocated taking “intention” as the foundation, aiming to emphasize that painting creation follows and manifests the natural way. Hence, “natural” is not only the supreme realm pursued by painting, but also the inner law of the generation of its artistic ontology.
Between “Intentional” and “Unintentional” (有意无意之间): The Psychological Mechanism of Natural Creation
Zhang Yanyuan’s view of naturalness is mainly manifested in two aspects: the “naturalness” of the source of creative talent, that is, the promotion of “genius” (天才) and the emphasis on “innate talent” (天赋才能), and the “non‑consciousness” (非自觉性) of the creative process. Zhang Yanyuan believed that “the arts of calligraphy and painting must be accomplished with spirit and vigor, and cannot be done by cowards,” so he vigorously promoted “genius,” holding that outstanding artistic ability originates from innate endowment. For example, he called Gu Kaizhi (顾恺之) “genius outstanding,” and praised Wu Daozi as “Heaven bestowed a vigorous brush, in childhood embracing divine profundity.” For this reason, Zhang Yanyuan strongly opposed the “meticulous and detailed” (谨细) works of mechanical imitation, and placed them at the lowest level of the evaluation system. He firmly believed that only painters with “innate talent” could create works of the “natural” grade that would be passed down through generations.
“When one moves his thoughts and wields the brush, thinking he is painting, then he increasingly loses the painting; when he moves his thoughts and wields the brush, but his intention is not on painting, then he attains the painting.” This reveals that painting creation must reach a state of transformation where one “does not intentionally seek” (无意乎相求) and is without deliberate thought; its essence is an intuitive state that transcends rational consciousness. This view is deeply influenced by Daoist philosophy, mainly manifested as the state of “sitting in forgetfulness” (坐忘) of “concentrating the spirit in reverie, wondrously apprehending nature, forgetting both object and self, leaving behind the body and discarding intellect.” The painter must shake off the fetters of utilitarian mind and excessive rational thinking, immerse himself completely in the intuitive realization of nature, achieve the fusion of subject and object and the unity of object and self, so as to reach straight to the essence of the object through “wondrous apprehension” (妙悟). This “unintentional” state has been revered and practiced by painters through the ages, such as Wu Daoxuan (吴道玄) who “loved wine and gave vent to his spirit; whenever he wanted to wield the brush, he had to drink deeply.” Moreover, painters evaluated as “untrammeled grade” (逸品) by Huang Xiufu (黄休复), Zhu Jingxuan (朱景玄) and others, such as Sun Wei (孙位), Wang Mo (王墨), Zhang Zhihe (张志和) and so on, were all famous for “loving wine and giving vent to their spirit.” They often relied on the power of wine to cleanse the disturbances of body and mind, thus approaching the “unintentional” state of creation.
Ancient Chinese painting theory has long had a tradition of “esteeming intention” (尚意), and Zhang Yanyuan also advocated taking “intention” as the foundation. This seems to conflict with the “unintentional” state revealed by genius in painting creation. To resolve this contradiction, it is necessary to deeply analyze the connotation of “intention.” In the process of painting creation, “intention” can be understood as the image conceived in the chest during the planning stage, not yet put onto the brush tip, that is, what Zheng Banqiao (郑板桥) called “the bamboo in the chest” (胸中之竹). Therefore, the gist of “esteeming intention” lies in valuing the painter’s concentrated management of the mental image during the incubation period. Since the conception of the image is necessarily accompanied by clear conscious activity, “esteeming intention” undoubtedly emphasizes the important role of rationality in the early stage of creation. However, the complexity of creation is that the materialization process from the conceived “bamboo in the chest” to the final presented “bamboo in the hand” (手中之竹) often manifests a non‑rational, unconscious state. As Zheng Banqiao said, “When the brush falls, it suddenly transforms; the bamboo in the hand is not the bamboo in the chest.” This shows the profundity and mystery of the painter’s spiritual activity during creation: rational consciousness and non‑rational unconsciousness intertwine and coexist, inseparable from each other. Therefore, simply judging painting creation as purely “intentional” or “unintentional” is biased; its true state is actually in a subtle situation of “between intentional and unintentional” (有意无意之间) or “as if intentional, as if unintentional” (若有意若无意).
Returning to the Plain and Simple (归于朴素): The Aesthetic Ultimate of the Natural Grade
In Daoist philosophy, “plainness” (朴) is the original state presented when the “Way” (道) nurtures the myriad things. Zhuangzi elevated “plainness” to a “beauty of natural original color,” the ontological existence of the great beauty of heaven and earth, hence it is said: “Plain and simple, nothing in the world can compete with it for beauty.” On this, the Record of Famous Paintings of All the Dynasties describes in the style of a rhapsody: “Yin and Yang ferment and transform, the myriad forms are interwoven, the mysterious transformation is speechless, the divine craft operates alone. Grass and trees flourish and bloom without waiting for pigments of cinnabar and malachite; clouds and snow flutter and drift without waiting for lead powder to become white. Mountains do not wait for azurite to be green, phoenixes do not wait for five colors to be brilliant.” This reveals that natural beauty originates from the natural original color endowed by “mysterious transformation” (玄化) and “divine craft” (神工), beyond the reach of human skill. A painting that attains the “natural” grade should be like the Way nurturing the myriad things — actionless and traceless, the whole being seamlessly formed by nature without any trace of chiseled labor, presenting the thing’s own authentic “beauty of plainness and simplicity” (朴素之美). Zhang Yanyuan also took Wu Daozi as a model, praising his paintings as “spirit borrowed from the heavenly creation, divine inspiration inexhaustible,” with skill reaching the realm of transformation, like 庖丁解牛 (páo dīng jiě niú - “butcher Ding dismembers an ox,” describing consummate skill) or 郢匠运斤 (yǐng jiàng yùn jīn - “the carpenter of Ying wields his axe,” describing masterful craftsmanship). The beauty presented in this realm is precisely the manifestation of the plain and natural nature of the Way, the great beauty of heaven and earth. Appreciating such paintings is like viewing spring flowers and autumn moon, the changing of the four seasons; one feels the real, natural artistic charm like nature itself. Thus, the “natural” grade is listed as the “highest of the high grade” (上品之上), establishing the supreme aesthetic model of ancient Chinese painting.
Return to TopBy: 程一帆
The Library of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, is one of the UK's national research libraries and also one of the world's most important repositories of research literature on Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Over 100 years ago, the library opened alongside the establishment of the predecessor of SOAS, the School of Oriental Studies, University of London, and served for a time as a tool for training officials to master Oriental languages and cultures and for cultivating administrative personnel for colonial rule. With the disintegration of the colonial system and changes in the international landscape, the SOAS Library has undergone changes in name, renovations of its premises, and updates to its collections; more importantly, it has achieved a decolonisation transformation of its institutional philosophy, becoming an open and inclusive public cultural space.
Over a Century of Development and Multilingual Collections
In 1916, the School of Oriental Studies, University of London, was established, and the library opened the following year, initially with only over 9,000 volumes of books. Through the exchange of collections within the University of London, it gradually accumulated a collection of Oriental studies books. At the same time, missionaries, diplomats, merchants, and travellers returning from British colonies brought back various manuscripts, maps, photographs, and language records from Asia and Africa, enriching the library's holdings. In 1938, the School of Oriental Studies, University of London, was renamed the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and the library was also renamed accordingly. After the end of the Second World War, the Earl of Scarbrough spearheaded the release of the Scarbrough Report in 1945, calling on the UK to strengthen research into the languages and cultures of Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and other regions. This report secured dedicated government funding for SOAS, and the library's collection quickly exceeded 100,000 volumes. In 1961, William Hayter, then UK Minister for Cultural Affairs, chaired the drafting of the Hayter Report, which further recommended integrating the UK's area studies forces and providing key financial support to representative research institutions such as SOAS. The Hayter Report elevated the positioning of the SOAS Library to a national-level documentation centre for Asian, African, and Middle Eastern studies, and the scale of its collection rapidly increased. In 1973, a new library building designed by the renowned British architect Sir Denys Lasdun was completed on the north side of Russell Square in Bloomsbury, central London. This new library, designed to hold 1 million volumes, became a representative work of British Brutalist architecture and was listed as a Grade II listed building in the UK.
Having passed through the era of colonial rule and the post-war "golden period" of British area studies, the library has accumulated a uniquely distinctive collection — over 1.3 million volumes covering more than 400 languages. Particularly noteworthy is the archives and special collections section, where shelves spanning over 3 kilometres in length hold over 60,000 rare books and manuscripts in over 140 languages, attracting over 3,000 person-visits for consultation each year. Among these, the African language collection encompasses documentary materials in over 60 languages, including Swahili, Hausa, Amharic, and Igbo. The Middle Eastern and Islamic collections include over 400 Arabic manuscripts, nearly 400 Persian manuscripts, and 45 Turkish manuscripts.
Decolonisation Transformation
In the post-colonial period, the SOAS Library has faced challenges of transformation and upgrading such as continuous growth of the collection and the impact of digital technology. Among all these challenges, the most significant is the fundamental change in the library's function. The process of globalisation has triggered a reflexive awareness of colonialism among researchers, and changes in research paradigms have also led people to re-examine the distinctive collections that are important colonial legacies. The SOAS Library possesses abundant indigenous and local materials from around the world, and its collection itself exhibits diversity in terms of language, region, and culture. However, diversity does not naturally equate to decolonisation. From subject headings to classification standards, from the spatial allocation of the collection to the delineation of borrowing privileges, from the digitisation of rare books to the choice of publishers for new acquisitions, the library's various management systems have long been influenced by colonialism.
In recent years, the SOAS Library established a Decolonisation Action Group (去殖民行动小组), specifically focusing on eliminating the influence of colonialism on library functions. Through steps such as the decolonisation of book subject headings and cataloguing systems, supporting small and medium-sized book publishers and suppliers from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, promoting the physical and digital repatriation of rare texts, and revising collection development policies to strengthen tracking of the sources of new acquisitions, the group has gradually broken the epistemological tradition of Euro-Anglocentrism, respected local knowledge production in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, and promoted the decentring of area and country studies. At the same time, the upgrading and transformation of the library's hardware system adheres to the principles of openness, equality, and service. With open shelving and convenient accessibility as core design concepts, it strengthens resource sharing with major libraries in the Bloomsbury area and expands digital resources such as e-books, streaming media databases, and visual image databases. These measures, coordinated with the library's transformation process, have turned reflexive awareness at the conceptual level into concrete actions.
A "Global South-Friendly" Public Cultural Space
Through unremitting efforts, the SOAS Library has taken on new vitality, gradually diminishing the influence of the colonial period and achieving functional transformation. At the same time, relying on the rich cultural, artistic, and media resources of Bloomsbury and the surrounding area, the library has built a public cultural space open to both academia and the general public. In recent years, various thematic exhibitions and numerous research projects supported by the library's collection resources have continuously explored pathways for integrating teaching, research, and dissemination, giving voice to an academic perspective that respects the equal subject status of the Global South (全球南方) in knowledge production.
In recent years, the library has held several thematic exhibitions around issues of conflict, South-South migration (南南移民), and refugee issues, sparking sustained attention and reflection on related topics. In 2022, the SOAS South Asia Institute curated a refugee memory narrative exhibition with the core concept of "Unlocking SOAS Collections". In 2024 and 2025, the library also held exhibitions on themes such as "Non-Muslim Migrants in Muslim Countries" and "Sri Lankan Conflict and Global South-South Migration", using direct visual experiences to reveal the complexity of migrant community identities. These exhibitions attracted the participation of many intellectuals and cultural figures with migrant backgrounds, who not only gathered materials needed for academic research in the library but also engaged in diverse activities such as lifelong learning, family history research, and community memory preservation. These activities facilitated the popular dissemination of reflexive theoretical research findings and also provided a space for the large number of Asian, African, and Middle Eastern migrants and their descendants in the UK and even Europe to understand themselves and trace their roots.
The rich and distinctive collections of the SOAS Library also provide strong academic support for interdisciplinary area studies and critical research. Taking a study of Nigerian-related archival manuscripts in the library as an example, the research found that these materials not only help in understanding Nigeria's monuments, folklore, language, literature, and other knowledge within the humanities and social sciences but also provide local knowledge spanning hundreds of years in the fields of astronomy, geology, and medicine, inspiring researchers to break out of traditional area studies mindsets and integrate multidisciplinary research perspectives. Since 2020, the library's multilingual archival materials have continuously enriched the teaching content of non-English literature. Using artificial intelligence technology to conduct comparative analysis of vast cross-regional texts (such as ancient South Asian scrolls) has deepened researchers' understanding of cultural transmission. Many young scholars also use library resources to conduct research on topics such as political participation in Global South countries, global inequality, and social justice, re-examining Western-centric theoretical paradigms from a critical perspective.
The SOAS Library's more than one hundred years of development reveal its uniqueness: on the one hand, its collection base is deeply rooted in the colonial era, and many precious holdings are themselves material remnants of imperial history. On the other hand, it is consciously engaged in a profound self-reflection, attempting to transform these documents bearing colonial memories into important tools for criticising colonialism.
Return to TopBy: 武文罡
Agricultural modernization concerns the overall situation and quality of Chinese-style modernization, and the continuation of farming civilization is the solid foundation of agricultural modernization. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out, “Our country’s farming civilization has a long history and is broad and profound; it is the root of fine traditional Chinese culture. We must organically combine protection, inheritance, development, and utilization, combine the outstanding heritage of our country’s farming civilization with modern civilizational elements, endow it with new contemporary connotations, let the fine traditional Chinese culture thrive and reproduce continuously, and let our country’s long-standing farming civilization display its charm and elegance in the new era.” This important exposition is a concrete embodiment of the creative transformation and innovative development of fine traditional Chinese culture in the field of farming civilization, and it indicates the direction and provides guidance for manifesting the contemporary value of farming civilization. Farming civilization is not an ancient form stagnated in history; rather, it radiates completely new vitality through 守正创新 (shǒu zhèng chuàng xīn - “uphold integrity, innovate,” to maintain correct principles while innovating) and dialectical sublation, containing multiple values that are both inheritable and contemporary. Standing at the trend of the times, we must deeply excavate the profound values of farming civilization, promote the upholding of integrity and innovation and the integrated development of traditional farming culture, and promote the deep integration of the millennia-old farming cultural lineage into the overall national development strategy and into the entire process of work concerning agriculture, rural areas, and farmers, thereby building a solid and thick cultural foundation for comprehensively advancing rural revitalization and accelerating the construction of a strong agricultural country.
Cultivate spiritual values and consolidate the ideological foundation for modernization. Under China’s parallel modernization development pattern, the outstanding spiritual traits accumulated by farming civilization can be integrated into the modern development trend, displaying the never-fading spiritual contemporary value. From the dimension of national development, the concept of 重农固本 (zhòng nóng gù běn - “emphasize agriculture, consolidate foundation,” to prioritize agriculture as the foundation) strengthens the strategic foundation of food security, providing cultural support for firmly holding the red line of arable land and ensuring food supply; from the dimension of ecological civilization, the concept of 天人合一 (tiān rén hé yī - “heaven and man unite as one,” harmony between nature and humanity) advocates harmonious coexistence between humans and nature, aligning with the modernization orientation of green, low-carbon, and sustainable development; from the dimension of grassroots governance, the local ethics of mutual neighborly assistance and upholding virtue and trustworthiness can resolve rural conflicts and cultivate civilized rural customs; from the dimension of national spirit, the culture of farming and reading nurtures the national character of steadfastness, hard work, and arduous struggle, possessing a timeless contemporary vitality. For thousands of years, farming civilization has been deeply integrated into the national bloodline, becoming the spiritual confidence that unites people and forges ahead. Adhere to dialectical selection, discard the dross and keep the essence, preserve the excellent cultural core, and let farming civilization continuously nourish social development.
Deeply excavate scientific value and help agriculture give rise to new quality productive forces. Equating the shortcomings of modern agricultural science and technology with the overall backwardness of farming civilization is a misinterpretation of China’s traditional farming science and technology system. The traditional farming system contains many practical wisdoms that conform to natural laws. Our ancestors formed a farming development model that follows the seasons, adapts to the land, and achieves circular sustainability through long-term labor. They coordinated agricultural affairs according to solar terms, built water conservancy to improve production conditions, and implemented mature and practical agricultural technology systems such as crop rotation and fallowing, integration of planting and breeding, soil fertility cultivation, and ecological conservation. This entire set of traditional farming production systems has been tested by thousands of years of practice and possesses strong scientific and practical value. Inheriting farming civilization is by no means sticking to old production methods; rather, it is to adhere to the core principles of ecological greenness and local adaptation, actively integrate new development elements such as modern seed industry, intelligent agricultural machinery, and digital agriculture, promote the transformation and upgrading of traditional farming experience, create a distinctive agricultural development model, and empower the high-quality development of modern agriculture with traditional agricultural wisdom.
Uphold the value of openness and integrate into the trend of civilizational exchange and integration. Chinese farming civilization has never been a closed and rigid cultural form; compatibility, mutual learning, iteration, and innovation are its core characteristics that have continued for thousands of years. Since ancient times, China has been a hub for agricultural technology exchange between China and foreign countries. Through the ancient Silk Road, it exported farming tools, agricultural techniques, and water management concepts, and also introduced foreign crops such as maize, sweet potatoes, cotton, and grapes. Within the country, agricultural technology between the north and south was exchanged and learned from each other, enriching its own connotation through absorption and reference, and continuously optimizing the farming system. Entering a new stage of high-level opening up, farming civilization still adheres to the distinctive characteristics of openness and inclusiveness. It firmly guards the foundation of local farming culture, inherits the development experience of local characteristic agriculture, and actively draws on and absorbs advanced agricultural development achievements from home and abroad. As an important carrier for practicing the concept of mutual learning among civilizations, China possesses the world’s largest number of globally important agricultural cultural heritage sites, building a solid platform for international exchanges in the agricultural field. Taking the Yangling Demonstration Zone in the new era as an example, leveraging the advantages of the agricultural free trade area, it has built an SCO agricultural base and a China (Dryland) Seed Industry Silicon Valley, trained 48,000 agricultural officials and experts for SCO countries, established 10 overseas demonstration parks, and formed cooperation with 11 Central Asian universities, fully proving that farming civilization radiates new vitality through exchange and integration and contributes practical wisdom to global agricultural development.
To inherit and promote the excellent Chinese farming civilization, we must not only hold fast to the cultural roots and consolidate local consensus but also adhere to upholding integrity and innovation, broaden the development pattern, and deepen external dissemination, activating the contemporary driving force of farming civilization in an all-round way. By strengthening value guidance, revitalizing cultural lineage resources, deepening the integration of ancient and modern, and optimizing external dissemination—four major pathways—we continuously promote the creative transformation and innovative development of excellent traditional farming culture, and effectively transform the millennia-old farming wisdom into the internal driving force for the construction of rural customs and civilization, the strong momentum for rural industrial development, and the powerful support for agricultural modernization.
Strengthen value guidance and cultivate the contemporary consensus of respecting agriculture and revitalizing agriculture. Based on the overall plan of spiritual civilization construction, promote the integration of excellent farming culture into daily life and make it a regular practice. Relying on diversified carriers such as publicity platforms, grassroots lectures, campus practice, and local customs, precisely carry out the publicity and popularization of farming culture, comprehensively and multi-dimensionally disseminate the contemporary value of farming civilization, and create a good atmosphere in the whole society of advocating agriculture and emphasizing the “three rural issues.” Deeply promoting the dissemination and popularization of farming culture is also a concrete measure to make the “two integrates” take root in the field of agriculture, rural areas, and farmers. Systematically integrate excellent local customs such as 耕读传家 (gēng dú chuán jiā - “plow and read pass on family,” tradition of farming and studying to sustain the family), 崇德向善 (chóng dé xiàng shàn - “esteem virtue, incline to good,” upholding morality and goodness), and pragmatism and simplicity into village rules and regulations, civilized creation, moral evaluation, and other work, and implement them in detail in various specific measures such as rural governance, family style construction, and folk custom cultivation, so as to consolidate the ideological foundation with rural custom construction, continuously enhance the local sentiment and cultural confidence of the masses, and gather the ideological synergy that helps rural development.
Revitalize the farming cultural lineage and realize cultural empowerment for rural development. Adhere to the development principle of prioritizing protection and rational utilization, comprehensively survey and sort out various farming cultural resources such as ancient villages, traditional water conservancy facilities, farming techniques, and folk culture, improve protection mechanisms, delineate protection scopes, and implement protection measures, carefully safeguarding the historical roots of farming civilization. Based on the actual agricultural development of each region, scientifically layout relying on characteristic farming resources, orderly cultivate new forms such as farming experience tours, pastoral study tours, and rural cultural tourism, continuously extend the agricultural industry chain, and promote the transformation of cultural resources into development advantages. Improve the mechanism for cultivating local talents, perfect relevant support and incentive policies, help farming culture inheritors and local planting and breeding experts grow and become capable, and target-cultivate compound local talents who understand culture, agriculture, and operations, so as to promote the living transmission of farming cultural lineage with the power of talent.
Deepen the integration of ancient and modern, and promote the connection between traditional heritage and modern civilizational elements. Closely following the development requirement of combining excellent farming heritage with modern civilizational elements, systematically sort out the essence of traditional ecological planting and breeding, soil and water conservation, and seasonal farming, and comprehensively integrate them into the entire process of high-standard farmland construction, smart agriculture development, and ecological agriculture construction. Actively use modern means such as big data and intelligent equipment to build a platform for the transformation and promotion of agricultural technology, and promote the standardized and large-scale application of traditional farming experience. Excavate and protect local characteristic agricultural variety resources, promote the deep combination of traditional farming techniques and modern agricultural research, build an industry-university-research collaborative development channel, accelerate the integrated development of agricultural culture and tourism, digital cultural creativity, and leisure agriculture, and smooth the channel for transforming traditional wisdom into real productive forces, truly achieving 古为今用 (gǔ wéi jīn yòng - “ancient serves present,” making the past serve the present) and upholding integrity and innovation.
Optimize external dissemination and display the unique charm of farming culture. Tell the story of farming culture in a way that resonates with the daily lives of the people, and build a domestic and international linkage dissemination system for farming civilization. Innovate younger and digital dissemination methods, rely on new media platforms to create a front for farming culture publicity, promote intangible heritage techniques, folk culture, and ancient village landscapes into modern life scenes, shorten the distance between traditional culture and youth groups, and expand the mass base of farming culture. Relying on various international cooperation and exchange platforms in agriculture, actively promote high-quality farming cultural projects to apply for World Cultural Heritage, regularize agricultural civilization dialogue and exchanges, use channels such as agricultural foreign cooperation projects and international agricultural exhibitions to broaden dissemination pathways, break the monopoly of Western modernization narratives, and diversely display the unique charm of farming civilization in the new era.
(The author is the Vice Governor of Shaanxi Province.)
Return to TopBy: 学习时报编辑部
The reason the Communist Party of China has been able to continuously forge brilliance in its 105 years of struggle, and the reason history and the people have chosen the Communist Party of China, lies fundamentally in the fact that our Party possesses excellent qualities incomparable to any other political party or political force. At the celebration of the 105th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, General Secretary Xi Jinping systematically summarized the incomparable excellent qualities of the Communist Party of China and profoundly elucidated the key code to why the Communist Party of China is capable. It is precisely because of the excellent qualities of persistently pursuing truth, deeply rooting itself in the people, bravely undertaking historical missions, conforming to the trends of development, daring and being adept at struggle, and focusing on strengthening itself, that history and the people have chosen the Communist Party of China, that the Communist Party of China has continuously forged brilliance in struggle, fundamentally changed the future and destiny of the Chinese people, opened up the correct path for realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, demonstrated the powerful vitality of Marxism, profoundly influenced the course of world history, forged a strong Communist Party of China, and that the Chinese nation has ushered in a great leap from standing up, growing rich, to becoming strong, writing the most magnificent epic in the thousands of years of history of the Chinese nation. Standing at a new historical starting point, we must combine our new reality, strengthen our confidence, continue our struggle, constantly carry forward and enhance these excellent qualities of the Party, ensure that the Party never deteriorates, changes its color, or loses its flavor, always possesses strong creativity, cohesion, and combat effectiveness, and continuously create new achievements worthy of the times and the people.
Persistently pursuing truth, always holding the correct direction for progress
The long river of history surges endlessly; the light of truth illuminates the journey of rejuvenation. In modern times, the Chinese nation fell into the tragic situation of internal and external troubles. Achieving national independence and people's liberation, and realizing national prosperity and strength and people's happiness, became the historical tasks of the Chinese people. However, the old-style peasant wars reached a dead end; self-strengthening movements and reformism that did not touch the feudal foundations repeatedly hit a wall; the revolutions led by the bourgeois revolutionaries and various other schemes of Western capitalism all collapsed one after another — "all paths were impassable." The salvo of the October Revolution brought Marxism-Leninism to China, which was seeking a way to save the nation and the people, pointing out the direction for progress and providing a new choice for the Chinese people. As Mao Zedong pointed out: "Only this action guide, only this standpoint and method, are the revolutionary science, the only correct policy for guiding us to understand the revolutionary object and direct the revolutionary movement."
"The highest ideal of life lies in attaining the truth." Marxism scientifically reveals the laws of the development of human society, illuminating humanity's path to seeking its own liberation. Over the past 105 years, our Party has taken Marxism as a powerful ideological weapon for understanding the world, grasping laws, pursuing truth, and transforming the world, insisting on emancipating the mind, seeking truth from facts, advancing with the times, and being realistic and pragmatic, focusing on revealing and applying truth in the movement of social contradictions, being good at testing and developing truth in practice, and constantly guiding new practice with new theory, ensuring that the cause of the Party and the people advances in the correct direction. From then on, Chinese Communists embarked on a great journey of pursuing truth, revealing truth, and steadfastly practicing truth, continuously endowing Marxism with new contemporary connotations, and the realization of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation has entered an irreversible historical process.
Pursuing truth is a great cause, but also an extraordinarily arduous quest. In the revolutionary struggle, Chinese Communists led mainly by Comrade Mao Zedong integrated the basic principles of Marxism-Leninism with China's concrete reality, theoretically summarized a series of unique experiences accumulated through arduous exploration and enormous sacrifice, opened up the correct revolutionary path of encircling the cities from the countryside and seizing political power by armed force, and founded Mao Zedong Thought, pointing out the correct direction for winning the victory of the New Democratic Revolution. During the period of socialist revolution and construction, our Party carried out a "second integration" of the basic principles of Marxism-Leninism with China's concrete reality, enriched and developed Mao Zedong Thought in light of new realities, and put forward a series of important ideas on socialist construction. In the new period of reform, opening up, and socialist modernization, Chinese Communists have upheld and developed Marxism from new practice and the characteristics of the times, founding Deng Xiaoping Theory, forming the important thought of the "Three Represents" and the Scientific Outlook on Development, scientifically answering a series of basic questions concerning the building of socialism with Chinese characteristics, such as the development path, development stage, fundamental tasks, development momentum, development strategy, political guarantee, national reunification, foreign affairs and international strategy, leading force, and relying forces, forming the theoretical system of socialism with Chinese characteristics, leading China's development to achieve great accomplishments that have attracted worldwide attention. Since the 18th National Congress of the Party, Chinese Communists led mainly by Comrade Xi Jinping have insisted on integrating the basic principles of Marxism with China's concrete reality and with the excellent traditional Chinese culture, closely focusing on answering major epochal questions such as what kind of socialism with Chinese characteristics to uphold and develop and how to uphold and develop it, what kind of great modern socialist country to build and how to build it, and what kind of long-term governing Marxist party to build and how to build it, continuously deepening the theoretical achievements in understanding the laws of Communist Party governance, socialist construction, and the development of human society, and founding Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.
Keeping pace with the times, sharing the destiny with the people, and answering the major questions raised by the times and practice — this is the secret of Marxism's enduring vitality. Over the past 105 years, the Party has persisted in treating science with a scientific attitude, pursuing truth with the spirit of truth, taking Marxism as a "powerful ideological weapon" and a "great tool for understanding," continuously advancing the sinicization and modernization of Marxism, embracing all the excellent achievements of civilization created by humanity with a broad mind, and guiding great practice with the scientific theory of sinicized and modernized Marxism. Unlike Western political parties that arbitrarily change their governing platforms and waver in their policy lines for electoral interests, the Communist Party of China has always adhered to the fundamental stance of Marxism. Its theoretical innovation is a continuous line that advances with the times, both adhering to the basic principles of scientific socialism and enriching the theoretical connotation according to the development of the times. It is precisely because of the unswerving pursuit of truth that the Party, amidst the fog of revolution, construction, reform, and the new era, has been able to see the path clearly, stand firm in the wind and waves, always stand on the correct side of history, and firmly grasp the direction forward for national rejuvenation. As General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: "Why the Communist Party of China is capable, why socialism with Chinese characteristics is good — ultimately, it is because Marxism works, because the sinicized and modernized Marxism works."
Deeply rooting itself in the people, always possessing a solid foundation
The question of "for whom" is a fundamental question, a question of principle. It not only reveals the nature of a political party but also clearly marks its self-positioning. From its founding day, the Communist Party of China has inscribed the people on its banner and integrated them into its blood. Born for the people, thriving because of the people, always steadfastly standing with the people, thinking with the people, working with the people, and struggling for the interests of the people — this is the fundamental starting point and ultimate goal of building, developing, and strengthening the Party. Over the past 105 years, no matter how times have changed or how situations have shifted, the Communist Party of China has always kept in mind that the country is the people and the people are the country, always consciously practiced the fundamental purpose of serving the people wholeheartedly, constantly realized, safeguarded, and developed the fundamental interests of the broadest masses of the people, won the trust and support of the people, and possesses a solid foundation that no storm can shake.
"When united strength is exerted, nothing cannot be conquered; when collective wisdom is applied, nothing cannot be achieved." General Secretary Xi Jinping profoundly pointed out: "All governing activities of the Communist Party of China, all governance activities of the People's Republic of China, must respect the principal role of the people, respect the people's spirit of initiative, learn from the people, and deeply root the growth of political wisdom and the enhancement of governance capabilities in the creative practice of the people." From the Agrarian Revolutionary War's "arouse the millions of workers and peasants to work together," to the War of Resistance Against Japan's "four hundred million people stride with vigor, united in heart and mind, donning the uniform"; from the War of Liberation's "surge of small pushcarts and stretcher teams," to the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea's "the whole nation willing to exhaust its material and financial resources," letting the world know that "the Chinese people have now been organized and are not to be trifled with"; from unleashing the enthusiasm of the people as masters of the country and setting off a new upsurge in building socialism, to respecting the people's spirit of initiative and setting off a wave of rural and urban reforms. The Party has always held the people's interests high above its head, while always relying on the people to continuously gain strength and achieve victory. Since the new era, the people-centered development thought has further consolidated the principal role of the people. Adhering to the supremacy of the people has been written into the third historical resolution of the Party as an important historical experience. The principal position of the people has been fully and comprehensively manifested, not only consolidating the central role of the people as the main body of history, but also elevating the people's subjective consciousness, subjective ability, and subjective value to an unprecedented level in the great journey of the new era, becoming the deepest source of strength for advancing Chinese-style modernization. The cause of the Party and the state has achieved historic accomplishments and undergone historic transformations.
The people's stand is the fundamental political stand of the Communist Party of China, profoundly elucidating the fundamental question of what the Communist Party of China is and what it is to do. The Communist Party of China comes from the people, is rooted in the people, and serves the people. The Party's foundation is in the people, its blood is in the people, its strength is in the people. The people are the root of our Party's life, the foundation of its governance, and the source of its strength. They are not only a vast ocean of strength but also a vast ocean of wisdom, the decisive force for building a great modern socialist country in all respects. Compared to some Western political parties that are keen to use contacting the masses as an electoral strategy, the mass line that the Communist Party of China adheres to has always been concrete rather than abstract, substantial rather than formal. Standing among the broadest masses of the people, with its unwavering original aspiration and mission, the Communist Party of China has continuously elevated national development, national progress, and the people's happiness to new heights, winning the heartfelt support of hundreds of millions of Chinese people. On the road ahead, whether the winds and waves are high and fierce or the seas are raging, the people will always be our most solid support and our greatest source of confidence. Deeply rooted in the people, standing firmly with the people, the Communist Party of China will always possess a solid foundation.
Bravely undertaking historical missions, always mastering strategic initiative
Original aspiration inspires strength; mission guides direction. General Secretary Xi Jinping profoundly pointed out: "The original aspiration and mission of the Party are the concentrated embodiment of the Party's nature, purpose, ideals, beliefs, and goals, inspiring our Party to always adhere to them and urging our Party to move forward resolutely." Over the past 105 years, all the struggles, sacrifices, and creations made by our Party leading the Chinese people can be summed up in one theme: realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Our Party has firmly shouldered the heavy responsibility entrusted by history and the people, adhered to the unity of long-term goals and stage goals, adapted to changes in the principal social contradiction to establish central tasks, and formulated and implemented correct lines, principles, and policies, ensuring the firm grasp of the leadership and initiative in the cause.
Over the past 105 years, the Communist Party of China has always formulated and adjusted stage goals according to the needs of the situation and tasks, based on the actual circumstances of different historical periods. Through unremitting efforts, it has led the people to build a country that was "poor and blank" into an amazing "thriving China," achieving a historic leap from lagging behind the times, to keeping pace with the times, and then to leading the times. During the period of the New Democratic Revolution, the main task faced by the Party was to strive for national independence and the liberation of the people. The Party united and led the people to overthrow the three great mountains of imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucratic capitalism, established the People's Republic of China where the people are the masters of the country, enabling the long-suffering Chinese nation to stand up completely, and creating the fundamental social conditions for realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. During the period of socialist revolution and construction, the Party promoted the transition from New Democracy to socialism. Faced with the difficult start of a hundred things waiting to be done, the Party united and led the people to establish the basic socialist system, put forward a series of strategies from political, economic, military, and other aspects, proposed the general line for the transitional period, adjusted its foreign strategy according to the situation, proposed the strategy of dividing the world into three parts, led the people to complete the socialist revolution, continuously advanced socialist construction, built an independent and relatively complete industrial system and national economic system on a poor and blank foundation, providing valuable experience, theoretical preparation, and material foundation for pioneering socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new historical period, and laid the fundamental political prerequisite and institutional foundation for realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. In the new period of reform, opening up, and socialist modernization, the Party made the historic decision to shift the focus of the work of the Party and the state to economic construction and implement reform and opening up, concentrated on construction and development with one mind, and formulated a three-step development strategy to basically realize socialist modernization by the middle of the 21st century. China caught up with the times in great strides, achieving a historic breakthrough from a relatively backward state of productive forces to becoming the world's second largest economy, providing new institutional guarantees full of vitality and rapid development material conditions for realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. As socialism with Chinese characteristics entered a new era, the Party united and led the people to be confident and self-reliant, uphold fundamental principles and break new ground, completed the historical tasks of poverty alleviation and building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, achieved the first centenary goal, and smoothly embarked on the new journey to achieve the second centenary goal. GDP has reached 140 trillion yuan, major scientific and technological achievements have emerged in succession, many long-standing problems that were desired but unsolved have been resolved, and many major events that were desired but not accomplished have been accomplished, providing more complete institutional guarantees, more solid material foundations, and more proactive spiritual strength for realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
Having traversed the past of hardships and glory, walking in the present of rapid change, and moving toward a bright and grand future. On the journey of 105 years, unlike Western political parties constrained by the inherent limitations of electoral cycles and short-term governance, the Communist Party of China has always anchored its original aspiration and mission, with the consciousness and capability to discern changes, respond to changes, and seek changes, overcoming difficulties, fighting risks, meeting challenges, promptly optimizing and adjusting strategic policies, accurately grasping and handling the entry points and focal points of work, and firmly holding the destiny of China's development and progress in its own hands. In the new era and new journey, we must firmly grasp the historical mission of the Communist Party of China in the new era, comprehensively advance the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation through Chinese-style modernization, maintain strategic focus, strengthen the confidence of inevitable victory, combine the steadfastness of strategy with the flexibility of tactics, down-to-earth turn the established action program, strategic goals, and work blueprint into reality, and continuously advance the great cause of building a strong country and rejuvenating the nation.
Conforming to the trends of development, always walking at the forefront of the times
Only by examining the situation can one master the situation; only by following the trend can one strive to be ahead. Looking at ancient and modern times, at home and abroad, those pioneers who dare to stand on the tide and are good at planning according to the situation always open up new horizons at critical junctures of historical transformation; while those who are conservative and stick to old ways are inevitably left behind by the waves of the times. Whether a political party can maintain its leading position in the historical process fundamentally depends on whether it has the ability to grasp the general trend of the times and conform to the trends of development. Only a political party that recognizes its historical position and keeps pace with the times can truly master the historical initiative in its cause. For the Communist Party of China, this consciousness of marching with the times has long been sublimated into a fundamental attribute deeply embedded in its spiritual bloodline, becoming an excellent quality that enables the Party to traverse more than a hundred years of storms while maintaining youthful vitality.
From its founding day, the Communist Party of China has always stood on the correct side of history and on the side of human civilization progress, with a high degree of historical consciousness to perceive the general trends of world development, with a broad world vision to grasp the themes of the times, and in the profound observation of world conditions, national conditions, and Party conditions, lead the Chinese nation towards great rejuvenation. During the period of the New Democratic Revolution, our Party, starting from the fundamental interests of the Chinese nation, accurately perceived the new situation where the contradiction between Japanese imperialism and the Chinese nation had become the principal contradiction, established the broadest united front of the Chinese nation against Japan, and united and led the people to fight for national survival, for national rejuvenation, and for human justice. After the founding of New China, facing the reality of a hundred industries waiting to be developed and the severe blockade of the external environment, the Party deeply perceived the will of the people and the direction of history, completed the socialist transformation, established the basic socialist system, and realized the most extensive and profound social change in the history of the Chinese nation. In the new period of reform, opening up, and socialist modernization, facing the rapid development of the world economy and technology and the easing of relations between East and West, the Party, with profound world vision, perceived the profound evolution of the international landscape, and scientifically made the major judgment that peace and development had become the theme of the times. The Party, with extraordinary political courage, broke through ideological shackles, further emancipated and developed social productive forces, significantly improved people's lives, significantly enhanced comprehensive national strength, and significantly raised international status. Entering the new era, focusing on the strategic global picture of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and the unprecedented changes of the century unseen in a hundred years, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has conformed to the people's aspiration for a better life, coordinated both domestic and international situations, led high-quality development with the new development concept, promoted the building of a community with a shared future for mankind, and China's economic strength, scientific and technological strength, and comprehensive national power have leaped to new levels, successfully advancing and expanding Chinese-style modernization. This series of great transformations is both a conscious adherence to the laws of historical development and an active leadership of the general trend of the times.
Opportunity has always favored those who dare to stand on the tide of the times and who are innovative and enterprising; those who are detached from the times, conservative and rigid, are destined to be eliminated by the times. Currently, the historical trend of peace, development, cooperation, and win-win is unstoppable, but hegemonic acts such as the strong bullying the weak and zero-sum games are still deeply harmful. China's development is in a period where strategic opportunities and risk challenges coexist, and uncertain and unpredictable factors are increasing. The more complex the situation, the more it requires us to clearly grasp the dynamic evolution of China's national conditions and the themes of the times, and always master the historical initiative of the cause. Adhere to combining history with reality, theory with practice, and domestic with international. We must not only accurately judge the transformation of the principal social contradiction but also base ourselves on the reality of the primary stage of socialism, clearly recognize China's international status as the largest developing country. We must be good at strategically understanding, analyzing, and judging major historical issues, promptly adjust and optimize strategies, and also see our institutional advantages and governance efficiency, firmly hold onto strategic goals amidst changing circumstances, not fear any risks, and concentrate our efforts on consolidating and strengthening our own development foundation. Dare to break away from fixed thought patterns and path dependence, cultivate new opportunities amidst crises, open up new situations amidst changes, constantly update cognitive frameworks, and avoid solving new problems with old methods. Participate in global governance with a more open and inclusive mind, promote the implementation of the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, the Global Civilization Initiative, and the Global Governance Initiative, embrace the achievements of human civilization, and enrich ourselves through exchange and mutual learning. Provide constructive solutions to global issues with the responsibility of a major responsible country, injecting more positive energy into world peace and development while benefiting the Chinese people.
Daring and being adept at struggle, always maintaining the confidence of inevitable victory
Contradiction is the fundamental driving force of the development of things; where there is contradiction, there is struggle. Daring to struggle is the political gene inherent in our Party from its birth and the distinctive character forged through a hundred years of tempering. The revolutionary and critical nature of Marxism determines that Communists must change the world through practical action. The Communist Party of China was born in an era of internal and external trouble and national crisis. Throughout its journey, it has survived, developed, and won victory through struggle. History has repeatedly proven that all the achievements of the Party and the people did not fall from the sky but were obtained through continuous struggle. Without struggle, there would be no national independence and people's liberation; without struggle, there would be no reform, opening up, and socialism with Chinese characteristics; without struggle, there would be no historic achievements of the new era. As General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: "We are now at a time when the boat has reached the middle of the river and the waves are stronger, when the climber has reached the midpoint of the mountain and the path is steeper. It is a time when every forward step becomes harder and more dangerous, yet we must advance or regress; we have no choice but to advance." Only by daring and being adept at struggle can we not fear any risks or be confused by any interference, firmly grasping the historical initiative amidst raging storms.
The Communist Party of China has created history through struggle and will surely win the future through struggle. During the period of the New Democratic Revolution, facing the grim situation where the enemy was strong and we were weak, the Party, with the heroic spirit of "daring to make the sun and moon shine in new skies," led the people in bloody battles with indomitable courage. From the sparks of Jinggangshan to the snowy mountains and grasslands of the Long March, from the War of Resistance Against Japan to the War of Liberation, it overthrew the three great mountains and established the New China where the people are the masters of the country. During the period of socialist revolution and construction, facing the imperialist blockade and the situation of poverty and backwardness, the Party, with the strategic foresight of "one punch opens the way, avoiding a hundred punches," made the historic decision to resist U.S. aggression and aid Korea to protect the homeland and the country, successfully developed the "Two Bombs and One Satellite" under extremely difficult circumstances, and enhanced China's influence in the world. In the new period of reform, opening up, and socialist modernization, facing the numerous obstacles of ideological rigidity and institutional constraints, the Party, with the boldness of "cutting a bloody path," established special economic zones, promoted reform and opening up. From the "first blast of the mountain-opening" at Shekou to the "Shenzhen speed" of "one floor in three days," it wrote a glorious chapter in the history of the Chinese nation's development. Entering the new era, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, with a strong historical initiative, carried out a great struggle with many new historical characteristics, launched an unprecedented anti-corruption struggle, with the mission and responsibility of "offending thousands, not failing 1.4 billion," to eliminate diseases and chaos; faced with maximum pressure from individual countries, it maintained composure, dared to show its sword, firmly defended national dignity and core interests, and firmly grasped the initiative in development and security through tenacious struggle. In the great practice of revolution, construction, reform, and the new era, the forms of struggle have varied, but the spiritual character of daring and being adept at struggle has been carried forward, and the confidence of inevitable victory has become increasingly firm through major tests.
One skilled in warfare stands in an invincible position and does not miss the enemy's defeat. If one seeks security through struggle, security is preserved; if one seeks security through compromise, security is lost. If one seeks development through struggle, development thrives; if one seeks development through compromise, development decays. Only by daring and being adept at struggle can we open up new horizons for the cause. Our Communists' struggle has direction, stance, and principle. It has always been directed at contradictions, problems, risks, and challenges. The goal is to promote high-quality development and advance Chinese-style modernization. The great struggle on the road ahead has long-term, complex, and arduous characteristics. We must strengthen our awareness of potential dangers, adhere to bottom-line thinking, be vigilant in peace and prepare for danger, and make provisions to safeguard against risks. We must prepare to undergo major tests of high winds and rough seas, even raging storms. Responsibility and struggle are a spirit; the most needed are selfless character and fearless courage. We must enhance our ambition, backbone, and confidence, not believe in evil, not fear ghosts, not fear pressure, and dare to advance in the face of difficulties. The ability to struggle is not innate; one can only learn struggle through struggle, and grow and improve through struggle. We must undergo strict ideological tempering, political training, practical exercise, and professional training, experience wind and rain, see the world, and strengthen our bones in complex and severe struggles, continuously creating new great achievements.
Focusing on strengthening itself, always full of vitality and vigor
"One who conquers others is powerful; one who conquers oneself is strong." An advanced Marxist political party is not born but is forged through continuous self-reform. The reason why the Communist Party of China has always maintained exuberant vitality and vigor is that it always retains the spirit of self-reform and the courage to turn the blade inward, constantly purifying, surpassing, and renewing itself. The Communist Party of China clearly recognizes that to forge iron, one must be strong itself. It is good at examining itself in light of the requirements of the times, alerting itself with a strong sense of urgency, perfecting itself with the spirit of self-reform, attaches great importance to its own construction, resolutely eliminates all factors that damage the Party's advanced nature and purity, removes all viruses that erode the Party's healthy body, and becomes stronger and more powerful through revolutionary tempering.
Over the past 105 years, the Communist Party of China, with its extremely strong self-correction ability and self-repair ability, has comprehensively strengthened Party building and maintained the health of the Party's body. During the period of the New Democratic Revolution, the Party learned lessons from the mistakes of the failure of the Great Revolution and the fifth counter-encirclement campaign, leading the Chinese revolution onto the correct path. After the failure of the Great Revolution, the August 7th Meeting emphasized: "The revolutionary party of the working class must correct its own mistakes, only by openly criticizing these mistakes, and making all Party members participate in this criticism." The Party promptly corrected the right capitulationist errors within the Party, and the Chinese revolution thus began a historic transformation from the failure of the Great Revolution to the rise of the Agrarian Revolutionary War. The Zunyi Meeting pointed out: "The Party bravely exposed this mistake, educated itself from the mistake, and learned how to better lead the revolutionary war to complete victory. After the Party exposed this mistake, it was not weakened, but strengthened." The Party thoroughly struggled against erroneous "Left" dogmatism and adventurist ideas, and while correcting the erroneous military and organizational lines, it further established a revolutionary line suitable for China's actual conditions. The Party launched the Yan'an Rectification Movement mainly aimed at rectifying the style of study, the style of Party conduct, and the style of writing, criticized errors such as subjectivism, sectarianism, and stereotyped Party writing, greatly raised the whole Party's level of Marxist thought, and enhanced the unity and solidarity of the whole Party. During the period of socialist revolution and construction, based on the new tasks of Party building proposed by taking power nationwide, the Party carried out several Party rectification and consolidation movements, effectively improving Party members' ideological understanding, theoretical level, and political quality, strengthening the relationship between the Party and the masses and between cadres and the people, greatly improving the Party's style of work, purifying the political ecology within the Party, and effectively cleansing the Party's organizational body. In the new period of reform, opening up, and socialist modernization, the Party, with extraordinary political courage, made the major decision to thoroughly negate the "Cultural Revolution," re-adjusted the direction of national development, and brought the country back onto the track of modernization. Since the new era, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has adhered to the principle that to govern the country, the Party must first be governed strictly, and that strict governance must be according to law. It has incorporated comprehensive and strict Party governance into the "Four Comprehensives" strategic layout. From formulating and implementing the Central Eight-Point Regulation to continuously carrying out centralized Party education; from building the "four beams and eight pillars" of the Party and state supervision system to persistently rectifying conduct and enforcing discipline, promoting the anti-corruption struggle to achieve a crushing victory and consolidate it comprehensively. Our Party, with the tenacity and persistence of being forever on the road, has enforced strictness in thought, supervision, discipline, cadre management, conduct, and anti-corruption, turning the blade inward, severely punishing chaos, stopping unhealthy trends that had long persisted, correcting stubborn diseases that had persisted for years, fundamentally reversing the lax and soft situation in Party governance, opening up a new realm of self-reform for a century-old party, significantly enhancing the Party's creativity, cohesion, and combat effectiveness. The Party has become stronger through revolutionary tempering, exuding new and powerful vitality and vigor.
Engels said: "A party that knows its own purpose and knows how to achieve it, a party that truly wants to achieve this purpose and possesses the indomitable spirit indispensable for achieving it — such a party will be invincible." The strong spirit of self-reform and the powerful ability of self-reform are the distinctive markers distinguishing the Communist Party of China from other political parties in the world, and they are also important reasons for the long-term prosperity of the Communist Party of China. On the new journey, we must, with the sobriety and firmness of being forever on the road, persistently advance comprehensive and strict Party governance, persist in the strict tone, strict measures, and strict atmosphere for the long term, implement all aspects of comprehensive and strict Party governance with higher standards and more concrete measures, deeply advance the new great project of Party building in the new era, and continuously lead the governance of China with the governance of the Communist Party of China.
The test papers of the times are constantly new, and struggle never ceases. The incomparable excellent qualities of the Communist Party of China are internally connected and interlocked: the pursuit of truth is the ideological guide, rooting in the people is the foundation of strength, undertaking the mission is the main line of struggle, conforming to the trends is historical consciousness, daring to struggle is the spiritual backbone, and strengthening itself is the fundamental guarantee. These are the key codes to why the Communist Party of China is capable. On the new journey, we must deeply understand, consciously inherit, and carry forward these excellent qualities, continuously cast the soul with truth, take the people as the foundation, navigate with the mission, orient with the trend, temper through struggle, strengthen through self-reform, constantly enhance the Party's political leadership, ideological guiding power, mass organizational power, and social appeal, unite and lead all Chinese people to strive vigorously and advance bravely, comprehensively advance the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation through Chinese-style modernization, and write an even better future for the Chinese nation.
Return to TopThe mismatch between human resources supply and demand is the main contradiction currently facing our country's employment field. To resolve this contradiction, it is necessary to vigorously develop vocational education, improve the lifelong vocational skills training system, and enhance the foresight, targeting, and effectiveness of human resources development. The "15th Five-Year Plan" (十五五) outline clearly states that it is necessary to perfect the human resources supply-demand matching mechanism, improve the lifelong vocational skills training system; strengthen investment in human resources development and comprehensive human development, implement a number of livelihood projects in areas such as the expansion of regular high schools and quality higher education, vocational skills training, etc., and increase the proportion of government investment in livelihood categories. Focusing on the role of vocational education in promoting the matching of human resources supply and demand, the Study Times High-end Think Tank Edition (学习时报高端智库版) has launched an in-depth discussion.
Return to TopBy: 柳学智
Population is a foundational, overarching, and long-term strategic resource for economic and social development. Advancing Chinese-style modernization cannot do without the strong support of high-quality population development. At present, China is transitioning from a demographic dividend based on quantity to a talent dividend based on quality. This profound transformation places entirely new demands on human resource development. While aggregate employment pressure still exists in China, the more prominent issue is the structural contradiction of "having jobs but no one to do them" coexisting with "having people but no jobs for them to do" — namely, a chronic shortage of skilled talent, especially highly skilled talent, while university graduates in certain majors face employment difficulties. This profoundly reflects the misalignment and lag in the responsiveness of the human resource supply system to changes in market demand. Vocational education is the fundamental channel for converting population resources into human capital. To fundamentally resolve the supply-demand mismatch problem, it is necessary to scientifically assess and judge the development trends of human resources, systematically restructure the objective positioning, structural hierarchy, and training models of vocational education, and continuously develop and improve the modern vocational education system.
Scientifically assess and judge the development trends and characteristics of human resources. Constructing a modern vocational education system cannot remain at the level of experience and intuition; rather, it must be based on big data and cross-departmental coordination, portraying a panoramic picture of human resource development from multiple dimensions such as industry, space, and population. This is the epistemological prerequisite for supply-side reform in education.
From the industry dimension, skill demands are becoming diversified, digitized, and green-oriented. With the accelerated evolution of a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, strategic emerging industries, advanced manufacturing, modern services, and traditional industries are continuously placing new requirements on the knowledge structure and skill composition of the labor force, with the characteristics of diversification, digitization, and greening becoming increasingly prominent. In terms of diversification, areas such as R&D and design, process optimization, precision manufacturing, and technical services require a large number of on-site engineers and high-level skilled talents who understand both theory and are proficient in practice. The boundaries of traditional job positions are becoming increasingly blurred, and single-skilled operational positions are gradually being replaced by automation and intelligent equipment. Emerging fields such as the Industrial Internet, intelligent connected vehicles, and biomedicine require practitioners to possess composite competencies including digital literacy, professional expertise, and cross-disciplinary collaboration skills, enabling them to understand data flows, operate digital twin systems, and collaborate efficiently with upstream and downstream links. In terms of digitization, the explosive application of generative AI is triggering a dual effect of job displacement and creation. Positions involving simple repetitive document processing, basic programming, customer service, etc., face the risk of replacement, while demand for skills such as human-machine collaboration, AI training, and data analysis is rising rapidly. In terms of greening, the carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals have given rise to entirely new occupational groups such as carbon traders, carbon emission administrators, and new energy equipment operation and maintenance specialists. Employees in traditional high-carbon industries need to receive systematic green skills retraining. Faced with this profound change occurring on the demand side of human resources, if the hierarchical structure and skill structure on the supply side fail to iterate synchronously, the structural gap will continue to widen, and a large number of workers will be marginalized.
From the spatial dimension, regional differentiated development urgently requires precise responses from talent. Currently, the characteristic of unbalanced regional development in China is relatively prominent. City clusters and metropolitan areas are the main carriers of advanced manufacturing and high-end services, exerting a strong siphon effect on innovative and technical talent; meanwhile, vast county areas and grassroots rural areas urgently need a large number of practical skilled talents who can stay and be put to use, including agricultural product deep-processing technicians, rural tourism planners, rural e-commerce operators, new-type professional farmers, and returning entrepreneurial leaders. At the same time, some central and western regions and resource-exhausted cities are facing pressure from industrial transformation, with a large number of traditional industrial workers needing job transfers and reemployment, and the demand for retraining is extremely urgent. If vocational education adopts a "one-size-fits-all" training standard and professional layout, it will inevitably fail to solve the intensifying spatial mismatch between talent supply and local demand, forming a vicious cycle of "excessive talent competition in big cities, while talent cannot be attracted or retained in county areas and villages." Therefore, to assess and judge human resource development trends, the focus must be moved down to the regional level. Based on the local economic map and industrial development, a precise portrait of localized and characteristic talent demands must be drawn, leveraging the supportive role of vocational education in regional human resource development and economic and social development.
From the population dimension, the reduction in the total labor force and the aging of the age structure are changing the long-term supply curve. The total working-age population aged 16–59 in China peaked at 930 million in 2012 and then entered a phase of reduction, standing at 850 million in 2025. Although China's labor resources remain among the largest in the world, the extensive supply model relying on scale expansion is no longer sustainable. At the same time, China has entered a moderately aging society, with population aging accelerating. By the end of 2025, the population aged 60 and above reached 323.38 million, accounting for 23.0% of the national population. The implementation of the policy of progressively delaying the statutory retirement age means that a large number of existing workers need to extend their careers and continuously update their skills to adapt to changing job requirements. In the long run, the trend of low birth rates will reduce the supply of new labor, and the scale of the existing labor force will continue to decline. Against this backdrop, shifting from a demographic dividend to a talent dividend becomes an inevitable choice. It is necessary to shift from competing on quantity to competing on quality, compensating for the quantity shortfall by enhancing the skill level and comprehensive quality of each worker. Vocational education must not only focus on the cultivation of current students but also undertake the mission of skills development covering all members of society and spanning the entire life cycle, offsetting quantitative changes with quality, substituting quality for scale reduction, and promoting the strategic balance between the supply and demand of human resources.
To scientifically assess the multi-dimensional trend characteristics of human resource development, relying solely on fragmented information from a single department is insufficient. There is an urgent need to establish cross-departmental coordination mechanisms and intelligent forecasting and early-warning platforms. An information-sharing mechanism involving development and reform, human resources and social security, industry and information technology, education, and other departments should be established. Multi-source big data, including enterprise employment, social insurance contributions, recruitment platforms, and patent output, should be aggregated. A nationwide human resource demand forecasting and early-warning platform covering all industries, sectors, and occupations should be built to promptly release catalogs of scarce talent by region, industry, and position; to prospectively depict the dynamic impact of technological change on occupational positions; and to issue guiding signals for the scale, structure, and level of talent cultivation. At the same time, a regular assessment mechanism for the impact of technological change on job skill requirements needs to be established, closely tracking the impact of disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence, industrial robots, and biotechnology on the employment structure, and promptly transmitting adjustment signals to the vocational education system.
Improve the vocational education system to match the needs of economic and social development. Based on the scientific assessment and judgment of future human resource development trends, the reshaping of the vocational education system must precisely anchor the scale, structure, quality, and pace of talent supply to market demand.
Dynamically adjust program offerings based on market demand, improving the structural matching of human resource supply. An important reason for the supply-demand mismatch in human resources lies in the significant misalignment and time lag between the program offerings of educational institutions and market demand. The phenomenon of "industries have already transformed, but programs are still enrolling students" is not an isolated case. Regarding this, it is necessary to establish a dynamic program adjustment mechanism that combines rigid constraints with flexible responses. Improve the program early-warning system with core indicators such as employment rate, industrial matching degree, and regional scarcity. Programs with persistently low employment rates, low employment quality, and low employment stability over consecutive years should be resolutely reduced or discontinued, concentrating enrollment plans and fiscal resources on areas urgently needed for national strategy and livelihood shortage areas. Adopt a collaborative model of "three plans in one" integrating industrial planning, talent planning, and education planning. Local development and reform departments, human resources and social security departments, and education administrative departments should jointly formulate guiding opinions on the professional layout of vocational colleges, closely interlocking the program structure with the regional industrial chain and innovation chain, ensuring that wherever industry develops, talent reserves follow. At the teaching level, the latest standards, advanced technologies, and mainstream processes of industry enterprises should be promptly transformed into course content, and typical work tasks and job competency models should be embedded into professional teaching standards. Effectively change the predicament of "using yesterday's knowledge to teach today's students to cope with tomorrow's demands," vigorously promote the development and iteration of loose-leaf and work-manual-style teaching materials, and invite leading industry talents and front-line technical experts to deeply participate in the formulation and evaluation of talent training programs, ensuring that the talent supply structure matches changes in industrial demand in real-time, optimizing the human resource structure through the optimization of the program structure.
Promote the deepening and solidification of industry-education integration, improving the quality matching of human resource supply. Human resource supply and demand should be actively matched during the cultivation process, rather than passively matched through a lengthy磨合 (running-in) period after graduation. This requires both industry and education sides to truly become a community of shared interests and destiny, engaging in deep embedding. Currently, industry-education integration in some places remains at the superficial stage of enterprises providing internship positions and schools supplying cheap labor, without touching the institutional arrangements for the entire process of talent cultivation. It is necessary to use legislation and policy innovation to transform enterprises from bystanders of education into deep participants and even co-running entities. Comprehensively implement and improve the apprenticeship system with Chinese characteristics, explore a cultivation model where enterprises provide positions, schools provide training plans, and both sides jointly invest and evaluate, enabling reserve skilled talents to receive systematic training as quasi-employees in a real production environment, forming professional competence and practical abilities that seamlessly meet enterprise needs. At the same time, vigorously build open regional industry-education integration practice centers integrating practical teaching, real production, social training, and technical services. Encourage enterprises to participate in running mixed-ownership industrial colleges with capital, technology, management, and other factors. Create embedded models such as "school-within-factory" and "factory-within-school," integrating the teaching process and production process within the real enterprise environment. Furthermore, the key to the quality of human resource supply lies in teachers. Reform the teacher admission and appointment evaluation system for vocational colleges, establish "dual-qualification" teacher certification standards and enterprise practice systems, open the "revolving door" for two-way flow between school and enterprise personnel, deeply introduce more enterprise technical backbones, model workers, and master craftsmen into the full-time and part-time teacher team, allowing those who best understand the technology frontier and demand frontier to cultivate future talents who can meet the demand.
Improve the lifelong vocational skills development system, enhancing the resilience of human resource supply. Currently, the pace of technological iteration is accelerating, and the "half-life" of vocational skills is significantly shortening. This means that the matching of human resource supply and demand is no longer a static concept of "one-time education, lifelong use," but a continuous dynamic adjustment and continuous re-matching lifelong process. Therefore, the modern vocational education system must transcend the walls of academic degree education, coordinate pre-service education with on-the-job training, and build a lifelong vocational skills development system covering all workers in urban and rural areas, throughout the entire process of learning and career. Relying on diversified entities such as vocational colleges, open universities, enterprise training centers, and social training institutions, extensively carry out job-transfer and upgrading skills training for groups including workers transferring to new positions, rural migrant workers, demobilized military personnel, older workers, and practitioners in new forms of employment. Special attention should be paid to reemployment skills training for workers in positions highly susceptible to replacement by artificial intelligence. Accelerate the exploration and establishment of a "credit bank" system, implement the National Credit Bank for Vocational Education and its information platform, achieve the recognition, accumulation, and conversion of learning outcomes from academic education and non-academic training, formal learning and informal learning, opening up a lifelong advancement cycle of learning, skill certification, employment, and re-learning. At the same time, vigorously promote a culture of lifelong learning, popularize personal learning accounts and electronic learning portfolios, enabling every worker to obtain personalized skill advancement pathway planning. Through a comprehensive lifelong vocational skills development system, potential local labor surpluses can be quickly channeled into a living source matching new demands, endowing the entire society's human resources with strong resilience to adapt to the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation.
Create a human resource development ecosystem for long-term matching of supply and demand. To leverage the human resource supply-demand matching function of the modern vocational education system, reliance cannot be placed solely on the self-initiated adjustments of the school side. Only by forming a solid institutional environment and a favorable development ecosystem can stable and sustained effectiveness be released. If the construction of the system answers "how to systematically restructure the supply side," then ecosystem creation answers "what kind of institutional environment is needed to ensure the sustained operation of this restructuring." The former is the action plan, the latter is the institutional guarantee, and together they constitute a complete closed loop from short-term adjustment to long-term operation.
Improve the competency-based national qualifications framework. Breaking down the long-standing talent evaluation and social sorting mechanism based solely on "educational background" and "diploma" is a fundamental institutional arrangement for guiding the rational flow of human resources. The national qualifications framework serves as a standard for measuring, communicating, and connecting the levels of various types of educational qualifications and vocational qualifications, and plays an important role in comprehensively promoting the construction of a learning society and a learning nation. It is necessary to accelerate the introduction of a national qualifications framework, establish a system for the recognition, accumulation, and conversion of learning outcomes centered on educational qualifications and vocational qualifications, and clarify the horizontal correspondence and vertical articulation relationships among various types of academic certificates, vocational qualification certificates, skill level certificates, and training certificates. Currently, places like Guangzhou have initiated regional pilot work on the national qualifications framework, promoting mutual recognition of evaluation standards and integration of development pathways between highly skilled talents and professional technical talents. Nationwide promotion should be accelerated based on the pilot work, so that the vocational skills of every worker can be traced, accumulated, and recognized by the whole society. When skilled talents flow between different employers, different regions, and even different industries, it is fundamentally necessary to clear the channels for realizing the value of skilled talents in the labor market, so that their skill value is fairly identified and recognized. This can also guide more young people and workers to invest in improving their own skills according to market demand.
Improve the cost-sharing and incentive-constraint mechanism. The high-quality development of vocational education requires stable and diversified funding, and more importantly, it requires establishing a benefit feedback mechanism for deep enterprise participation. The investment responsibility of governments at all levels should be strengthened, the decision and deployment to tilt new education funding toward vocational education should be implemented, the proportion of local education surcharges used for vocational education should be ensured, and the per-student funding level should be gradually increased. On this basis, a combination of policy tools such as tax incentives, financial support, land allocation, and credit evaluation should be comprehensively utilized, so that enterprises deeply involved in industry-education integration and school-enterprise cooperation can obtain institutionalized value compensation and market reputation after bearing the real cost of cultivation. Expand the scope of certification for industry-education integration enterprises, provide combined incentives in finance, fiscal policy, land, credit, etc., for enterprises included in the catalog, so that the demand side of the industry has intrinsic motivation to actively integrate into the supply side of education, forming a long-term mechanism for sharing talent cultivation costs and benefits.
Improve the market system for equal employment and skill premium. The direction of human resource allocation is ultimately regulated by price signals, namely, salary and development expectations. Only by effectively improving the economic income, security conditions, and social status of skilled talents can "learning skills and having skills" become a signal of high-quality human capital investment recognized by the whole society. It is necessary to resolutely break down various hidden barriers and implement equal protection for skilled talents in areas such as wages and salaries, professional title evaluation, urban settlement, commendation and awards, and recruitment by public institutions. Improve the guidance system for salary distribution for skilled talents, promote enterprises to establish a distribution system that reflects the value of skill factors, and implement a method linking job salary with both job value and skill level. Adhere to the principle that those who work more and have higher skills should earn more, making the skill premium perceptible and predictable for workers, strongly pulling from the market demand side to improve the quality and structure of vocational education supply.
High-quality population development is an important support for Chinese-style modernization. Building a modern vocational education system to promote the matching of human resource supply and demand, transforming China's abundant scale advantage in human resources into a majestic driving force for the development of new quality productive forces, and enabling hundreds of millions of workers to realize their life value and achieve comprehensive development through precise matching of supply and demand, is not only a mission of the times entrusted to education but also a strategic pathway for Chinese-style modernization. When every worker can see hope in skill improvement and find dignity in career development, the vitality of human resources will surge fully throughout society, injecting the deepest and most sustainable talent momentum into Chinese-style modernization.
(The author is a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Personnel Sciences.)
By: 李红恩
Employment is the greatest livelihood, and it is even more the cornerstone that underpins high-quality economic development. The precise matching of human resources supply and demand is the key lever for smoothing the circulation of the national economy, consolidating the modern industrial system, and achieving high-quality full employment. At present, China's job market is generally stable, but the contradiction of structural supply-demand mismatch is prominent, with "difficulty in recruiting" (zhāogōng nán) and "difficulty in finding employment" (jiùyè nán) coexisting in both directions. The labor shortage of "having work but no one to do it" and the idle human resources of "having people but no work for them to do" form a stark contrast.
The disconnect between talent supply and industrial demand is the core root cause of the structural employment contradiction. The mismatch of employment supply and demand is not an imbalance in the total labor force, but a concentrated manifestation of the mismatch between industrial iteration and the talent cultivation system. Market self-regulation can only alleviate short-term, partial labor fluctuations, and cannot cure long-term structural contradictions. In recent years, vocational education reform has been pushed forward in depth, and has already achieved certain results in alleviating the structural contradiction between "difficulty in recruiting" and "difficulty in finding employment." In particular, the implementation of the newly revised Vocational Education Law and the steady expansion of vocational undergraduate education have opened up growth channels for skilled talent, reversing the entrenched prejudice that "vocational education is inferior." Relying on the construction of municipal industry-education consortia and industry-education integration communities, various localities have effectively filled the labor gaps in shortage industries such as intelligent manufacturing and new energy.
However, facing the accelerated evolution of industrial transformation and upgrading, there are still obvious shortcomings in the vocational education talent cultivation system. Some institutions have problems such as convergence in school-running positioning, lagging updates in specialty offerings, and slow iteration of course content. Talent cultivation focuses on standardized theoretical teaching, and there is still a certain disconnect from actual industrial needs.
Faced with this reality, top-level design needs to continue to provide empowerment, offering fundamental guidance for vocational education to alleviate employment difficulties. For vocational education to improve quality and increase efficiency, the most important thing is to continue promoting the transformation of vocational education from scale expansion to connotation-based quality improvement. The outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan proposes optimizing the layout of vocational education to coordinate with regional development and align with industrial distribution, and promoting the close alignment of specialty offerings with the needs of industrial chains and innovation chains. The Education Strengthening Nation Construction Plan Outline (2024–2035) further emphasizes building strong municipal industry-education consortia and industry-education integration communities, and optimizing the layout of vocational education to coordinate with regional development and align with industrial distribution. This has laid a solid policy foundation for achieving precise alignment between talent and industry and resolving structural employment contradictions through supply-side reform of vocational education.
For policies to be implemented, the key lies in the path of execution. Deepening comprehensive industry-education integration is the core lever for solving the problem of "having work but no one to do it." The core reason for "having work but no one to do it" is that the vocational education talent supply system has failed to synchronously adapt to the dynamic development needs of industry, and there is a deviation between talent cultivation standards and the skill requirements of enterprise positions. Based on the rigid demands of industry, it is necessary to establish a dynamic adjustment mechanism for vocational education specialties, closely following the development trends of emerging industries and future industries, proactively transforming traditional specialties, eliminating lagging specialties, and adding urgently needed specialties, so that specialty layouts are aligned with industrial chains and curriculum standards are matched with job skills. At the same time, we must improve the long-term mechanism for school-enterprise collaborative talent cultivation, promoting the deep participation of leading enterprises and industrial parks in the entire process of talent cultivation plan formulation, curriculum development, practical training, and assessment and evaluation. Through the co-construction of industrial colleges, training platforms, and specialized teaching materials, and by implementing models such as order-based training and modern apprenticeship systems, we should strengthen the cultivation of students' practical abilities, and make up for the supply shortfall of skilled talent at its source.
The key measure for solving "having people but no work for them to do" is to improve the lifelong training system. The essence of "having people but no work for them to do" stems from the continuous acceleration of industrial transformation and upgrading. The existing skill reserves of the stock of workers cannot keep up with the pace of job iteration, thus forming a mismatch between people and positions. The continuous iteration and upgrading of industry compels workers to regularly update their knowledge and skill reserves. To revitalize the stock of human resources, it is necessary to coordinate the construction of a lifelong vocational skills training system covering all workers, precisely targeting the employment needs of groups such as college graduates, veterans, migrant workers, and transferred workers, and implementing tiered and categorized vocational skills training. At the same time, it is necessary to closely follow the trends of industrial digitalization, intelligence, and green transformation, systematically integrating new production processes and post practice standards into teaching, helping unemployed and transferred workers make up for their skill shortcomings, and achieving precise matching between people and positions.
The fundamental solution for resolving the structural employment contradiction is to reshape the vocational education development ecosystem. The structural imbalance in the labor market is a complex syndrome resulting from multiple overlapping factors, including deviations in social perception, blockages in institutional systems, and lagging governance in school operation. Based on the overall situation of the 15th Five-Year Plan development, improving the quality and efficiency of vocational education requires adhering to systematic thinking and promoting the work in an integrated manner. Guided by the spirit of model workers, the spirit of labor, and the spirit of craftsmanship, it is necessary to create a strong social atmosphere of "skills are valuable, creation is great" across the whole society, reverse the ingrained thinking of "valuing academic qualifications, belittling skills," and consolidate the ideological foundation of achieving success and serving the country through skills. We must smooth the channels for skilled talent growth and development, unblock bottlenecks in key links such as salary and benefits, job promotion, and professional title evaluation, and continuously enhance the social recognition and career attractiveness of skilled positions, so that the vast number of skilled talents have status, prospects, and hope. We must continuously optimize the governance system for vocational education, guiding vocational colleges to precisely align with the development needs of regional leading and characteristic industries, and deeply pursue a path of connotation-based, distinctive, and differentiated development.
When employment is stable, people's livelihoods are stable; when talent thrives, industries thrive. The structural employment contradiction is a long-term, regular problem in the process of industrial transformation and upgrading. To resolve the two-way dilemma of "having work but no one to do it" and "having people but no work for them to do," we must continue to promote the high-quality development of vocational education. In the new development stage, we must firmly adhere to the type positioning of vocational education, use industry-education integration to break down the barriers between talent supply and industrial demand, use lifelong vocational skills training to revitalize the stock of human resources, and use the optimization of the vocational education development ecosystem to expand the skilled talent team, building a complete closed loop of talent cultivation, skills improvement, employment and entrepreneurship, and industrial development, providing sustained talent support for high-quality economic and social development.
(The author is a member of the Center for Educational Equity Research at the China National Academy of Educational Sciences)
By: 陈海锋
Modern warfare is system-of-systems confrontation; what it fights is jointness, what it relies on is command. Standardization is the key and the “invisible weapon” for seizing the forefront of high technology and winning the initiative in competition, and command standardization is the “cornerstone” of joint operations. As cutting-edge technologies such as quantum information and the Internet of Things accelerate breakthroughs and are applied to the military domain, joint operations have entered an era of “instant kill,” and the operational tempo has moved from “phased” to “second-level.” Especially with artificial intelligence deeply and comprehensively integrated into the operational chain, continuously driving the iterative updating of operational concepts and steadily accelerating the evolution of warfare forms, operational command under the background of large models has entered a state of “countdown.” Therefore, strengthening the standardization of joint operations command, organically integrating various participating forces, achieving multi-dimensional deep integration of the operational system, and forming and exerting powerful systemic combat effectiveness are of great significance for improving the capability of integrated joint operations under intelligent conditions.
First, accelerate the standardization of command terminology and upgrade the military discourse system. For operations, military terminology is both the “standardized language” of operational command and a kind of “operational weapon” with distinctive combat effectiveness. As command documents that assign tasks to units, a single word, a gesture, or a flag signal on the battlefield can potentially decide the outcome of a battle and affect the overall war situation. As Liu Bocheng said, “Without the unification of military terminology, it is impossible to accurately exchange ideas, which will inevitably affect future military actions and operational command.” “In military affairs, a one-character difference can kill many comrades, and even affect the success or failure of a battle.” If the joint operations command terminology has multiple “sources,” many “dialects,” and mixed “versions,” and if the formulation of command messages, issuance of command orders, and transmission of command codes lack “templates” and “examples,” then problems of “form without substance” and “proliferation of garbled code” will inevitably arise, resulting in information errors, comprehension obstacles, and information blockages in the execution of operational orders. As the form of warfare evolves toward intelligence and omnidomain operation, the requirements for precision and proceduralization of operational actions become more prominent, imposing higher demands on the standardization of command terminology. Only by making efforts to build a military discourse system that is both authoritative and penetrating, standardized and precise, by condensing, simplifying, and unifying military symbols, intelligence analysis, battle situation reports, operational orders, etc., so that the entire operational system “speaks the same language” and promoting the organic, efficient, and top-down connected “linkage” of the “command brain” of joint operations, can we ensure that orders are unimpeded, information flows quickly, and feedback is timely.
Second, accelerate the standardization of command-and-control links to urge efficient integration of elements. Zhuge Liang’s book Essentials of Military Affairs (兵要) holds: “An army with discipline, even if its general is incompetent, cannot be defeated; an army without discipline, even if its general is capable, cannot be victorious.” If command and control lacks standard “regulations” and “constraints,” it will be like building a tower on sand—it collapses as soon as a strong wind blows and scatters as soon as a flood washes over it. Combat forces, units, or elements dispersed across various operational domains will not only find it difficult to gather hearts and achieve common purpose, pool strength and form momentum, or assemble wisdom and produce results, but may also create “command silos” that hinder each other, act independently, or even confront one another. In a Russian military operation to suppress the Chechen rebellion, when a reconnaissance unit approached an enemy target and requested fire support, the artillery battalion staff officer refused to fire on the grounds that “the battalion commander is sleeping and has not received the division commander’s order,” ultimately leading to operational failure. Command standardization is the prerequisite for crossing service coordination and joint operations of all services and arms. Once the command-and-control link suffers strong interference or breaks, it will inevitably cause chaos and disorder in the command flow, leading to a passive situation. The more informational and intelligent joint operations become, the more standardized and rule-based operational command must be. Command and control standardization means building a unified “nervous system” and a standardized “common language” for integrated joint operations. Under the background of digital-intelligent technology application, in accordance with the requirement of multi-domain integration and system integration, we must firmly grasp the network information system as the starting point, strive to build a joint operations command and control system with a unified standard architecture, rigorous organizational structure, and tightly interlinked responsibilities and authorities, unify information transmission and distribution standards, form an “end-to-end” command and control link that “connects all services through one network, with every person as a node,” improve the interoperability and interoperation capability of operational unit modules, and empower combat effectiveness through command standards.
Third, accelerate the standardization of command data to cultivate and shape the digital battlefield ecosystem. If joint operations are the “body” and the command link is the “nerve,” then command data is the “blood.” In the process of joint operations command, the command and control system relies on distributed computer workstations and databases at all levels to support parallel decision-making and dynamic scheduling of multi-level command organizations. Each combat force ingests, stores, screens, studies, judges, manages, and utilizes command data according to its own models and systems. If there is a lack of a standardized system for command data, the digital battlefield ecosystem will degenerate into a loose collection of “information islands” and “data silos.” To achieve seamless system interaction, information connectivity, and efficient compatibility, it is necessary to carry out standardized transformation and integration of command data, so as to eliminate difficulties such as poor data flow, poor interoperability, and shallow integration caused by institutional differences, system “fragmentation,” and inconsistent standards among combat forces. Standardization is the key means to break down “domain walls” and “data barriers.” Data is the “blood” of the intelligent operational system. The essence of intelligent warfare is the systemic confrontation of computing power, algorithms, and data. Therefore, we must actively build a unified standard system covering command data frameworks, structures, storage, and display, standardize data formats, standards, and interfaces, transform scattered and heterogeneous command data of various categories and domains into a highly integrated, dynamically flowing organic system, and effectively improve the consistency, comparability, and analytical accuracy of command data. At the same time, explore the establishment of a chief digital intelligence management officer (首席数智管理官) and a data management officer (数据管理官), actively defend against the threat of command data tampering, and achieve efficient coupling of computing power, algorithms, and data, thereby providing strong support for commanders’ decision-making.
Fourth, accelerate the standardization of command means to enhance digital-intelligence empowerment and driving force. Judging from the local wars and military conflicts that have occurred in recent years, the degree of informatization and intelligentization of command means is getting higher and higher. Without a powerful network information system and advanced command means, it is impossible to win a war, or even to fight a war. One of the functions of standardizing command means runs through the entire process of the joint operations command system’s operation; one of its purposes is to achieve the best order within a certain range, realize seamless coordination, joint integration, and synchronous energy release among combat forces. Through standardization construction to empower and increase efficiency, upgrade generative AI and large model technology from “assistive tools” to “intelligent decision-making partners,” achieving informatization and intelligentization of command means. Not long ago, the U.S. Department of Defense launched the “Agent Network” (智能体网络) project, as the second “Rhythm-Leading Project” under the Artificial Intelligence Acceleration Strategy, aiming to use AI agents to enhance battlefield management, assist decision-making, and target indication capabilities. As the form of warfare evolves and technology develops, the standardization of joint operations command means is not simply about “unifying types” or “integrating.” Its core value lies in penetrating the command chain through technological empowerment, shifting from merely enriching and substantiating pure command means to decision support empowered by artificial intelligence, thereby optimizing command processes, shortening the operational chain, reducing operational blockages, efficiency losses, and function attenuation caused by individual differences, making operational command more precise, standardized, sensitive, and efficient, thereby achieving precise control over operational actions, truly converting information power into combat effectiveness, and firmly grasping the battlefield initiative.
Fifth, accelerate the standardization of command training to agilely adapt to operational requirements. Standards are not rigid rules, nor are they immutable; rather, they are tools that dynamically adapt to military needs, undergoing revision and improvement as technology develops and demands change, maintaining rapid response and agile adaptation to military needs such as combat tasks, urgent frontline use, and battlefield necessities. Especially as new-quality combat effectiveness develops rapidly and technology iteration cycles are short, if standards remain unchanged for a long time, they will inevitably become disconnected from actual needs. Imagine, if in command training, operational scenario descriptions are varied, teaching case “blueprints” are uneven in quality, and the revision and update of standard specifications lag behind, how can one keep pace with the war and win the initiative on the battlefield? Therefore, the standardization of command training must keep a close eye on the “next war,” ensuring that whatever command capabilities tomorrow’s war requires are what we intensively train and temper today. Construct a support mechanism for command training standardization that maintains dynamically updated versions and agilely adapts to requirements, organizing regular evaluation, dynamic revision, timely release, and rapid tempering, so as to enhance the compatibility, practicality, and rapid adaptability of command training standards. At the same time, actively introduce technologies such as big data and cloud computing, develop auxiliary tools for dynamic standard updates, improve the scientificity, advanced nature, and conversion rate of command training standards, and avoid lag in training standards due to insufficient technical capability. Promote the dynamic update of standards to always resonate with operational requirements at the same frequency, crossing barriers of different physical spaces; promote multi-domain resource collaborative co-construction, achieving plug-and-play, agile adaptation, and hinge coupling of operational unit modules; promote the “integrated without rigidity, separated without dispersion” of all-domain multi-dimensional participating forces, ensuring smooth, stable, and efficient operation, thereby agilely gathering and releasing systemic combat effectiveness and achieving optimal command effectiveness.
Return to TopBy: 杨保生
Nighttime takeoff and landing is a core indicator for measuring the all-domain operational capability of aviation troops, and also an important capability foundation for executing all-weather combat missions. In the nighttime environment, the lack of natural visual reference and the increased difficulty of spatial situational awareness cause the pilot's physiological load and operational pressure to increase simultaneously. Relying solely on the pilot's flying skills makes it difficult to achieve full-process risk management and control. A mature and complete nighttime takeoff and landing safety guarantee is a systematic project covering visual guidance, precision navigation, environmental monitoring, and emergency backup. It is not only the basic support for holding the bottom line of flight safety, but also an important guarantee for expanding the operational boundaries of aviation troops and enhancing sustained sortie capability.
The core technical system of nighttime takeoff and landing support. Nighttime takeoff and landing support revolves around three core links: spatial positioning, trajectory guidance, and boundary control, forming three mature technical means: visual navigation aid, instrument guidance, and environmental monitoring. From the two dimensions of visual intuition and data quantification, it constructs a full-process landing safety baseline.
The visual navigation aid system is the most basic visual guarantee foundation for nighttime takeoff and landing. Its core function is to construct a clear spatial reference of the runway for pilots. The entire system is deployed in layers along the approach route and the entire runway area: the approach lighting array extends from the runway centerline extension line toward the approach direction. Through hierarchically arranged light bars and sequentially flashing light groups, it provides pilots with distance judgment and altitude reference, assisting in establishing a standard approach attitude; the runway identification lighting system includes edge lights, centerline lights, threshold lights, end lights, etc., clearly delineating the runway boundary with differentiated colors and brightness, distinguishing the pavement, shoulder, and stopway, thereby avoiding risks of veering off or overrunning caused by visual misjudgment at night; the visual approach slope indicator system, composed of multiple sets of colored lights at a fixed elevation angle, constitutes a glide slope reference. Pilots can quickly judge approach angle deviation through real-time changes in light color and promptly correct flight attitude. It is a key visual means for preventing and controlling abnormal approach trajectories.
The precision instrument guidance system is the core guidance means for breaking through visibility limitations. Relying on radio beacons, it constructs a three-dimensional intangible approach path and can provide continuous and precise guidance under conditions of complete loss of visual reference. Among them, the instrument landing system is composed of the localizer, glide slope, and marker beacons working in coordination: the localizer transmits a very high frequency beam to mark the horizontal extension plane of the runway centerline; the glide slope transmits an ultra high frequency beam to provide a standard glide slope plane; and the marker beacons trigger position prompts at key distance points, helping pilots precisely control the approach phase. Coordinated with surface surveillance radar and airborne navigation equipment, the control department can achieve continuous tracking and positioning of aircraft from the route to the runway, maintain standardized takeoff and landing order under low visibility conditions, and effectively compress the error margin of manual operations.
The airfield support and environmental monitoring system is responsible for delineating the safety boundaries of takeoff and landing operations, providing quantitative basis for takeoff and landing decisions. The automatic meteorological observation system can collect parameters such as wind speed and direction around the runway, visibility, cloud base height, pavement temperature, and friction coefficient in real time, accurately identifying dangerous meteorological conditions such as wind shear, low clouds, and pavement icing, and clarifying the flyable and non-flyable critical thresholds for different aircraft types. The pavement condition monitoring and foreign object debris inspection mechanism routinely checks for hidden dangers such as runway damage and foreign object residues, ensuring the pavement remains continuously in an airworthy state. This system delimits safety thresholds from the two dimensions of environment and site, and is an indispensable decision-making support in nighttime takeoff and landing support.
The differentiated support operation modes in different scenarios. Nighttime takeoff and landing support is not a fixed standardized process. Instead, it adopts a layered and adaptive operation logic based on mission attributes, meteorological conditions, and site foundations, seeking the optimal balance between sortie efficiency and safety bottom line, covering diverse mission requirements such as training, combat, and emergency response.
In the routine nighttime flight training scenario, the support system focuses on improving sortie efficiency, adopting an operation mode with visual means as the primary and instrument backup. When meteorological conditions meet the visual approach standards, the airfield station uses the visual navigation aid system as the core support means, while the instrument guidance system is in hot standby throughout the process and can be switched to at any time. Ground support operates according to standardized workflows: before nighttime flight training begins, the airfield service department completes a full inspection of lights, foreign object debris check, and friction coefficient test, confirming that all facilities are in good condition; during the training implementation phase, the control department directs takeoffs and landings according to standard flight intervals, adapting to the rhythm requirements of different subjects such as high-density takeoff and landing training and formation night flights. A mature routine support process can support a large number of aircraft to conduct continuous nighttime takeoff and landing training, and is the basic foundation for generating the night-flight combat capability of aviation troops.
In scenarios of complex meteorology and low visibility, the support mode switches to primarily instrument guidance, tightening safety redundancy through tiered management and control. When meteorological conditions such as overcast rain, fog, or low clouds occur and visual reference is insufficient, the airfield station activates instrument approach procedures of corresponding levels. With the precision guidance system as the core, pilots rely entirely on instrument data to complete approach and landing. The meteorological support department increases the frequency of real-time observations and rolls out updated forecast conclusions; the control department appropriately widens flight intervals to reduce the risk of mid-air conflict; emergency response forces such as firefighting and medical personnel are pre-deployed at the runway ends on standby, ensuring immediate response when special situations occur. Through a tiered response management and control mechanism, maximizing the retention of nighttime sortie capability under the premise of ensuring safety is an important manifestation of actual combat support capability.
In emergency takeoff and landing scenarios, the support focus shifts to rapid deployment and flexible adaptation, supporting takeoff and landing needs in forward unsupported environments. For areas without permanent infrastructure conditions, such as forward temporary landing sites and road-converted landing sites, lightweight, integrated mobile navigation aid equipment is used. It can be quickly transported by vehicle, and a single crew can complete setup and calibration in a short time, forming a basic nighttime guidance capability without the need for pre-buried fixed facilities. The support process simplifies layers, highlights core guidance functions and emergency backup capability, and mainly meets the needs of practical combat missions such as nighttime aircraft transit, battle-damaged return, and emergency diversion. It is an important support link for sustaining the all-domain mobile operations of aviation troops.
The development direction of the nighttime takeoff and landing support system. With the continuous iteration of aviation technology and intelligent means, nighttime takeoff and landing safety support is evolving toward a more intelligent, more mobile, and more systematic direction, continuously broadening the safety boundaries and mission adaptability range, providing more solid support for all-domain operational capability.
Intelligent upgrading is an important development direction of the current support system. Traditional support modes rely heavily on manual judgment and operation, and human factors are an important source of risk. In the future, the support system will deeply integrate intelligent technology: the navigation aid lighting system can automatically adjust brightness, arrangement mode, and flashing frequency according to real-time meteorological conditions and aircraft type, adapting to different approach requirements; the meteorological system, combined with big data analysis, can achieve advanced prediction and early warning of hazardous weather, extending the decision-making window; the intelligent control assistance system can automatically optimize takeoff and landing intervals, identify trajectory deviations, and issue prompts, reducing the workload of control personnel. Through intelligent empowerment, the transition from manual control-based to data-assisted decision-making is realized, further reducing safety risks caused by human factors.
The improvement of mobility and generalization levels is the key to expanding all-domain support capability. Currently, the support system at fixed airfield stations is relatively mature, but field mobile support still has shortcomings such as long deployment cycles and limited scenario adaptability. In the future, mobile navigation aid equipment will develop toward high integration and lightweight. The entire system can be integrated into a single mobile platform, achieving rapid completion of the entire process of transport, setup, and recovery, adapting to temporary landing needs in more complex terrains such as mountains, deserts, and islands. At the same time, the generalization of support interfaces and standards will be promoted, so that one set of equipment can be adapted to fixed-wing aircraft of different tonnages and types, reducing redundant configuration of station spare parts and equipment, and enhancing the generalization level of all-domain mobile support.
Full-chain systematic integration is the core path for further improving support efficiency. In the future, nighttime takeoff and landing support will no longer involve independent operation of each subsystem. Instead, modules such as navigation aid guidance, surface surveillance, meteorological sensing, emergency rescue, and aircraft maintenance support will all be connected to the airfield station's intelligent support platform, achieving data intercommunication and linked response. During the aircraft approach phase, the system can simultaneously predict the landing status. Once a trajectory anomaly or equipment failure occurs, it can trigger an alarm at the first moment and link emergency forces for pre-deployment. Through systematic integration, a full-process closed loop of "guidance – control – response – support" is constructed, comprehensively enhancing the safety redundancy and operational efficiency of nighttime takeoff and landing.
The construction of nighttime takeoff and landing support capability is an important component of the modernization of the aviation support system, directly affecting the generation and improvement of the all-domain operational capability of aviation troops. From single lighting guidance to multi-dimensional system protection, the evolution of nighttime takeoff and landing support confirms the inherent law of modern military support moving toward refinement, intelligence, and all-domain coverage. Consolidating basic support capability and promoting the iterative upgrade of the support system have important practical significance for raising the actual combat level of aviation troops and building a solid safety barrier for all-domain operations.
Return to TopBy: 从雪梅
In the exhibition area of the Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution (中国人民革命军事博物馆), a silver-gray meritorious fighter bearing the number 079 is displayed; it is the MiG-15 fighter jet that the famous combat hero Wang Hai piloted on the battlefield of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea. On that battlefield, the young Volunteer Army Air Force, piloting MiG-15 jet fighters, completed the historic leap from not knowing how to fight to learning how to fight, and from small-scale engagements to relatively large-scale air battles, in a baptism of blood and fire. The MiG-15 was not merely a fighter; it was the most solid reliance of the People's Air Force in its earliest days, bearing witness to the rise of the defenders of the Republic's skies.
The MiG-15 was the first-generation jet fighter developed by the Soviet Mikoyan Design Bureau. It was designed in 1946; after the first prototype crashed in 1947, the second aircraft made a successful test flight in December of that same year, and production began in 1948. The aircraft employed a 35-degree swept wing, making it the first practical Soviet swept-wing jet aircraft. It was equipped with one BK-1 engine producing 2700 kgf of thrust; its maximum level flight speed at sea level was 1076 kilometers per hour; its service ceiling was 15,500 meters; its rate of climb was 3000 meters per minute; and its maximum range was 1782 kilometers. It was armed with three cannons: one N-37 type 37mm cannon and two NS-23KM type 23mm cannons, with a capacity of 200 rounds. Its wingspan was 10.08 meters; its fuselage length, 10.1 meters; its height, 3.7 meters; its empty weight, 3636 kilograms; and total output across all variants exceeded 16,500 aircraft. The MiG-15 possessed world-leading performance specifications for its time. It engaged in fierce competition on the Korean battlefield against the most elite American F-86 "Sabre," and its outstanding maneuverability greatly shocked the West.
The MiG-15 fighter is deeply engraved in the gunsmoke of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea. On November 11, 1949, the People's Air Force was established. At that time the People's Air Force was extremely weak in strength, still in its initial stage, lacking modern fighter models, and unable to cope with potential aerial threats. After the outbreak of the Korean War, the flames of war rapidly spread to the banks of the Yalu River, and the airspace of New China came under direct threat; building a strong air force became an urgent task at hand.
Faced with this pressing need, after repeated consultations between China and the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union ultimately decided to provide military aid to China, and the MiG-15 fighter thereby entered the equipment sequence of the People's Liberation Army Air Force. China acquired MiG-15s for the first time on October 13, 1950, when it received 38 MiG-15s and equipment from the Soviet Air Force in Shanghai. A relatively large-scale import occurred in May 1951, when Stalin cabled Mao Zedong, deciding to provide China with 372 MiG-15 fighters free of charge to re-equip six MiG-9 fighter divisions; Mao Zedong replied with a letter of thanks. By virtue of its advanced jet design and powerful firepower, the MiG-15 quickly became the preferred mainstay equipment of the Volunteer Army Air Force, helping the Chinese Air Force achieve the modernization of its weaponry and equipment in a short period. The introduction of the MiG-15 gave the Chinese Air Force the confidence to confront world-class air forces head-on, and on the Korean battlefield it brought out the morale of the Chinese Air Force and the Chinese people.
On January 21, 1951, the Volunteer Army Air Force fired the first shots in the air war against the United States. On the morning of that day, the U.S. Air Force dispatched 20 F-84 bombers to bomb railway lines along the Pyongyang to Anju line, attempting to cut off the Volunteer Army's logistical supply. Li Han (李汉) immediately led his formation to ascend and engage the enemy. After spotting the enemy aircraft over Seoncheon, they continued searching, and near Anju they discovered U.S. aircraft dive-bombing the Chongchon River bridge. Li Han led his formation to circle around to the left of the enemy aircraft at 400 meters, took aim at the enemy lead aircraft, and opened fire, damaging it.
Once ignited, confidence turned into the courage to ascend and engage the enemy time and again thereafter. The young Volunteer Army Air Force pilots grew rapidly in actual combat, and reports of victory came thick and fast, forging a group of heroes who made the enemy tremble: Wang Hai led the 1st Brigade to sortie over 80 times, shooting down or damaging a total of 29 enemy aircraft, and personally shot down or damaged 9 enemy aircraft, for which he was awarded the title of First-Class Combat Hero; Zhao Baotong (赵宝桐), with 9 enemy aircraft shot down or damaged by his own aircraft, set the highest record in the entire unit; his squadron shot down or damaged 17 enemy aircraft, and his brigade shot down or damaged 30 enemy aircraft, for which he was awarded the title of First-Class Combat Hero; Han Decai (韩德彩) and Zhang Jihui (张积慧) successively shot down the American ace pilots Fischer and Davis; Liu Yudi (刘玉堤), Sun Shenglu (孙生禄), and others each also achieved results of 6 or more enemy aircraft. This group of young Volunteer Army pilots, averaging only about 20 years old, relying on the iron-blooded conviction of daring to "bayonet-fight in the air" with a powerful enemy, piloted MiG-15s to carve out a heroic blue sky over Korea.
The significance of the MiG-15 extends far beyond the battlefield. It not only rendered illustrious military exploits but also profoundly influenced the developmental trajectory of China's aviation industry, laying a solid foundation for the People's Air Force to progress from introduction and imitation toward independent research and development. China imported complete sets of components for 100 MiG-15 fighters from the Soviet Union and assigned them to State-owned Factory No. 112 (国营112厂) for assembly. After receiving the order from higher authorities, Factory No. 112 rapidly organized its forces to set to work, thereby commencing the glorious mission of building aircraft for the nation. In 1952, it successfully trial-produced the domestically made nose landing gear, and subsequently gradually mastered the manufacturing technology for key components such as wings and tires. On this basis, China successively developed domestically produced jet fighters such as the J-5, J-6, and J-7, step by step paving the road of pursuing the dream of building a world-class air force.
Today, the MiG-15 fighter bearing number 079 displayed in the Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution still silently recounts, through the nine bright red five-pointed stars on its fuselage, the glorious combat record of General Wang Hai in shooting down or damaging 9 enemy aircraft. It carries the courage and fervor of that generation of flying heroes, and bears witness to the arduous journey of the People's Air Force growing from nothing and being tempered into steel in the fires of war. This history, written with loyalty and courage, has been deeply engraved into the spiritual genealogy of the Chinese Air Force, inspiring generations of air force personnel to carry forward the glory, pursue the dream of the skies, and march bravely onward.
Return to TopFrom June 17 to 18, the 2026 Zhejiang-Southwest Revolutionary Old Area Development Forum (浙西南革命老区发展论坛), themed “Red and Green Shine Together, New Quality Empowers Old Area Common Prosperity” (红绿生辉新质赋能老区共富), was held in Lishui, Zhejiang. This was the eighth consecutive time Lishui has hosted the Revolutionary Old Area Development Forum. The forum, rooted in the inheritance of the red cultural lineage and green development practice, focused on topics such as cultivating new quality productive forces and common prosperity in the old areas, building a high-energy platform for policy alignment, industrial cooperation, and talent aggregation, and pooling efforts to explore new paths for common prosperity in the revolutionary old areas.
In 2021, the State Council issued the Opinions on Supporting the Revitalization and Development of Revolutionary Old Areas in the New Era. Over the past five years, the revitalization and development of the Zhejiang-Southwest Revolutionary Old Area have traversed an extraordinary journey. From spiritual inheritance to practical innovation, from theoretical discussion to development empowerment, the red spirit has deeply merged into the bloodline of the Lishui people, internalized as a spiritual driving force for forging ahead and a practical force for promoting development. This forum not only showcased to the attending guests Lishui’s spiritual pursuit of inheriting the red gene and continuing the red bloodline over many years, but also demonstrated the striving posture of the Zhejiang-Southwest land as it forges ahead and pursues the dream of common prosperity.
Writing a New Chapter in the Transformation of the Old Area
The Party led the people of Zhejiang-Southwest to compose a 可歌可泣 (kě gē kě qì – “worthy of songs and tears,” heroic and moving) epic of struggle, nurturing and forming the Zhejiang-Southwest Revolutionary Spirit. In recent years, Lishui has combined the promotion of the great Party-building spirit and the Zhejiang spirit with the practice of the Zhejiang-Southwest Revolutionary Spirit, firmly establishing and practicing the concept that lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets, and exploring a path of revitalization that deeply integrates the red gene with green development.
At the main forum conference, Lishui Municipal Party Committee Secretary Wu Shunze (吴舜泽) in his address used ten key words to review the achievements of the revitalization and development of the Zhejiang-Southwest Revolutionary Old Area over the past five years. First, spiritual inheritance. Promoting and practicing the Zhejiang-Southwest Revolutionary Spirit, refining and forming the value pursuit of Lishui people in the new era of “unity and hard work, tenacity and perseverance, pragmatic action and striving for strength, and boldness in striving to be first.” Second, development advancement. The economic increment over five years is equivalent to “recreating half of Lishui”; economic growth rate has been steadily among the top tier of the province; the city’s comprehensive strength has achieved a key leap from the middle-to-lower level nationally to the middle-to-upper level. Third, common prosperity taking the lead. The incomes of both urban and rural residents have entered the top 10% among prefecture-level cities nationwide, and the growth rate of farmers’ income has led the province for 17 consecutive years. Fourth, industry renewal. Developing and strengthening the modern ecological economy, cultivating and forming one nearly 100-billion-yuan and two 50-billion-yuan characteristic industrial clusters, successfully building a “ten-thousand-mu, thousand-billion-yuan” characteristic semiconductor industrial park. Fifth, transportation breakthrough. Lishui Airport officially opened to air traffic; a three-dimensional network of “highways, railways, waterways, and aviation” has been established, linking to the world through “connecting rivers and reaching the sea” (通江达海 – tōng jiāng dá hǎi – “connect rivers and reach the sea,” meaning unimpeded access to the wider world). Sixth, ecological leadership. The quality of the ecological environment has ranked first in the province for 22 consecutive years, making Lishui a prefecture-level city whose water and air quality rankings simultaneously entered the national top ten; carrying out carbon neutrality pilot projects, exploring mechanisms for realizing the value of ecological products, and being selected as a United Nations “Biodiversity Charm City.” Seventh, green poverty reduction. Continuously implementing the “Large Relocation, Rapid Agglomeration for Prosperous and Secure Settlement” project, helping more than 600,000 mountain-area residents move into cities for secure housing and escape poverty. Eighth, harmonious and safe living. Building a grand public security governance system with coordinated linkage of “people, objects, time, technology, and institutions,” being rated a provincial-level Safe City for 21 consecutive years. Ninth, people’s livelihood and shared benefits. The livelihood services in the old area have been greatly improved, exploring reforms for the integration of basic public services, and exploring a “fixed + mobile” supply model. Tenth, youth development. Taking the construction of a “youth development-oriented city” as a foundational and strategic hope project.
During the forum, the comprehensive achievements exhibition “Red Lineage and Green Development” opened at the Lishui Grand Theatre. The exhibition displayed Lishui’s development achievements over the past five years through rich graphics, texts, and activities. The section “Once you come, you are a Lishui person” showcased Lishui’s open and inclusive urban style, while the section “In Lishui, savor the nostalgia of China” focused on presenting Lishui’s diverse commercial development form combining “local and foreign elements.”
During the forum, the attending guests visited the Lishui Economic Development Zone for on-site inspection, gaining an in-depth understanding of Lishui’s vivid practice of 无中生有 (wú zhōng shēng yǒu – “create something out of nothing,” to generate something from nothing) in cultivating characteristic semiconductor industries and low-altitude economy industries. At Tongchuang (Lishui) Special Materials Co., Ltd., the ultra-high-purity tantalum material production line demonstrated cutting-edge achievements in developing new quality productive forces. At Zhejiang Rongqi Technology Co., Ltd., various types of industrial drones showed the trend of accelerating the formation of the low-altitude economy industrial chain. The attending guests universally expressed that Lishui, by breaking through with “red-green integration” and driving industrial upgrading through scientific and technological innovation, has embarked on a development path oriented by science and technology, resource-saving, and environmentally friendly.
Descendants of revolutionary forebears praised Lishui’s new changes one after another. Discussing the practical guidance of the Zhejiang-Southwest Revolutionary Spirit, Su Zhijun (粟志军), the eldest grandson of Su Yu, and Liu Hongyu (刘红宇), the eldest grandson of Liu Ying, spoke about “inheritance” and “struggle” in unison. Su Zhijun sighed with emotion that every time he comes to Lishui in recent years, he sees new changes; new forms of business such as rural homestays and deep processing of agricultural products continue to emerge, and the face of the old area is constantly being updated. The descendants of revolutionary forebears jointly sent their good wishes to Lishui, hoping that Lishui will continue to safeguard the red lineage, make good use of its ecological advantages, develop characteristic industries, and strive to write a new chapter of leapfrog high-quality development in the revolutionary old area.
Gathering Wisdom and Strength for the Revitalization of the Old Area
In the keynote speech session of the forum, Dou Hao (窦皓), Executive Deputy Director of the Expert Academic Committee of the China International Engineering Consulting Corporation (中咨公司), gave a speech titled “Striving to Be in the Lead on the Road to Common Prosperity in Revolutionary Old Areas,” exploring differentiated and characteristic development strategies. Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Yang Huanming (杨焕明) delivered a speech titled “Frontier Trends in Biotechnology Empowering the Leap of the Mountain Area Health Industry.” Li Yongjian (李勇坚), a researcher at the National Academy of Economic Strategy of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, focused on the unique advantages of mountain areas and expounded on “Characteristic Cultivation Models of New Quality Productive Forces in Mountain Areas and Lishui Practice.”
Focusing on accelerating the revitalization and development of revolutionary old areas, Dou Hao put forward five suggestions for Lishui: anchoring common prosperity as the first priority, deeply cultivating red-green integration, strengthening science and innovation empowerment, nurturing a youth ecology, and activating ecological consumption. He suggested that Lishui should focus on narrowing the “three major gaps,” coordinate red inheritance, ecological protection, industrial upgrading, livelihood improvement, and regional coordination, continuously explore a modernization development path that prioritizes ecology, is green and low-carbon, and links counties, while actively and deeply integrating into the Yangtze River Delta science and innovation system, deeply cultivate new business forms such as summer retreat and residence, forest health care, and traditional Chinese medicine therapy, and create a fertile ground for development where young people are willing to come, can stay, can succeed, and have a future.
During the forum, three important reports were released on site: the Collection of Cases on the Revitalization and Development of the Zhejiang-Southwest Revolutionary Old Area (2021–2025) systematically analyzed Lishui’s landmark achievements in fields such as red inheritance, ecological transformation, and industrial innovation over the past five years; the Report on the Achievements of the Ecological Product Value Realization Mechanism of Lishui City and the VEP Opportunity List (2026) announced the annual major VEP transaction projects and the GEP financing project library; the Report on Key Industrial Investment Opportunities in Lishui City (2026) presented in a “one-map” panoramic view Lishui’s “2310” advanced manufacturing cluster, the layout of the “three development circles,” and the industrial chain investment attraction catalog.
Opening the Collection of Cases on the Revitalization and Development of the Zhejiang-Southwest Revolutionary Old Area (2021–2025), one can clearly see Lishui’s landmark achievements in areas such as continuing to inherit the red bloodline, enhancing the well-being of the old area people, and developing characteristic advantageous industries in accordance with local conditions over the past five years. From the whole-chain development of “local specialty products for wealth” to the “smart mobile hospital” solving the difficulty of seeing a doctor, from “saving old houses” to retain nostalgia to “light-asset entrepreneurship” attracting young people, these practices rooted in the land of Lishui highlight Lishui’s conscious commitment to shouldering the mission of building a pilot demonstration zone for common prosperity in the revolutionary old area.
The Report on the Achievements of the Ecological Product Value Realization Mechanism of Lishui City and the VEP Opportunity List (2026) provided an in-depth interpretation of Lishui’s key mechanisms and core measures in ecological civilization construction, transforming institutional innovation into investment opportunities. As a national pilot city for the ecological product value realization mechanism, Lishui has the courage to break the ice and create a series of achievements. At the meeting site, it even extended an “olive branch” of five major cooperation opportunities, from ecological product science and technology innovation to carbon sink integration and co-creation, and to joint operation of ecological product trading platforms. Lishui sincerely invites all sectors to explore new technologies and new mechanisms for the practice of “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets.”
The Report on Key Industrial Investment Opportunities in Lishui City (2026) detailed the key investment opportunities in five leading industries: high-end equipment, new energy and new materials, characteristic semiconductors, fashion light industry, and traditional Chinese medicine and big health. Behind each opportunity lies vast space for industrial development.
Exploring Multiple Paths for Common Prosperity in the Old Area
In addition to the main conference, this forum also held three special sub-forums simultaneously, as well as a series of supporting activities such as a comprehensive achievements exhibition and on-site inspections.
At the forum on the development of the life and health industry in revolutionary old areas from the perspective of red-green finance integration, Lishui closely followed the core tracks of the health pharma and big health industry, widely inviting experts and scholars, representatives of pharmaceutical enterprises, investment institution personnel, etc., to gather together and discuss new paths for high-quality development of the life and health industry in revolutionary old areas, covering fields such as medical devices and synthetic biology. Relying on its ecological advantages and red heritage, Lishui has cultivated the big health industry as one of its city-level leading industries, actively exploring a new path for the coordinated advancement of ecological protection and industrial development.
At the forum on “cultivating skilled cadres and building a skill-oriented government” in the new era empowering common prosperity in the old area, experts and scholars from the Central Party School (National School of Administration), the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, the Chinese Academy of Personnel Science, and other units gathered together to systematically summarize Lishui’s practical achievements over more than 20 years. At the forum site, the “Space Valley” skills service group of Shitang Town, Yunhe County, the “Duck Buddy” skills service group of Xinjian Town, Jinyun County, and the rural cultural tourism planning and operation group of Dachenjiapu, Sidu Township, Songyang County, conducted project roadshows. The Chinese Academy of Personnel Science, together with the Organization Department of the Lishui Municipal Party Committee, jointly released the Skill List for Rural Cadres in the New Era.
At the forum on the construction of a youth development-oriented city and the new-era “Charge Forward” forces, the Core Opportunity List for Youth Entrepreneurship and Employment was officially released. Xu Minwei (徐敏伟), captain of the “Zhejiang BA” Lishui team, used his competition experience on the field to vividly interpret the value pursuit of Lishui people in the new era and the contemporary connotation of the “Charge Forward” spirit. In the thematic dialogue session on “Youth Power and Old Area Revitalization,” youth representatives from various fields discussed topics such as old area revitalization and career development. The forum also held a flag-awarding ceremony for university practice teams. Chen Ken (陈恳), General Manager of Zhejiang Rongqi Technology Co., Ltd., participated in the thematic dialogue as a young entrepreneur, sharing his two-way journey with Lishui. He said that from warm-hearted talent policies and a broad entrepreneurial stage to meticulous government services, this vibrant city is using its full sincerity to retain and fulfill young people.
During the forum, a special matchmaking meeting on “Overseas Chinese Connect the World, Trade Revitalizes Lishui” was also held. Attending representatives of overseas Chinese merchants and community leaders shared experiences on topics such as Lishui’s overseas distribution of high-quality products from overseas Chinese trade and the layout of overseas Chinese trade markets. Since fully launching the integrated development of overseas Chinese trade last year, Lishui has adhered to the development path of “revitalizing trade through overseas Chinese, promoting industry through trade, and integrating industry and trade,” and deeply implemented the project for enhancing the quality development of overseas Chinese trade integration. “Through the inspection over the past two days, I have deeply felt that Lishui has a solid industrial foundation and abundant innovation vitality, which has further strengthened my confidence in promoting Lishui products to explore international markets and deepen overseas Chinese trade cooperation,” said Wang Xiaowei (王小伟), President of the Portuguese Chinese Association. He expressed hope that Lishui will continue to leverage its advantages in online-offline integrated development, regularly promote Lishui’s high-quality products, so that overseas Chinese can keep abreast of the good products and resources of their hometown.
Gathering the Momentum of Opening Up and Striving for Strength in the Old Area
At this forum, the “Lishui City Development Partner” plan was officially launched. This is not only a brand upgrade of Lishui’s strategic pilot project for “attracting both investment and talent,” but also a key move to promote the opening up and strength-building of the old area.
Reviewing the list of “Lishui City Development Partners,” one can clearly feel Lishui’s thirst for high-level “think tanks” and “doers.” The participation of high-end think tanks such as the China Institute of Electronic Information Industry Development (CCID, 赛迪研究院) and the China International Engineering Consulting Corporation provides solid intellectual support for major policy research and judgment and industrial development planning.
In terms of scientific research and innovation, Lishui not only invited the Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to “diagnose and advise” on its Gross Ecosystem Product (GEP) accounting, but also joined hands with the International Centre for Bamboo and Rattan (ICBR) to jointly establish the Lishui Branch of the National Bamboo as a Substitute for Plastic Innovation Research Institute, launching a green revolution of “bamboo as a substitute for plastic.” In terms of industry and finance, Tsingshan Holding Group will promote the construction of a global special steel and deep processing industry chain community and nickel-based alloy industry projects, helping Lishui’s stainless steel industry chain achieve high-quality development; the China Development Bank Zhejiang Branch will focus on multiple fields to provide comprehensive financial service solutions for Lishui; the Yixinou Group will promote the linked development of Lishui’s forward warehouse, Yiwu land port, and European overseas warehouses, helping Lishui deeply participate in the Belt and Road Initiative. In terms of city branding, Lishui has jointly built a photography cultural brand with the China Photographers Association, and together with Wenzhou Medical University, built the “China Health Valley,” strengthening city brand building.
To ensure that city development partners are not merely a symbolic listing, Lishui has simultaneously launched a series of pragmatic measures. On the one hand, dedicated liaison officers are assigned to provide “shop assistant”-style services, and high-level roundtable meetings are held regularly; on the other hand, joint efforts are made to tackle major issues, and pragmatic cooperation between the two sides is promoted through multiple channels, truly achieving the transformation of city development partners from “guests of honor” to “family members.” The joining of city development partners has not only brought funds and projects, but also provided long-term thinking for the revitalization and development of the revolutionary old area.
In February 2026, the Opinions of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council on Accelerating the Revitalization and Development of Revolutionary Old Areas were issued. Standing at a new starting point, Lishui is forging ahead with a striving posture. Lishui Municipal Party Committee Secretary Wu Shunze stated in his speech at the main forum conference that Lishui will anchor the goal of “building a pilot demonstration zone for common prosperity in the revolutionary old area,” carefully protect the “red lineage,” promote the activation, protection, and value transformation of red resources; continuously transform the “green value,” create a version 2.0 of the ecological product value realization mechanism; make greater efforts to build a “golden growth pole,” cultivate and strengthen the “2310” advanced manufacturing cluster and three thousand-billion-yuan industries enriching the people.
Sharing memories of the eventful years, gathering strength to move forward. On the new journey, Lishui will adhere to the value pursuit of Lishui people in the new era, transform the red spirit into concrete actions of striving forward, gather a strong synergy of hard work, pragmatism, responsibility, and striving to be first, and strive to write a new chapter in the revitalization, development, and common prosperity of the revolutionary old area.
(Li Qian (李倩), Ruan Chunsheng (阮春生))
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