Summary: The Fifth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was held from October 26 to 29, hearing a work report by General Secretary Xi Jinping and adopting the *Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Several Major Issues Concerning Persistently Advancing Full and Rigorous Self-Governance of the Party*. The session affirmed new progress since the Fourth Plenary Session and summarized achievements in full and rigorous Party self-governance in the new era, framing the Decision as a programmatic document for Party building. The article stresses that persistently advancing full and rigorous self-governance is essential for maintaining the Party's advanced nature, consolidating its governing position, and fulfilling its historical mission. It highlights the decisive significance of the Two Establishments and the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Party Building, calling on the entire Party to unify around the Party Central Committee and build the Party better and stronger. The piece concludes by urging continued vigilance and struggle to hand in new answer sheets on the new road of taking the examination.
Summary: The article argues that the Fifth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee called for continuously strengthening the Party's political leadership, ideological guidance, mass organization, and social appeal to ensure it remains a vibrant Marxist ruling party. It explains that political leadership involves upholding the Central Committee's authority, ideological guidance requires implementing Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, mass organization relies on the Party's mass line and leading by example, and social appeal is built through inspiring society with visions and achievements. The piece stresses that advancing full and rigorous self-governance of the Party is essential to consolidating its ruling position and avoiding detachment from the masses, citing the Soviet collapse as a warning. It further emphasizes adhering to Xi Jinping's thought on Party building, focusing on political construction, and mobilizing all social forces, including private entrepreneurs, to support Chinese modernization. The author is the Executive Deputy President of the Party School of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Party Committee.
Summary: The article argues that strengthening Party spirit education is a long-term, foundational task for full and rigorous self-governance of the Party, as proposed by the Fifth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee. It emphasizes that Party spirit education must be persistent to consolidate the ideological foundation, citing General Secretary Xi Jinping's call to arm the Party with its innovative theory. The piece reviews notable achievements since the 18th National Congress, including political guidance, institutional constraints, and the integration of concentrated and regular education. It outlines focal points for the new journey, such as integrating education into daily work, leading by example, problem-oriented learning, and lifelong cultivation. The author is identified as a researcher at the Research Center for the Theoretical System of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics in Hubei Province and a professor at Wuhan University.
Summary: The article emphasizes the need to thoroughly implement Xi Jinping's thought on Party building and uphold the Party's overall leadership and centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee. It calls for advancing full and rigorous self-governance of the Party with unswerving perseverance to realize the Party's self-purification, self-improvement, self-renewal, and self-enhancement. The goal is to strengthen the Party's political leadership, thought-guiding power, mass-organizing capacity, and social appeal. This ensures the Party remains the strong leading core of the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
Summary: The article argues that Africa's geopolitical prominence is rising rapidly due to the accelerating once-in-a-century transformation of the world and the expansion of global competition toward the Global South. It details how major powers, including the United States, France, and Russia, have increased strategic investment in Africa, while competition intensifies over the continent's strategic minerals and key maritime chokepoints. The piece identifies drivers such as the global energy transition, Africa's demographic dividend, and the pan-regionalization of major power competition. It concludes that Africa's rising status expands the boundaries of major power rivalry, enhances the agency of Global South countries, and reshapes the geopolitical distribution logic of global key resources. The author is identified as the Director of the Center for African Governance and Modernization Studies at the China-Africa Institute.
Summary: The article criticizes the Japanese drama *Vivant* for slandering China and distorting history, alleging it attributes Japanese invasion atrocities to Chinese characters while glorifying Japan Self-Defense Force personnel. It outlines four narrative routines in Japanese war-related media, including swapping historical roles, hyping the "China threat theory," beautifying expansionism, and using entertainment to numb public cognition. The piece claims these narratives serve Japan's right-wing political agenda, with Takaichi Sanae's endorsement signaling high-level political backing. It warns that such cognitive warfare tampers with historical truth, harms war victims, poisons Japanese youth's perceptions, and exacerbates regional security dilemmas. The article urges the international community to resist these narratives and uphold historical truth to prevent the resurgence of Japanese militarism.
Summary: The article explains how the concept of permanent neutrality, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1995, guides Turkmenistan's diplomatic practice, enabling it to avoid great-power competition and maintain an independent course. It details four aspects of this policy: refusing to take sides among Russia, China, the United States, and the EU; prudently joining international organizations while avoiding military alliances; conducting multi-directional energy diplomacy, with China as the largest buyer of its natural gas; and using its neutral identity to mediate regional hotspots like Afghanistan and the Caspian Sea. The piece notes that U.S. support for Turkmenistan's pipeline diversification aims to weaken Russian and Chinese influence in Central Asia, while both sides share cooperation needs on non-traditional security issues from Afghanistan. It concludes by citing the Turkmen president's 2025 work on neutrality as a model for small and medium-sized states in global governance.
Summary: The article argues that upholding the Party's overall leadership and the centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee is the core content of Xi Jinping's thought on Party building and the fundamental guarantee for Chinese modernization. It traces the Marxist theoretical origins of this principle, citing Marx and Engels, and reviews the Party's history from its founding through the Zunyi Meeting to demonstrate that such leadership is the "winning code" of the Party's century-long struggle. The piece elaborates on the scientific connotation of this leadership, emphasizing that the Party Central Committee is the "brain and hub" and that full and rigorous self-governance of the Party serves to provide a strong guarantee for upholding this leadership. It then outlines a practical path, calling for strengthened political construction, theoretical arming, improved Party leadership systems, and persistent advancement of full and rigorous self-governance. The author is identified as the former director of the Academic and Editorial Committee of the Central Institute of Party History and Literature.
Summary: The article discusses the problem of "mid-level obstruction" in China's organizational system, citing cases where officials were held accountable for failing to fulfill responsibilities, including Zuo Yaofeng and Mo Yuling in Qinghai Province and Su Bo in Chongqing. It identifies manifestations such as selective implementation, setting up barriers in approval services, and perfunctory attitudes, attributing root causes to unsound thinking, insufficient capability, unsmooth mechanisms, and soft oversight. The piece cites Party discipline regulations and emphasizes the need to unblock the organizational system from central to grassroots levels. It calls for correcting ideological deviations, pressing down responsibility, strengthening oversight, and improving cadre capability to ensure effective execution of Party Central Committee decisions.
Summary: General Secretary Xi Jinping visited the West Route Army memorial sites in Gaotai County, Gansu Province, on August 20, 2019, and stated that the West Route Army's contributions are "irreplaceable, indelible," and "forever recorded in the annals of history," establishing a new benchmark for studying the relationship between the Red Army's Long March and the West Route Army's Hexi expedition. The article recounts the West Route Army's campaign in Hexi, including its crossing of the Yellow River, the battles at Gulang and Gaotai, and its eventual dispersal after the Shiwoshan Conference. It outlines five strategic significances of the campaign, including annihilating over 25,000 enemy troops, coordinating with the Shanchengbao Campaign and the peaceful resolution of the Xi'an Incident, establishing local Party organizations and Soviet political power in the Hexi Corridor, and preserving military backbone cadres. The article emphasizes that the spirit of the West Route Army is inherited from the Long March spirit, sharing the same spiritual pedigree and manifesting ideals, sacrifice, and reliance on the masses, as exemplified by the Fifth Army's defense of Gaotai and Li Xiannian's left detachment receiving aid from Abbot Guo Yuanheng. It concludes by citing Xi Jinping's characterization of the Long March spirit as demonstrating the power of loyalty, truth, justice, and unity, with the West Route Army spirit possessing enduring value.
Summary: The article describes the Zhaxi Meeting of February 1935 as the continuation and final completion of the Zunyi Meeting, where the Central Political Bureau, presided over by Zhang Wentian and attended by Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, Chen Yun, and others, divided Standing Committee responsibilities, passed the Zunyi Meeting resolution, and decided on troop reorganization and a return to northern Guizhou. It notes that after setbacks at Tucheng, the Central Red Army entered the Zhaxi region facing ideological, organizational, and military difficulties, including Bo Gu's incomplete admission of errors and bloated, understrength units. The meeting issued directives to other Soviet areas, including an "extremely urgent" telegram to Xiang Ying on guerrilla warfare in the Central Soviet Area. Following the meeting, the Red Army recaptured Zunyi, achieving its greatest victory since the Long March began, while other Red Army units adjusted strategies and won victories. The article concludes that the great turning point was realized gradually through continuous struggle and self-revolution, not at a single meeting.
Summary: The article revisits Mao Zedong's 1939 inaugural message for *The Communist*, which defined Party building as a "great project" and outlined the three magic weapons of the united front, armed struggle, and Party building. It explains Mao's call for a nationwide, broadly mass-based, and fully consolidated Bolshevik-style party, emphasizing the need to adapt Marxist party-building theory to China's specific conditions. The piece traces how Party building has evolved from the revolutionary era to the new great project in the new era, citing Xi Jinping's emphasis on full and rigorous self-governance of the Party as the decisive factor in the great struggle, great cause, and great dream. It concludes by highlighting the Fifth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee's arrangements to persistently advance full and rigorous self-governance, consolidating the Party's governing position and realizing national rejuvenation.
Summary: The article reviews Jonathan Woetzel's book *Insights into the Chinese Economy*, based on his 42 years observing China's development. Woetzel attributes China's economic miracle to a reform spirit of daring to venture and experiment, combined with the pooling of wisdom and strength across society. He emphasizes that this boldness is supported by pragmatic, fact-based governance that pilots reforms and gradually promotes them. Woetzel also discusses future challenges, including the need for Chinese enterprises to actively define globalization rules while continuing cooperation, and the importance of innovation and talent development. He concludes that China's success stems from the organic combination of bold exploration and pragmatic governance, offering a novel perspective on its development path.
Summary: The article argues that the Fifth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee called for continuously strengthening the Party's political leadership, ideological guidance, mass organization, and social appeal to ensure it remains a vibrant Marxist ruling party. It explains that political leadership involves upholding the Central Committee's authority, ideological guidance requires implementing Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, mass organization relies on the Party's mass line and leading by example, and social appeal is built through inspiring society with visions and achievements. The piece stresses that advancing full and rigorous self-governance of the Party is essential to consolidating its ruling position and avoiding detachment from the masses, citing the Soviet collapse as a warning. It further emphasizes adhering to Xi Jinping's thought on Party building, focusing on political construction, and mobilizing all social forces, including private entrepreneurs, to support Chinese modernization. The author is the Executive Deputy President of the Party School of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Party Committee.
Summary: The article argues that the "health first" educational concept must be put into practice, tracing its evolution from Mao Zedong's 1950 directive to Xi Jinping's 2018 emphasis on establishing this educational concept. It outlines three policy stages, culminating in a "comprehensive health" framework that integrates physical, mental, vision, and nutritional health. The piece identifies four structural dilemmas in grassroots implementation, including evaluation system path dependence, spatial resource shortages, safety responsibility expansion, and family utilitarian inertia. It proposes six institutional arrangements, such as incorporating health indicators into government performance evaluations and clarifying campus safety responsibility. The author, Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Educational Sciences, concludes that health is the foundational "1" for all other achievements in education.
Summary: The article discusses how artificial intelligence is reshaping libraries, citing Xi Jinping's view that libraries are key indicators of cultural development, while noting challenges from AI like "machine hallucination" and a 2025 rise in library visits to 1.47 billion. It highlights AI-driven shifts from "people seeking books" to "books seeking people" through 24-hour librarians, personalized recommendations, and intelligent circulation, alongside immersive technologies like digital humans and AIGC that bring classics to life. The piece emphasizes that technology should assist, not replace, reading, and that libraries must preserve human warmth, emotional connection, and care for special groups, such as the Capital Library's "Angel Eye" device for visually impaired readers. It concludes that libraries should extend AI benefits to grassroots institutions through collaboration and resource sharing, ensuring technological dividends cover urban and rural areas alike.
Summary: The article argues that strengthening Party spirit education is a long-term, foundational task for full and rigorous self-governance of the Party, as proposed by the Fifth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee. It emphasizes that Party spirit education must be persistent to consolidate the ideological foundation, citing General Secretary Xi Jinping's call to arm the Party with its innovative theory. The piece reviews notable achievements since the 18th National Congress, including political guidance, institutional constraints, and the integration of concentrated and regular education. It outlines focal points for the new journey, such as integrating education into daily work, leading by example, problem-oriented learning, and lifelong cultivation. The author is identified as a researcher at the Research Center for the Theoretical System of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics in Hubei Province and a professor at Wuhan University.
Summary: Fan Changjiang, a special correspondent for the Ta Kung Pao, traveled through the Northwest from July 1935 to May 1936, publishing a series of dispatches that objectively reported the Red Army's Long March and broke the Kuomintang authorities' monopoly on public opinion through false propaganda. His reports, based on on-the-ground visits and first-hand observations, restored the true course of the Long March, highlighted the Red Army's strict discipline and fine conduct, and directly used the appellation "Red Army" while opposing the Kuomintang's "bandit-suppression" stance. He asserted that the Red Army was "marching north to resist Japan" and that the Kuomintang and Communist Party should have equal status, with the Kuomintang first stopping the civil war to jointly discuss resistance against Japan. The reports were reprinted widely, including by the Jiuguo Shibao in Paris, and drew domestic and international attention to the Red Army's Long March. The series also resolved Fan Changjiang's personal confusion, giving him a new understanding of the Chinese Communist Party and planting the seed for his later growth into a Party journalist.
Summary: The article examines how West Germany's "dual system" vocational education, combining enterprise training with vocational school instruction, drove postwar economic recovery and modernization. It traces the system's origins from medieval guilds to its formalization in the 1969 Vocational Training Act, describing its structure where apprentices spend 70-80 percent of time in firms and hold dual identities as apprentices and students. The system provided human resources, supported industrial and trade growth, and transformed "Made in Germany" from a label of inferior quality to a mark of high-standard manufacturing. The piece highlights that industry and trade accounted for 52 percent of apprentices by 1992, and credits the system as a "secret weapon" behind the "economic miracle."
Summary: The article examines the historical cross-regional dissemination of Qinqiang opera from northwestern China to the Jiangnan region during the Ming and Qing dynasties, highlighting its role as a vehicle of regional cultural identity and its eventual fusion with local operas. It credits commercial exchanges by Shaanxi and Shanxi merchants, population migration, and the establishment of geographically based guild halls as key drivers of this spread, with figures like actor Wei Changsheng and the Yangzhou Shaanxi-Shanxi Guild Hall playing pivotal roles. The piece notes that Qinqiang opera's popularity in Jiangnan, recorded in literati poems, led to mutual borrowing and innovative development between northern and southern theatrical traditions. It argues that this dissemination weakened regional cultural estrangement and strengthened a shared identity with Chinese opera culture, exemplifying the diversity-in-unity of Chinese civilization. The article concludes that this historical process confirms the principle that "mobility is vitality, and fusion is rebirth," offering inspiration for contemporary cultural innovation and regional coordination.
Summary: China Tobacco Sichuan Industrial Co., Ltd. has used full and rigorous self-governance of the Party to safeguard its high-quality development, transforming political and organizational advantages into developmental and governance strengths. The Company places political construction first, implements the "First Agenda" system, and promotes theoretical study into workshops and work teams to consolidate loyalty to the Party. It has built a rigorous governance system, including institutional reforms, political supervision, and integrated supervision mechanisms, to regulate power operations and rectify malfeasance. The Company also focuses on cost reduction, quality control, scientific breakthroughs, and talent development, achieving notable results such as reducing controllable costs by 20.0053 million yuan in the first half of the year. It will continue advancing Party self-governance to contribute to serving the national strategy and promoting high-quality development of the industry and local economy.
Summary: The Jilin Yang Jingyu Cadre Academy is a Party spirit education base themed on the spirit of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army, included in the filing catalog of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee and among the first batch of national practical teaching bases for "great ideological and political courses." It covers 140,000 square meters, accommodates 1,500 people, and features architectural forms reflecting the Anti-Japanese United Army's combat and living conditions. The academy centers its curriculum on Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, with political loyalty education, red spirit inheritance, and performance capability enhancement as main contents, supported by teaching forms such as thematic, on-site, interview, immersive, case, and flipped classroom methods. It has created platforms including an immersive red situational teaching hall on "loyalty to the Party," a "red archives" themed classroom, and a "three places, three cradles" red Jilin themed classroom, extending teaching routes to red landmarks across the province. The academy aims to become a national demonstration base for Party spirit education, an academic highland for red resource integration, and a demonstration base for teaching and research on the spirit of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army.
Summary: Party schools across various localities have held activities such as Party spirit education, special exhibitions, and academic seminars to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the victory of the Red Army's Long March. The Beijing Municipal Party School conducted focused discussions on implementing Xi Jinping's Thought on Party Building and carrying forward the Long March spirit, emphasizing its integration into school governance. Heilongjiang and Jiangxi provincial party schools organized visits and themed events featuring red family letters and situational performances to honor the spirit. Hubei's party school hosted an exhibition on the Central Red Army's departure, while Guizhou's party school held a seminar on the Long March spirit and forging a sense of community for the Chinese nation.
Summary: The Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Party Committee Party School held an expanded meeting on October 22 to convey and study General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speech and instructions from his inspection tour in Ulanqab, with First Deputy Principal Gao Zugui presiding. The meeting emphasized that Xi's visit demonstrated the Party Central Committee's deep affection for Inner Mongolia and provided fundamental guidance for its high-quality development. It required integrating Xi's instructions into cadre training, deepening theoretical research on topics like ecological protection and green computing power, and conducting grassroots publicity to transmit his concern to all households. The school must strengthen organizational leadership, with committee members leading study and lecturing efforts, and transform learning outcomes into practical actions supporting Chinese modernization in Inner Mongolia.
Summary: The Sixth Urban Governance Academic Symposium, themed "High-Quality Development and Governance Innovation of Yangtze River Delta Cities — New Vision and New Exploration for the 15th Five-Year Plan," was held at the Shanghai Municipal Party School (School of Administration), where Zeng Jun, Executive Vice President (Vice Dean), attended and delivered a speech, and Luo Feng, Vice President (Vice Dean), presided. Three experts delivered keynote speeches, including Xiao Jincheng, who proposed building a long-term regional cooperation mechanism from legislative, organizational, financial, and planning aspects; Sun Zhiyan, who argued Yangtze River Delta cities should promote artificial intelligence as an economic driver while adhering to a people-oriented approach; and Zhang Xiaojie, who suggested advancing regional public service community construction through value evaluation mechanisms, cost sharing, and institutional safeguards. During a roundtable forum, four experts discussed breaking down institutional barriers, the unified national market, and public service integration, with Ni Donghui interpreting Anhui's 15th Five-Year Plan arrangements, Wang Lijun reviewing cross-regional rule alignment, Fang Changchun proposing common cross-regional public service matters, and Pan Xin suggesting infrastructure alignment with metropolitan spatial layouts. The symposium was hosted by the Shanghai Municipal Party School (School of Administration) and included three parallel sub-forums on Shanghai's "Five Centers" construction, urban governance modernization and resilient city building, and high-quality development of social work in the Yangtze River Delta.
Summary: The theoretical seminar "Shaping New Advantages in an Open Economy and Serving Well as a Gateway Hub for High-Level Opening Up" and the 7th Zhuo Jiong Forum were held on October 15 at the Party School of the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the CPC, with Vice President Lin Shenggen and Luo Mingzhong, Executive Vice President of the Guangdong Economic Association, attending and delivering speeches. The meeting noted that 2026 marks the opening year of the 15th Five-Year Plan, and advancing deeper reform and expanding high-level opening up are important strategic deployments for that period, with the event serving both as a tribute to economist Zhuo Jiong and a pragmatic action to support the Greater Bay Area. Four experts delivered keynote reports, including Fan Jida, who argued that amid an international situation of "changes and chaos being intertwined," advancing institutional opening up and enhancing China's competitiveness in global rule-making are pathways from "following" toward "leading." Other speakers addressed the role of the Hengqin, Qianhai, Nansha, and Hetao platforms in Guangdong's "five external linkages," the shift to competition in science and technology rules and talent systems, and the need for academic research grounded in Guangdong's opening-up practice. Nearly 100 people attended, including experts from within and outside the province and teaching and research personnel from relevant departments.
Summary: The Fujian Provincial Party School (School of Administration) has implemented General Secretary Xi Jinping's important discourses on Party school work and the "Regulations on the Work of Party Schools (Schools of Administration) of the Communist Party of China," adopting a "one chessboard" approach to promote the orderly flow and intensive allocation of school-running resources among provincial, municipal, and county Party schools. The school adheres to high-level guidance by incorporating municipal and county Party school development into the provincial school's overall layout and the "15th Five-Year Plan" and "First-Class Party School" construction plan. It strengthens municipal-county coordination through branch school listing management, as exemplified by the Shouning County Party Committee School being listed as the Xiada Branch School of the Ningde Municipal Party Committee School, and advances regional coordination using municipal Party schools as hubs, such as the linked school-running model between the Shaxian District and Sanming Municipal Party Schools. The school also carries out mountain-sea collaboration between coastal and mountainous area Party schools, including paired construction between Fuzhou Fuqing—Ningde Zhouning and Xiamen Huli—Longyan Liancheng. Finally, it strengthens guarantee and supply by linking quality assessment results with resource allocation, transferring over 3,900 items of assets worth more than 2.5 million yuan to grassroots Party schools, and providing talent and business support for integrated development.
Summary: The Party School of the Hubei Provincial Party Committee has implemented the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speech during his inspection tour of Hubei, anchoring its work on building the Wuhan Regional Science and Technology Innovation Center and accelerating the construction of an important strategic fulcrum for the rise of the central region. It optimized course supply by building a "1+3+6" course system and innovating teaching methods, including practical training in advanced regions such as Zhejiang and Shenzhen. It broadened training channels through tiered and categorized training, running classes for county-level Party and government leaders and 24 special-topic classes that trained more than 1,970 trainees. It deepened publicity and interpretation through research, publishing 13 theoretical articles and planning 28 topics to provide intellectual support for fulcrum construction. The article was written by Zhong Jingyuan and Liu Wenlong.
Summary: The Party School of the Shandong Provincial Party Committee has implemented a "three categories, four dimensions" student classification management model for basic training programs, following General Secretary Xi Jinping's discourses on Party school work. Programs are divided into long-term, medium-term, and short-term categories based on training duration, with management focused on party spirit education, study management, organizational management, and life management. Long-term programs emphasize whole-chain party spirit tempering and self-management, medium-term programs target key links with guided management, and short-term programs apply precise exercise with integrated management. Safeguards include optimizing the system of organizers following classes, improving their quality and capability, and implementing student and organizer assessment measures. The article was reported by Liu Yang and Meng Hongen.
Summary: The Party School of the Shaanxi Provincial Party Committee held a joint teaching and research meeting on October 19 to deploy work on deepening the integration of teaching, research, and consultation, with Standing Deputy Principal Fan Yongbin attending and delivering a speech. The meeting stated that this integration is an inherent need for improving cadre education quality and an important support for the Party school's roles in ideological guidance, theoretical development, and decision-making consultation. It emphasized strengthening overall planning around central Party and provincial government work, focusing on major theoretical and practical issues, and concentrating high-quality resources on key tasks. The meeting also called for organized teaching and research, quality-oriented course and topic creation, and the exemplary role of famous teachers and courses. Departments were required to fulfill their duties, coordinate closely, improve communication mechanisms, and accelerate the construction of a unified work pattern.
Summary: On October 22, the Harbin Municipal Grassroots Party School Regional Alliance held a special guidance activity on "Strengthening Research Capabilities, Offering Good Policy Advisory Proposals" at the Xiangfang District Party School, with Zhang Xinning, Vice President of the Harbin Municipal Party School, leading a delegation and 114 teachers from 18 grassroots party schools participating via live stream. Zhang Mingzhi, professor at the Political Academy of the National Defense University, analyzed key points and common pitfalls in grassroots research topics, while Wang Haitao and Chang Bing shared research methods and explained relevant policies. In the interactive Q&A segment, keynote speakers responded to participants' questions on research difficulties, clarifying paths for grassroots institutions to break through bottlenecks. In his concluding remarks, Zhang Xinning encouraged teachers to base themselves on regional practice and produce down-to-earth and practical research and policy advisory outcomes. The activity is part of the alliance's efforts to deepen inter-school collaboration, with the Harbin Municipal Party School continuing to lead in building a normalized platform for exchange and sharing.
Summary: From October 12 to 16, the Party School (School of Administration) of the Ningbo Municipal Party Committee organized teachers to travel to Kuqa City, Xinjiang, for teaching-delivery and research activities, using on-site lectures, remote teaching delivery, and teaching-research exchanges to extend high-quality teaching resources to the counterpart region. Teachers delivered two special-topic lectures — "Developing New Quality Productive Forces to Promote High-Quality Development" and "Improving the Capacity for Investigation and Research" — to Kuqa's cadre training classes, alongside three sessions of remote teaching delivery. The research group held a symposium with the Party School of the Kuqa Municipal Party Committee, exchanging views on teaching reform, scientific research and policy consultation, and faculty development, and conducted field research on ecological protection, cultural inheritance, community building for the Chinese nation, and Party-building-led grassroots governance. The activity was described as a concrete measure to deepen counterpart assistance to Xinjiang and strengthen collaboration between the two Party schools. Going forward, the Ningbo Party school will deepen normalized cooperation with Kuqa's Party school, promoting resource sharing and joint course development, faculty cultivation, and research collaboration.
Summary: The Shenzhen Municipal Party School held its third research workshop of 2026 at the Luohu District Party School, with nearly 50 experts and scholars participating. Participants studied Xi Jinping's thought on Party building and discussed the theme of strengthening the Party's overall leadership and Party building with the spirit of reform and innovation. Ten experts delivered exchange speeches, emphasizing the need to grasp the scientific connotation and practical requirements of Xi Jinping's thought on Party building. They also discussed Shenzhen's practical experience in Party building and the importance of advancing full and rigorous self-governance of the Party. The workshop concluded with plans to integrate Party building theories into training programs and contribute to Shenzhen's reform and innovation efforts.
Summary: The Fujian Provincial Party School (School of Administration) has implemented General Secretary Xi Jinping's important discourses on Party school work and the "Regulations on the Work of Party Schools (Schools of Administration) of the Communist Party of China," adopting a "one chessboard" approach to promote the orderly flow and intensive allocation of school-running resources among provincial, municipal, and county Party schools. The school adheres to high-level guidance by incorporating municipal and county Party school development into the provincial school's overall layout and the "15th Five-Year Plan" and "First-Class Party School" construction plan. It strengthens municipal-county coordination through branch school listing management, as exemplified by the Shouning County Party Committee School being listed as the Xiada Branch School of the Ningde Municipal Party Committee School, and advances regional coordination using municipal Party schools as hubs, such as the linked school-running model between the Shaxian District and Sanming Municipal Party Schools. The school also carries out mountain-sea collaboration between coastal and mountainous area Party schools, including paired construction between Fuzhou Fuqing—Ningde Zhouning and Xiamen Huli—Longyan Liancheng. Finally, it strengthens guarantee and supply by linking quality assessment results with resource allocation, transferring over 3,900 items of assets worth more than 2.5 million yuan to grassroots Party schools, and providing talent and business support for integrated development.
Summary: The article discusses how Lujiang County in Anhui Province is using the "attending the same class together" mechanism, based on the integrated provincial, municipal, and county Party school system, to open up the "last kilometer" of grassroots theoretical training. It addresses challenges such as limited county-level Party school teaching staff and the scattered distribution of rural and mobile Party members, which create contradictions between work and study for centralized training. The county promotes resource linkage, course localization, and feedback improvement, with county-level demonstration training driving simultaneous learning at town and street branch classrooms, cumulatively covering 3,367 Party member person-times since January. Lujiang also collects learning demands, develops over 60 high-quality courses and 10 categories of localized materials, and establishes a quality management chain before, during, and after class to optimize courses based on trainee feedback. The author, a First-Level Principal Staff Member of the Office of the Anhui Provincial Party School seconded as Vice President of the Lujiang County Party School, emphasizes that grassroots members are both recipients of high-quality courses and participants in updating teaching content.
Summary: The Party School (Academy of Governance) of the Qingdao Municipal Party Committee is building a new pattern of demand-oriented integration of teaching, research, and consultation. Following the revised "Regulations on the Work of Party Schools (Academies of Governance) of the Communist Party of China," the school focuses on cultivating talents for the Party and offering counsel for the Party through the systematic research and interpretation of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. To achieve this, the school has implemented institutional innovations, such as the "Implementation Measures for the Management of Teaching-Research-Consultation Integration Projects (Trial)," to break down departmental barriers and align research with the requirements of local practice and Chinese modernization. The school also emphasizes horizontal linkage by cooperating with municipal departments, universities, and research institutes, including strategic agreements with Shandong University and Qingdao University of Technology. Since 2024, these efforts have resulted in numerous provincial-level projects, interactive teaching courses, and decision-making consultation reports that have received affirmative instructions from leaders at or above the deputy provincial level.
Summary: The Party School of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Party Committee has implemented post appointment system reform as a key measure to stimulate teaching faculty potential, following General Secretary Xi Jinping's guidance on Party school work. The reform emphasizes coordinated advancement, combining rigid standards with work performance, goal guidance with appointment period assessment, and performance priority with quantitative evaluation. Differentiated assessment indicators are set by classification (teaching-oriented, research-oriented, teaching-research-balanced), stratification (by professional title levels), and segmentation (by teacher development stages). The policy enables both "moving up" through raised appointment conditions and exceptional competitive appointments, and "moving down" through ranking-based demotions and contract termination for unqualified assessments. In 2025, the school won two awards each for outstanding teaching and scientific research achievements in the national Party school system.
Summary: The Party School of the Henan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China is integrating the great Long March spirit into all aspects of its operations and governance, following General Secretary Xi Jinping's "five musts" on carrying forward this spirit. The school uses Henan's red resources, including the Red 25th Army's departure from Hejiachong, to educate Party members and cadres through on-site teaching at the Dabie Mountains Red Education Base and immersive courses. It supports advisory research through the Henan Red Culture Research Center, publishing monographs and theoretical articles on red culture inheritance and old revolutionary base area revitalization. The school also incorporates the Long March spirit into faculty training, encourages young researchers to engage in grassroots work, and integrates discipline and work style requirements into student management.
Summary: The article outlines how the Party School of the Hainan Provincial Committee of the CPC has implemented the "Regulations on Cadre Education and Training Work" by strengthening teaching design to enhance teaching effectiveness. It details four key areas of exploratory practice: improving teaching content centered on Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and Hainan Free Trade Port construction; optimizing teaching staff allocation by inviting central and provincial leaders and experts; innovating teaching methods through interactive, on-site, and case-based approaches; and enriching teaching activities such as reading sessions and off-site teaching. The article also emphasizes strengthening overall advancement through a province-wide "one chessboard" approach, coordinating resources and standardizing teaching design across municipal and county Party schools. The author is identified as the Director of the Academic Affairs Division of the Party School of the Hainan Provincial Committee of the CPC.
Summary: The article recounts the founding and history of Zhu De's Officer Training Corps in Nanchang, established in 1927 under the auspices of Zhu Peide's Third Army but secretly led by the Communist Party's Central Military Commission. It trained over 1,100 military and political cadres, emphasizing political education and practical training, with Zhu De personally overseeing instruction and mass work. As Kuomintang-Communist cooperation collapsed, Zhu De dispersed most trainees to revolutionary work, while over 400 participated in the Nanchang Uprising as a reserve force. Zhou Enlai praised Zhu De's role in the uprising, and the corps' brief operation contributed significantly to Jiangxi's revolutionary struggle and future military education.
Summary: The author, who came to Beijing in 1985 and worked near the Summer Palace, recounts how the garden evolved from a geographical landmark into a fixed destination for entertaining guests, then a family back garden for raising a child, and later an old friend revisited after retirement. At different life stages, their experience shifted from hurried superficial tours to leisurely solitary walks, with a growing appreciation for the garden's history and its role as a reception hall for tourists from all over the world. The article notes the Summer Palace was first built in 1750, burned by Anglo-French forces in 1860, and renamed in 1888, reflecting on its 138 years of history and the progress of the times. The author concludes by observing that while they once looked at scenery, they now watch the diverse visitors, finding new meaning in the garden's enduring presence.
Summary: The article examines the concept of "All-under-Heaven" (tianxia) as recorded in the Book of Songs, describing it as a holistic spatial, political, ethical, and cultural order centered on the royal domain and extending to the four directions. It highlights how the Zhou people transformed this abstract idea into a real political order through territorial expansion, enfeoffment, and capital-building, while also linking it to the virtue-based legitimacy of royal power under the Mandate of Heaven. The text emphasizes that stability and legitimacy rest on virtue and compassion for the people, not military force, and that ritual, music, and poetry education served to unify diverse groups under a shared civilization. The article concludes that this early view of All-under-Heaven, including ideas of returning to benevolence and matching virtue with Heaven, holds enlightening significance for later generations.
From October 26 to 29, the Fifth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was successfully held. Striding forward on the new journey of comprehensively building a modern socialist country, Chinese Communists forever maintain the sober clarity of those taking an examination, powerfully writing another glorious chapter in the annals of the history of a Marxist political party.
This plenary session was a very important meeting held at the significant juncture of the 105th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China and during the critical period of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. The plenary session heard and discussed the work report delivered by General Secretary Xi Jinping on behalf of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee, and fully affirmed the new progress and new achievements made in the cause of the Party and the state since the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Party. The plenary session profoundly summarized the great achievements and valuable experience of full and rigorous self-governance of the Party in the new era, and deliberated and adopted the Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Several Major Issues Concerning Persistently Advancing Full and Rigorous Self-Governance of the Party, which is a programmatic document for continuously advancing the great new project of Party building in the new era. The holding of the plenary session will surely powerfully mobilize and inspire the entire Party and the people of all ethnic groups across the country to strive to create new splendor on the new Long March.
Party building bears on the future and destiny of the Party and on the rise and fall, success and failure of the cause of the Party and the state. The plenary session focused on studying the issue of persistently advancing full and rigorous self-governance of the Party. This is a major decision made by the Party Central Committee by acting according to the prevailing circumstances (审时度势, shen shi du shi - "examine, time, measure, trend") and after overall consideration, grasping the historical orientation of the development of the cause of the Party and the state and focusing on the overall situation of Chinese modernization, fully reflecting our Party's high degree of sobriety and firm will regarding strengthening its own construction. The Decision adopted by the plenary session makes strategic arrangements for persistently advancing full and rigorous self-governance of the Party. This is an inevitable requirement for maintaining the Party's advanced nature and purity and consolidating its long-term governing position, an inevitable requirement for consolidating and developing the sound political situation of the entire Party's high degree of unity and solidarity and the high degree of cohesion of the Party's heart, the military's heart, and the people's heart, and an inevitable requirement for fulfilling the Party's historical mission and promoting the steady and long-term progress of the cause of the Party and the state.
As the chapter on Party building of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, Xi Jinping Thought on Party Building is a major achievement of upholding the Two Integrations (两个结合) to advance theoretical innovation of the Party, a crystallization of the practical experience and collective wisdom of the Party and the people, and provides fundamental guidance and a guide to action for deeply advancing the great new project of Party building in the new era. The Decision fully implements Xi Jinping Thought on Party Building, centers on the overall work, serves the overall situation, upholds the strict tone, highlights a problem-oriented approach, strengthens systematic thinking, summarizes achievements and experience by seeking truth from facts, defines guiding ideology and principles with scientific precision, and puts forward policy measures that are pragmatic and feasible, fully reflecting the historical initiative of the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core to strengthen the Party and strengthen the country. It is of major practical significance and long-term guiding significance for further creating a new situation of governing and managing the Party, revitalizing and strengthening the Party in the new era, and uniting and leading the people of all ethnic groups across the country to comprehensively advance the great cause of building a strong country and national rejuvenation through Chinese modernization.
Cherishing the lofty ideal of communism and aspiring to the millennia-long cause of the Chinese nation, our Party has always adhered to the original aspiration and founding mission of seeking happiness for the Chinese people and rejuvenation for the Chinese nation, uniting and leading the people to write the most magnificent epic in the several-thousand-year history of the Chinese nation through 105 years of unremitting struggle, continuously growing stronger in relying on its own strength and the support of the people to solve its own problems, and becoming the strong leading core of the cause of the Party and the people. Since the 18th National Congress of the Party, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, with tremendous political courage and a strong sense of responsibility, has unswervingly pursued full and rigorous self-governance of the Party, continuously solved prominent problems, fundamentally reversed the lax, loose, and soft situation in governing and managing the Party, curbed some unhealthy tendencies that had long gone unchecked, corrected some deep-rooted maladies that had persisted for many years, eliminated serious hidden dangers existing within the Party, the state, and the military, and the Party has become stronger and more powerful through revolutionary tempering. Full and rigorous self-governance of the Party in the new era has opened up a new realm of self-revolution for the century-old major party, promoted historic achievements and historic changes in the cause of the Party and the state, and made the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation unstoppable.
The great achievements in governing and managing the Party, revitalizing and strengthening the Party in the new era, and the creation of a brand-new situation in the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics are fundamentally due to the helm-steering and command of the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, and to the scientific guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, fully demonstrating that the Two Establishments (两个确立) are of decisive significance to the development of the cause of the Party and the state in the new era and to advancing the historical process of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. History and practice have fully proven that only by persistently advancing full and rigorous self-governance of the Party and continuously eliminating the viruses that erode the Party's healthy body can we ensure that the Party never changes its nature, never changes its color, and never changes its flavor, and ensure that the red river and mountains are passed down from generation to generation.
In handling China's affairs well, the key lies in the Party, and the key lies in full and rigorous self-governance of the Party. Comprehensively advancing the great cause of building a strong country and national rejuvenation through Chinese modernization is an unprecedented pioneering undertaking. As the world situation, national conditions, and Party conditions undergo profound changes, full and rigorous self-governance of the Party also faces many new situations and new problems. The longer the Party governs, the longer the days of peace and prosperity, and the more complex the environment, the more necessary it is to strengthen our sense of urgency and achieve maintaining vigilance during times of peace (居安思危, ju an si wei - "dwell, peace, think, danger"), and to build the Party well and build it strong. Facing the complex and ever-changing international and domestic situations and the arduous and heavy tasks of reform, development, and stability, to promote the steady and long-term progress of Chinese modernization, it is necessary to persistently advance full and rigorous self-governance of the Party. The entire Party must strengthen confidence, maintain strategic resolve, vigorously carry forward the great founding spirit of the Party, always bear in mind the "Three Imperatives," and continuously carry forward the Party's excellent qualities, uphold and apply the valuable experience of full and rigorous self-governance of the Party in the new era with higher standards and more concrete measures, rectify and solve the prominent problems facing Party building well, consolidate and develop the sound political situation formed by governing and managing the Party well, and provide a strong guarantee for comprehensively building a great modern socialist country and comprehensively advancing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation through Chinese modernization.
The Decision clarifies the guiding ideology and major principles for persistently advancing full and rigorous self-governance of the Party, and deploys strategic tasks and major measures. The entire Party must unify thoughts and actions with the spirit of the plenary session and the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee, deeply study and implement Xi Jinping Thought on Party Building, fully apply the valuable experience of full and rigorous self-governance of the Party in the new era, adhere to serving the mission and tasks, adhere to taking the Party's political construction as the guide, adhere to comprehensive strictness, adhere to a problem-oriented approach, adhere to upholding fundamental principles and break new ground, adhere to leading by example from the top down (以上率下, yi shang lv xia - "above, lead, below, follow"), adhere to governing the Party according to regulations, continuously strengthen the Party's political leadership, ideological guidance, mass organization, and social appeal, and ensure that the Party always remains a vibrant Marxist governing party that walks at the forefront of the times, is sincerely supported by the people, and can withstand various storms and tests, and always remains the strong leading core of the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
History heralds the future, and struggle achieves great undertakings. From "a scene of decline and withering" to "a scene of flourishing and thriving" (欣欣向荣, xin xin xiang rong - "flourishing, towards, prosperous"), the earth-shaking changes that have taken place on Chinese soil over more than one hundred years fully prove that the Party has not failed history, has not failed the people, and is worthy of being the vanguard of the Chinese working class and worthy of being the vanguard of the Chinese people and the Chinese nation. Forging ahead on the new journey, the great, glorious, and correct Communist Party of China, having weathered storms without changing its original aspiration, with firm goals and courageous progress, will surely continue to create a better future. Let us unite more closely around the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, fully implement Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, deeply understand the decisive significance of the Two Establishments, enhance the Four Consciousnesses, strengthen the Four Confidences, and achieve the Two Upholds, striving for excellence in governance (励精图治, li jing tu zhi - "exert, spirit, plan, govern") and working hard to become stronger, firmly shoulder the heavy responsibilities entrusted by history and the people, build our Party better and stronger, and hand in new and even better answer sheets on the new road of taking the examination.
(Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, October 29)
Return to TopBy: 牛先锋
The Fifth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Party emphasized the need to "continuously strengthen the Party's political leadership, ideological guidance, mass organization, and social appeal, ensuring that the Party always remains a vibrant Marxist ruling party that stays at the forefront of the times, enjoys the heartfelt support of the people, and withstands various trials and tribulations, and always serves as the strong leading core of the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics." Continuously strengthening the Party's political leadership, ideological guidance, mass organization, and social appeal is a new requirement for improving the Party's governance capability and leadership level in the new era, and is an important task for deeply advancing the great new project of Party building in the new era.
Continuously strengthening the Party's political leadership, ideological guidance, mass organization, and social appeal, ensuring that our Party forever maintains vigorous vitality and strong combat effectiveness
The Communist Party of China is a long-term ruling Marxist party. The Party's political leadership is mainly reflected in its leadership over major decisions such as the Party's line, principles, and policies; its leadership over major judgments concerning the country's development path, development stage, development layout, and international situation; and its leadership in defending political positions, keeping the political direction correct, adhering to political principles, maintaining political resolve, and preventing political risks. Since the 18th National Congress of the Party, General Secretary Xi Jinping has clearly stated that "the most essential feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics is the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the greatest strength of the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics is the leadership of the Communist Party of China, and the Communist Party of China is the highest political leadership force." Affairs are conducted in all directions, but the key lies in the central authorities. Strengthening the Party's political leadership, the most important and fundamental aspect, is to resolutely uphold the authority and centralized, unified leadership of the Central Committee, ensuring that orders are carried out and prohibitions are heeded, and ensuring that the major decisions and deployments of the Central Committee are implemented and benefit all the people.
The Party's ideological guidance is mainly reflected in adhering to Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, the important thought of the Three Represents, and the Scientific Outlook on Development; fully implementing Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era; deeply studying and implementing Xi Jinping's thought on Party building; adhering to the combination of the basic principles of Marxism with China's specific realities and with China's excellent traditional culture, continuously opening up new realms of adapting Marxism to the Chinese context and the needs of the times; and adhering to arming the whole Party with the Party's innovative theories, educating the people, and using the latest achievements of adapting Marxism to the Chinese context and the needs of the times to lead society forward.
The Party's mass organization is mainly reflected in two aspects: First, adhering to the Party's mass line, doing everything for the masses, relying on the masses, coming from the masses and going to the masses, firmly believing that the masses are the creators of history, believing that the masses possess inexhaustible wisdom and strength, effectively solving the urgent, difficult, and anxious problems of the masses, and continuously enhancing the masses' sense of gain, happiness, and security. Second, Party organizations at all levels and individual Party members leading by example (以身作则, yi shen zuo ze - "take, body, act, rule"), setting an example and taking the lead, always walking ahead of the masses, setting benchmarks and demonstrating for the masses through their own words and deeds, attracting and organizing the masses with their own advanced nature, and consolidating a deep mass foundation.
The Party's social appeal is mainly reflected in the Party inspiring society through beautiful visions, guiding society with scientific strategic arrangements, mobilizing society with sound organizations, attracting society with tangible achievements, and influencing society with an incorruptible and people-friendly image. Social appeal is the manifestation of the Party uniting the people, consolidating consensus, mobilizing society, and ultimately forming strong social vitality.
The Party's political leadership, ideological guidance, mass organization, and social appeal are both inherent requirements for advancing the great new project of Party building in the new era and important goal orientations for advancing the great new project of Party building in the new era. The Party's political leadership, ideological guidance, mass organization, and social appeal are closely linked and mutually interconnected. Among them, strengthening the Party's political leadership holds a commanding position, strengthening the Party's ideological guidance is a foundational project, strengthening the Party's mass organization is necessary to promote practical development, and strengthening the Party's social appeal is an important goal orientation. Only by strengthening the Party's political leadership, ideological guidance, mass organization, and social appeal can we ensure that our Party forever maintains vigorous vitality and strong combat effectiveness, enabling our Party to always remain a strong leading core in the historical process of upholding and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics.
Persistently advancing full and rigorous self-governance of the Party, strengthening the Party's political leadership, ideological guidance, mass organization, and social appeal
The Communist Party of China is a long-term ruling Marxist party. Consolidating the Party's long-term ruling position and maintaining the advanced nature and purity of a Marxist party inevitably requires persistently advancing full and rigorous self-governance of the Party and continuously strengthening the Party's political leadership, ideological guidance, mass organization, and social appeal.
The core force leading our cause is the Communist Party of China. The most fundamental aspect of the leadership of the Communist Party of China is political leadership, and political leadership is largely realized through formulating and implementing correct lines, principles, and policies. When the Party's lines, principles, and policies are correct and effectively implemented, the cause of the Party and the state will advance through the waves. When the Party's lines, principles, and policies are not in line with reality or are poorly implemented, the cause of the Party and the state will encounter setbacks. Persistently advancing full and rigorous self-governance of the Party inevitably requires the whole Party to be adept at viewing problems from a political perspective, judging the nature of problems from a political perspective, analyzing the roots of contradictions from a political perspective, grasping the direction of development of things from a political perspective, and standing firm on political positions, adhering to political principles, and clearly stating political attitudes in the face of major issues of right and wrong. Only when the Party's political leadership is strengthened can correct lines, principles, and policies be formulated and implemented, and can directional and subversive errors be avoided.
The theoretical foundation guiding our thinking is Marxism. Marxism is the theoretical cornerstone of our Party's founding and governance, and of the Party's prosperity and the country's development. The Party's ideological guidance is mainly reflected in the degree of mastery of Marxism and the level of practical application of the basic principles of Marxism. Marxism is a scientific worldview and methodology, and a theoretical weapon for Communists to transform the subjective and objective world. Only with theoretical clarity can one be politically firm and act with consciousness. Phenomena that violate Party principles, such as abandoning the Party's ideals and beliefs, lacking organization and discipline, failing to distinguish between public and private interests, using public power for private gain, offering and accepting bribes, and taking bribes and bending the law, are all closely related to an incorrect worldview. Persistently advancing full and rigorous self-governance of the Party requires carrying out self-revolution from the depths of thought, treating serious study of Marxism as a required course, and firmly mastering Marxism as the essential skill. Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era is the Marxism of contemporary China and the Marxism of the 21st century. Only by adhering to arming the whole Party and educating the people with Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era can the Party's ideological guidance be strengthened.
The masses are the creators of history. The cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics was achieved by hundreds of millions of Chinese people themselves. Only when the masses are organized through the Party can they think with one mind and exert their strength in one direction, coalescing into an invincible force. The Communist Party of China is the vanguard of the Chinese working class, and at the same time the vanguard of the Chinese people and the Chinese nation. The advanced nature of the Party determines that the Party can organize the masses and unite them into a solid whole. However, the danger of the Party becoming detached from the masses also often exists. Under conditions of long-term governance and in the face of brilliant achievements, some Party members and cadres have weakened their concept of the masses and are not good at mass work. Over time, they lose the will to organize the masses and discard the ability to organize the masses. When real risks and trials arrive, it is too late to organize the masses. The collapse of the Soviet Communist Party and the Soviet Union is greatly related to its long-term detachment from the masses and loss of the ability to organize the masses. Our Party comes from the masses, is rooted in the masses, and serves the masses. The Party's foundation lies in the masses, its bloodline lies in the masses, and its strength lies in the masses. Persistently advancing full and rigorous self-governance of the Party is precisely about continuously consolidating the mass foundation of the Party's governance and enhancing the Party's ability to organize the masses.
Social vitality is the enduring driving force for economic and social development. Full and rigorous self-governance of the Party is not for the sake of governing the Party itself, nor is it about replacing social vitality with the Party's leadership. Persistently advancing full and rigorous self-governance of the Party first requires building the Party well, and then, through the exemplary and leading role of Party members and Party organizations at all levels, calling on social forces to participate in the cause of the Party and the state, and stimulating the vitality of the whole society to achieve the Party's goals of governing the country. Strengthening the Party's social appeal, combining the Party's leadership with the people being the masters of the country, and enhancing the Party's social mobilization capacity, interest integration capacity, and ideological guidance capacity through the Party's good image, style, and organization, forms a mighty force for Chinese modernization.
Adhering to the guidance of Xi Jinping's thought on Party building, continuously strengthening the Party's political leadership, ideological guidance, mass organization, and social appeal
Xi Jinping's thought on Party building is an important ideological weapon for governing and managing the Party, and for rejuvenating and strengthening the Party in the new era. On the new journey of comprehensively building a modern socialist country, continuously strengthening the Party's political leadership, ideological guidance, mass organization, and social appeal must adhere to the guidance of Xi Jinping's thought on Party building.
As a Marxist party, our Party's emphasis on politics is a prominent feature and advantage. To emphasize politics, one must first understand what politics is. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that "comprehensively advancing the great cause of building a strong country and national rejuvenation through Chinese modernization is the central task of the Party and the state on the new journey of the new era, and is the greatest politics of the new era." Strengthening the Party's political leadership must adhere to the fundamental requirement of "taking political construction as the guide," closely focus on the central task of Chinese modernization, clearly discern the political direction, consolidate the political foundation, cultivate the political ecosystem, prevent political risks, forever maintain political integrity, continuously improve political judgment, political understanding, and political execution, and consciously maintain a high degree of consistency with the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core in thought, politics, and action.
Marxism is the theoretical foundation of the ideals and beliefs of Communists. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that "once we join the Party, we commit to Marxism, and to socialism and communism." Continuously strengthening the Party's ideological guidance must closely focus on the fundamental task of Party ideological construction, which is "persistently using the Party's innovative theories to unite hearts and souls," reading original works, studying original texts, and comprehending principles, and mastering Marxism as the essential skill. In particular, it is necessary to seriously study, implement, and practice Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, adhere to building the Party ideologically and strengthening the Party theoretically, solve the "master switch" problem of worldview, outlook on life, and values, build a solid foundation of faith, replenish the calcium of spirit, and steady the rudder of thought.
The strength of the Party's mass organization first depends on whether the Party can truly adhere to the values of "doing everything for the masses and relying on the masses." General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that "the Communist Party of China has never represented the interests of any interest group, any power group, or any privileged stratum," and "on the fundamental question of who we govern for, who we use power for, and who we seek benefits for, our minds must be especially clear and our positions especially firm." Only by considering the interests of the masses in every matter can the masses be willing to follow the Party. Second, it depends on whether the Party can truly adhere to the methodology of "coming from the masses and going to the masses." General Secretary Xi Jinping taught young cadres, "We must persist in going to the masses and to practice, listening to what grassroots cadres and the masses think, urgently need, and expect, understanding and grasping the real situation, and must not make a superficial inspection, skim the surface without depth, become conceited after a single success, or draw general conclusions from biased or partial evidence." Only by adhering to coming from the masses and going to the masses can the policies and measures formulated conform to the reality of the masses, and can the masses be organized to follow the Party. Strengthening the Party's ability to organize the masses must adhere to the effective path of "promoting the normalization and long-term effectiveness of work style improvement," which maintains the flesh-and-blood connection between the Party and the masses, resolutely break privileged thinking and privileged behavior, rectify the Four Malfeasances, foster new practices, and persevere with unremitting effort (锲而不舍, qie er bu she - "carve, and, not, abandon") in implementing the spirit of the Central Committee's Eight-Point Regulation.
Upholding and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics is a great and arduous cause that requires mobilizing all advantageous resources of society and calling on all positive forces of society. Over more than 40 years of reform and opening up, under the guidance of the Party's and the state's principles and policies, China's private economy has grown from small to large and from weak to strong, and has become a major field for entrepreneurship and employment, an important subject of technological innovation, and an important source of national tax revenue. The vast number of private entrepreneurs have vigorously promoted the entrepreneurial spirit, actively participated in the implementation of major national strategies, taken industrial patriotism and industrial development as their mission, and strived to be models of patriotism, dedication, law-abiding operation, innovation and entrepreneurship, and giving back to society. Together with workers, peasants, and intellectuals, they are all builders of socialism with Chinese characteristics. On the new journey of building a strong country and national rejuvenation, strengthening the Party's social appeal must be based on new changes in the economy and society, fully mobilize and incentivize the factor input of owners of different factors of production, let the vitality of all labor, knowledge, technology, management, and capital burst forth, let all sources of social wealth flow fully, and, under the leadership of the Party, jointly converge into a powerful force for the construction of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
[The author is the Executive Deputy President of the Party School (School of Administration) of the Party Committee of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region]
Return to TopBy: 丁俊萍
The Fifth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Party proposed that strengthening Party spirit is the fundamental task of full and rigorous self-governance of the Party. Party spirit is the cornerstone of Party members and cadres' conduct, career, speech, and moral character. Party spirit education is a required course for Communists to cultivate their moral character and also the "study of the mind" for Communists. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that only by mastering scientific theory and consolidating the ideological foundation can full and rigorous self-governance of the Party have solid support. It is necessary to grasp well the foundation of ideological development, unremittingly advance the arming of the Party's innovative theory, persistently strengthen Party spirit education, and guide Party members and cadres to transform the strategic policy of full and rigorous self-governance of the Party into conscious action. Persistently strengthening Party spirit education is an important path to accomplishing the fundamental task of strengthening Party spirit under full and rigorous self-governance of the Party. Correctly understanding the connotation and essence of persistently strengthening Party spirit education, scientifically grasping the practical requirements of persistently strengthening Party spirit education, and grasping it firmly as a long-term project will help consolidate the ideological foundation of full and rigorous self-governance of the Party and persistently advance full and rigorous self-governance of the Party.
Deeply Understand the Great Significance of Persistently Strengthening Party Spirit Education
Persistently strengthening Party spirit education is an important component of persistently advancing full and rigorous self-governance of the Party. Since the 18th National Congress of the Party, the Party Central Committee has incorporated full and rigorous self-governance of the Party into the strategic layout of the Four-Pronged Comprehensive Strategy (四个全面), adhered to a problem-oriented approach, and emphasized "strict governance in ideology, insisting on arming the mind and uniting the soul with the latest achievements of Marxism in China, and using ideals, beliefs, and Party spirit education to strengthen the foundation and nourish the essence (固本培元, gu ben pei yuan - "solidify, foundation, nourish, origin") and to supplement calcium and strengthen the bones." The reason for placing strict governance in ideology first is that various problems in intra-Party political life ultimately stem from the shaking of the "ballast stone" of ideals and beliefs of some Party members and cadres, and the loosening of the "master switch" of their worldview, outlook on life, and values. Party spirit education is the key to eliminating confusion and returning to the original source (正本清源, zheng ben qing yuan - "correct, root, clear, source") and strengthening the foundation from the ideological root. Full and rigorous self-governance of the Party must be truly managed and strictly managed, boldly managed and strictly managed, and persistently managed and strictly managed. It must never fall into the cycle of grasping for a while, relaxing for a while, and then grasping again when problems arise, only to relax again. It must persistently promote the deepening of full and rigorous self-governance of the Party. The long-term nature, complexity, and extreme importance of governing the Party determine that Party spirit education must move in the same direction and exert sustained effort. If Party spirit education is relaxed for a while and tightened for a while, the ideological foundation will waver, and the main tone of strictness will be difficult to sustain. Only by making Party spirit education regular, detailed, and long-term can full and rigorous self-governance of the Party have solid ideological support.
Persistently strengthening Party spirit education is a lifelong topic running through the entire process of Party members and cadres' growth. The advanced nature and purity of a Marxist political party are not naturally maintained over time, and the Party spirit of Communist Party members does not naturally improve with the growth of Party seniority and the promotion of positions. The original aspiration does not remain fresh and guaranteed forever; if not carefully attended to, it may become tarnished and faded, and if not nourished for a long time, it may dry up and wither. It must be tempered through continuous study, education, and intra-Party political life. Party spirit is the greatest virtue of Party members and cadres. Some cadres have problems mainly because of problems in "virtue" and weak Party spirit. Party members and cadres who violate rules, discipline, and law mostly lack due Party spirit cultivation. Some frankly admit in their confession letters that they do not understand or are unfamiliar with the Party Constitution, Party regulations, and Party discipline, and only suddenly come to their senses (幡然醒悟, fan ran xing wu - "suddenly, realize, awaken") after problems arise. These lessons profoundly show that strengthening Party spirit education and enhancing Party spirit cultivation is a process requiring lifelong effort. Only by treating Party spirit education as a required course to be constantly cultivated and refined, constantly comprehended and advanced, can the phenomenon of being a "good cadre" today and a "prisoner" tomorrow be prevented.
Persistently strengthening Party spirit education is an inherent requirement for always maintaining sobriety and firmness in solving the unique problems of a major party. Under conditions of long-term governance, factors that weaken the Party's advanced nature and harm the Party's purity exist at all times, dangers that violate the original aspiration and mission and shake the Party's foundation are everywhere, and prominent problems within the Party such as impure ideology, impure politics, impure organization, and impure work style have not yet been fundamentally solved. These factors and problems are concrete manifestations of the unique problems of a major party, which General Secretary Xi Jinping profoundly summarized with the "six hows and alwayss." Solving these problems fundamentally depends on strengthening the foundation and nourishing the essence, and on strengthening Party spirit. Strengthening Party spirit education is the basic work of supplementing calcium and strengthening the bones, expelling toxins and sterilizing, removing diseases and healing wounds, and eliminating decay and regenerating flesh from the ideological root. Solving the unique problems of a major party is bound to be a long and arduous process, which determines that Party spirit education must maintain the tenacity of "always being on the road." As long as factors that weaken the advanced nature and harm the purity still exist, Party spirit education has no reason to rest. Persistently strengthening Party spirit education is an inherent requirement for always maintaining sobriety and firmness in solving the unique problems of a major party, and an important guarantee for the Party to respond to various risks and challenges and consolidate its long-term governing position in the new era and new journey.
Notable Achievements and Valuable Experience of Party Spirit Education Since the New Era
Since the 18th National Congress of the Party, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has placed Party spirit education in a prominent position, promoted the whole Party to become stronger through revolutionary tempering, and accumulated valuable experience in tempering strong Party spirit.
Adhere to deepening Party spirit education with the Party's political development as the guide. The Party's political development is the fundamental development of the Party, determining the direction and effectiveness of Party development. In the new era, Party spirit education has always placed political cultivation first, taken safeguarding the authority of the Party Central Committee and its centralized, unified leadership as the highest political principle, and guided Party members and cadres to enhance the Four Consciousnesses (四个意识), strengthen the Four Confidences (四个自信), and achieve the Two Upholds (两个维护). Party schools at all levels take political training and political tempering as the core content of Party spirit education, promoting Party members and cadres to temper political character, accumulate political experience, and enhance political acuity in serious intra-Party political life. Through sustained efforts, the whole Party's political judgment, political understanding, and political execution have significantly improved, and the practice of the Two Upholds has become more conscious and firm. Practice has profoundly shown that Party spirit education must firmly grasp the political direction and carry through the maintenance of a firm political stance and strict political discipline throughout, to ensure that education does not deviate.
Adhere to the simultaneous and coordinated efforts of ideological education and institutional constraints. Full and rigorous self-governance of the Party relies on both education and institutions; the two, one soft and one hard, must exert force in the same direction and at the same time. Since the 18th National Congress of the Party, the Party has adhered to using the Party's innovative theories to unite the soul, using ideals, beliefs, and Party spirit education to strengthen the foundation and nourish the essence and supplement calcium and strengthen the bones; continuously improved the system of intra-Party laws and regulations, formulated and implemented a series of intra-Party laws and regulations closely related to Party spirit tempering, and fixed the achievements of Party spirit education in institutional form. It established the system of staying true to the Party's original aspiration and founding mission, improved the Party's organizational life systems such as the "three meetings and one lesson" and organizational life meetings, and promoted the standardized operation of Party spirit education on the institutional track. Practice has profoundly shown that only when educational guidance and institutional constraints complement each other can Party spirit education both touch the soul and manage the long term.
Adhere to the close integration of concentrated education and regular education. Concentrated education solves prominent problems, while regular education consolidates educational achievements. Since the 18th National Congress of the Party, the Party Central Committee has organized concentrated education within the whole Party nine times in a row, each time clearly putting forward requirements for strengthening Party spirit and Party spirit tempering. Intra-Party concentrated education and concentrated Party spirit education are interrelated and advance in coordination. At the same time, the Party Central Committee attaches great importance to the "crucible" role of intra-Party political life, closely combining the serious and earnest conduct of intra-Party political life with the in-depth advancement of Party spirit education, integrating Party spirit education into daily life and regular work, and promoting the expansion of intra-Party education from the "key minority" to the broad masses of Party members and its extension from concentrated education to regular education. Practice has profoundly shown that only by combining concentrated education with regular education can Party spirit education have both the effect of concentrated force to solve prominent problems and the resilience of accumulated daily progress and sustained, long-term effort.
Adhere to grasping Party spirit, Party conduct, and Party discipline together. Party spirit is the foundation, Party conduct is the manifestation, and Party discipline is the guarantee; the three form an organic whole. An important strategy of full and rigorous self-governance of the Party in the new era is to connect Party spirit education with work style development and discipline development, seeking the root of work style problems in Party spirit and strengthening the foundation of discipline awareness by strengthening Party spirit. In particular, since the development of Party discipline study and education, the whole Party has seriously studied, understood, clarified, and observed discipline, tempered strong Party spirit through serious and strict discipline education, enhanced the high degree of consciousness in studying, understanding, clarifying, and observing discipline by improving Party members and cadres' Party spirit cultivation and strengthening Party spirit tempering, and unified thought, will, and action across the whole Party. Practice has profoundly shown that only when Party spirit education is closely connected with rectifying conduct, enforcing discipline, and combating corruption can a systematic, integrated, and coordinated force for governing the Party be formed.
The achievement of these achievements and experiences fundamentally lies in the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core attaching great importance to the strategic value of Party spirit education, and in the ideological and action consciousness formed across the whole Party of not relaxing or resting in grasping Party spirit education. These experiences also provide basic guidelines for further strengthening Party spirit education.
Focal Points for Persistently Strengthening Party Spirit Education on the New Journey
"Governance values constancy; governance requires regularity." Party spirit education is a long-term project, valuing persistence and emphasizing practical results. Persistently strengthening Party spirit education must continuously exert force in normalization, institutionalization, and effectiveness, and strive to overcome tendencies such as "a passing gust of wind" and "going through the motions."
Adhere to integrating into daily life and grasping in regular work. Further improve the mechanism combining regular education with concentrated education, promote the establishment and improvement of a daily and regular Party spirit tempering system, and integrate Party spirit education into daily life and regular work. Test and strengthen Party spirit in the process of adhering to proceeding from reality and seeking truth from facts, adhere to the unity of Party spirit and affinity to the people in the process of closely connecting with the masses, strengthen Party spirit tempering in the process of seriously conducting criticism and self-criticism, strengthen Party spirit consciousness in the process of adhering to and improving democratic centralism, and continuously enhance the effectiveness of Party spirit education in the process of strictly enforcing Party discipline. Seriously and earnestly conduct intra-Party political life, so that Party members and cadres enhance their Party consciousness and Party member consciousness through influencing someone imperceptibly over time (潜移默化, qian yi mo hua - "subtle, move, silent, transform"), and prevent education from being hot for a while and cold for a while.
Adhere to leading by example from above and consolidating responsibility. Whether Party spirit education can be persistently advanced and strengthened depends on whether the political responsibility for strengthening Party spirit education can be persistently implemented. Party committees (Party groups) at all levels should treat Party spirit education as an important political task, incorporate it into the Party development work responsibility system, and form a coordinated mechanism with unified leadership of the Party committee, overall planning and promotion of the organization department, and specific implementation by Party schools and cadre education and training institutions. Leading cadres, especially the "top leaders," should fulfill the responsibility of the first responsible person, both taking the lead in receiving education and personally planning and advancing it, preventing the phenomenon of "important in words, secondary in deeds, and neglected when busy," and ensuring with rigid responsibility that Party spirit education is not interrupted or downgraded.
Adhere to a problem-oriented approach and the combination of learning and application. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that speaking the truth and doing practical things best test and temper Party spirit. Party spirit education cannot be empty talk; it must be closely connected with reality. Set differentiated educational content according to the ideological reality and post characteristics of Party members and cadres at different levels and in different fields. Combine solving ideological problems with solving practical problems, and ultimately implement educational results in practical actions of promoting high-quality development and serving the people. Whether Party spirit is strong is ultimately tested in overcoming difficulties and reflected in benefiting the people. To improve the effectiveness of Party spirit education, it is necessary to guide Party members and cadres to implement the general requirements of "building the Party for the public, benefiting the people, making scientific decisions, and doing solid work," and create achievements that stand the test of practice, the people, and history.
Adhere to the unity of knowledge and action and lifelong cultivation. General Secretary Xi Jinping clearly required that leading cadres take tempering Party spirit and improving ideological awareness as a lifelong topic, learning, studying, and cultivating until old age. Party spirit education ultimately depends on the consciousness of Party members and cadres; external educational guidance can only truly work when transformed into internal self-cultivation. Guide Party members and cadres to frequently examine themselves against the Party Constitution, frequently brush off ideological dust, give play to the exemplary role of advanced models and the warning role of negative examples, and gradually internalize Party spirit requirements into daily behavioral habits that are used without conscious awareness.
"Those who plant trees must cultivate their roots; those who cultivate virtue must nourish their hearts." Party spirit education is the "study of the mind" for Communists and the foundational project of full and rigorous self-governance of the Party. On the new journey, the tasks facing Party development are more arduous and the risks and challenges more complex. Only by grasping Party spirit education firmly as a systematic and long-term project, continuously guiding the broad masses of Party members to work hard in firming up ideals and beliefs, forging loyalty to the Party, deepening the sentiment of serving the people, adhering to seeking truth from facts, purifying moral character, and maintaining integrity and honesty, achieving loyalty, cleanliness, and responsibility, and always maintaining the political character of Communists, can the Party be ensured to always be the strong leading core of the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics and provide a strong political guarantee for comprehensively advancing the building of a strong country and the great cause of national rejuvenation through Chinese modernization.
(The author is a researcher at the Research Center for the Theoretical System of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics in Hubei Province and a professor at the School of Marxism, Wuhan University)
Return to TopOn the new journey ahead, we must thoroughly implement Xi Jinping's thought on Party building, carry out the general requirements for Party building in the new era, uphold the Party's overall leadership and the centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee, advance full and rigorous self-governance of the Party with unswerving perseverance (持之以恒, chi zhi yi heng - "hold, with, continuously, constant"), continuously realize the Party's self-purification, self-improvement, self-renewal, and self-enhancement, steadily strengthen the Party's political leadership, thought-guiding power, mass-organizing capacity, and social appeal, and ensure that the Party always remains the strong leading core of the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
Return to TopBy: 吴传华
The once-in-a-century transformation of the world is accelerating, the dimensions of global geopolitical competition continue to expand, and related competitive dynamics are constantly extending toward the Global South. The African continent, long regarded as lagging in development and situated on the geopolitical periphery, is increasingly attracting the attention of various forces, with diverse external actors intensifying their investment and strategic positioning in Africa. Along with the revaluation of strategic resources, the rising prominence of key geopolitical chokepoints, and the enhancement of regional collective multilateral voice, Africa is transforming from a peripheral role in the international system into an important variable affecting global geopolitical competition, energy security, and the transformation of global governance.
At present, Africa's geopolitical strategic value continues to heat up, external forces have successively increased their strategic investment, and multi-party competition continues to escalate. First, major powers have all increased their strategic investment in Africa. In recent years, the global competitive landscape has undergone profound adjustment, and major economies have recalibrated their strategic positioning toward Africa, continuously upgrading their diplomatic mechanisms, security cooperation, and economic-trade arrangements with Africa. The United States continues to refine its strategic framework toward Africa, incorporating Africa into the global competitive system and systematically strengthening political intervention and resource cooperation arrangements. In June 2025, the 17th U.S.-Africa Business Summit was held in Luanda, Angola, attended by 12 African heads of state. The summit produced a total of $2.5 billion in investment and infrastructure-related commitments, with priority given to advancing the Angola-DRC power transmission corridor project to provide stable electricity supply to key mineral mining areas in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. France continues to iterate its traditional governance model toward Africa, adjusting its troop deployment structure and optimizing cooperation mechanisms. In July 2025, it completed the handover of all military bases to Senegal, ending 65 years of continuous military presence there, with forces concentrating in key regions such as the Sahel to consolidate its long-accumulated regional influence. Russia continues to advance its process of returning to Africa, with emphasis on strengthening security cooperation and military presence and expanding its geopolitical reach. In April 2025, it held talks in Moscow with the foreign ministers of the Alliance of Sahel States (Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso), establishing an annual foreign ministers' meeting mechanism and committing to provide defense equipment and troop training support to the three countries. Second, competition over regional resources and chokepoints is becoming increasingly intense. Africa holds nearly 30 percent of the world's key strategic mineral reserves, with cobalt reserves accounting for over 70 percent of the global total. Lithium, rare earths, and platinum group metals are all core resource categories in rigid demand for the new energy, semiconductor, and artificial intelligence industries. Against the backdrop of accelerated global energy transition, the security of rare mineral supply chains has become a strategic priority for all countries, and the irreplaceable (不可替代, bu ke ti dai - "not, can, replace") nature of Africa's resources continues to become more prominent. At the same time, Africa commands key shipping lanes in the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, and the Atlantic. The Suez Canal carries approximately 12 percent of global maritime trade volume, and international maritime lifelines such as the Bab el-Mandeb Strait lie adjacent to the African region, giving Africa extremely high geopolitical chokepoint value. The United Arab Emirates, Turkey, India, and other regional powers are focusing on Africa's port infrastructure, logistics corridors, and resource development arrangements. The UAE, relying on its port group, has obtained operating rights for approximately 15 African ports; Turkey is expanding its economic, trade, and security ties with Africa through drone exports and engineering contracting; India is focusing on Africa's generic pharmaceuticals and digital infrastructure projects. Competition over mining rights, shipping hubs, and upstream industrial chain resources continues to intensify, with the economic and strategic attributes of regional competition deeply overlapping. Third, Africa's regional collective voice has significantly risen, making it an important balancing force in multilateral international competition. Africa has 54 UN member states, making it the continent with the largest concentration of sovereign states in the world, and it possesses voting weight and collective influence in multilateral mechanisms such as the United Nations, the G20, and climate governance that cannot be ignored. As the African Union mechanism matures and regional integration accelerates, African countries are gradually casting off their passive dependent status, beginning to speak collectively, jointly defend their rights, and proactively participate in the formulation of international rules and consultation on global issues. On major issues such as global governance, food security, climate finance, and regional security, Africa's positions and demands profoundly influence the direction of multilateral negotiations, gradually changing the previous situation of passively accepting externally imposed arrangements, and its explicit geopolitical value continues to be released.
The rapid rise in Africa's geopolitical prominence stems from the interweaving of multiple drivers, including the reshaping of global industrial transformation, the upgrading of the region's own endowments, and the shift in international competition logic. First, the global energy transition and industrial chain restructuring have fundamentally elevated the strategic value of Africa's resources. The global carbon neutrality process continues to advance, and the new energy industry and high-end intelligent manufacturing industry are expanding rapidly, transforming strategic minerals such as lithium, cobalt, and rare earths from ordinary raw materials into important strategic materials for safeguarding industrial security and technological security. Combined with the fragility of global supply chains exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the global raw material volatility triggered by regional conflicts, countries have generally established key resource security strategies and attach great importance to upstream resource deployment. Africa's abundant scarce mineral resources and under-exploited resource potential make it a key alternative hinterland for the diversified layout of global industrial and supply chains. The transformation of resource endowment advantages into core geopolitical strategic advantages is the core material driver of its rising prominence. Second, Africa's demographic dividend and market potential are being released, reshaping the global economic and geopolitical landscape. Africa is the continent with the most dynamic population growth in the world, with its population projected to approach 2.5 billion by 2050, accounting for one-quarter of the global total. Currently, sub-Saharan Africa has an extremely high proportion of young people, and the vast and continuously growing working-age labor resources can provide sufficient human support for global industrial transfer and multinational capital deployment. At the same time, Africa's overall urbanization is accelerating and its consumer market continues to expand, casting off its former image as a single poverty pocket and becoming one of the few consumer blue oceans in the world with long-term incremental potential. Against the backdrop of slowing growth in traditional global economies and saturated markets, Africa's economic growth potential and market value are attracting various external forces to continuously increase their deployment. Third, the pan-regionalization of major power competition is causing geopolitical competition to continue shifting toward the Global South. Traditional global geopolitical competition has long been concentrated in regions such as Eurasia and the Asia-Pacific. As regional patterns become increasingly fixed and competition space narrows, major power competition is gradually extending and shifting toward peripheral regions. To expand global strategic depth, compete for rule-making voice, and counterbalance competitors, various major forces are shifting their deployment focus toward Africa and other Global South regions. Africa's long-standing complex and diverse situation and fragmented interest structure provide external forces with ample room for intervention and leverage points, making it an important incremental arena for major powers to expand influence, offset adversary advantages, and build global strategic superiority. The spillover effects of geopolitical competition continue to push up Africa's strategic status.
Africa's rising strategic status will profoundly influence the future direction of global geopolitical strategy. First, it expands the regional boundaries of major power competition and transforms the competitive logic of major power influence deployment. In the past, Africa's regional agenda was long dominated by a few traditional Western countries, external forces had limited channels for intervention, and geopolitical interaction patterns were relatively fixed. As multiple external forces have successively carried out strategic deployments in Africa, different actors have formed action paths with different emphases based on their own comparative advantages. Among these parties, there is both interest competition and strategic coexistence on specific issues. The previous situation in which a single dominant actor managed regional affairs has been broken. Major power competition is no longer confined to traditional blocs such as Eurasia; Africa has become a new arena for various forces to conduct strategic competition. This change means that major power strategic competition will exhibit cross-regional linkage and multi-point parallel characteristics, prompting major forces to incorporate Africa's resources, maritime chokepoints, and regional security variables into their overall assessment frameworks when formulating global strategic plans. Second, it enhances the space for Global South countries to engage in external competition and reshapes the practical forms of regional and global cooperation. For a long time, the focus of discussion on global geopolitical issues has been concentrated on developed economies, and the vast number of Global South countries have had limited options in external cooperation, often passively accepting externally predetermined cooperation conditions. The rise in Africa's geopolitical attention has significantly changed this situation. African countries are now able to compare and select among different external cooperation proposals, proactively raise demands such as technology transfer, local industry cultivation, and resource revenue distribution, and independently choose cooperation partners. In the past, external intervention often came with political conditions, mainly taking the form of one-way aid and external security intervention, with cooperation rules designed and dominated by external major powers. Today, various external forces are carrying out differentiated deployments in areas such as port operations, resource development, security training, and livelihood technologies, forming a regional cooperation ecosystem characterized by pluralistic coexistence and intertwined competition and cooperation, providing new practical references for Global South countries in conducting external exchanges. Third, it reshapes the geopolitical distribution logic of global key resources and amplifies the security linkage effects of strategic chokepoints. The growing demand for rare minerals from the new energy and high-tech industries means that Africa's resource endowments are no longer merely economic factors but have been transformed into important bargaining chips in geopolitical competition. Africa's abundant key minerals and maritime shipping lanes connecting two oceans overlap with each other, enabling resource development activities and port operation dynamics within the region to directly affect the stability of global industrial chains. The competition among external forces over mineral extraction rights and maritime hub operation rights is no longer merely commercial economic competition but is deeply bound up with energy transition and industrial security. Localized security turmoil and policy changes in the region may transmit outward along resource supply chains, amplifying the linkage risks between the global economy and security, and forcing countries to incorporate resource geopolitical risks into their security considerations in strategic planning.
(The author is Director of the Center for African Governance and Modernization Studies at the China-Africa Institute and Secretary-General of the Chinese Society of Asian and African Studies.)
Return to TopBy: 汤杰
Recently, the second season of the hit Japanese TV drama Vivant (Betsu-han) has openly slandered China and arbitrarily distorted history in its plot, producing a pernicious influence. Set against real countries as its narrative backdrop, the drama attributes atrocities committed by the Japanese invading army during its invasion of China—such as cutting off fingers and stabbing the abdomen—to Chinese characters, deliberately portraying Chinese people as perpetrators; conversely, it glorifies Japan Self-Defense Force intelligence personnel as "righteous resisters," draping a heroic cloak over their cross-border intelligence and armed operations, and in the plot distorting the truth or facts (颠倒黑白, dian dao hei bai - "overturn, black, white") in an open manner, quietly dissolving the binding boundaries of the peace constitution and "exclusively defense-oriented" policy. Literary and artistic creation may have room for fiction, but it must never become a shield for distorting history and inciting hostility. Especially when a work transfers the crimes of the aggressor onto the people of the victimized country and packages the wartime aggressor side—which should be subject to historical reflection—as the embodiment of justice, it oversteps the reasonable boundaries of artistic imagination and becomes a highly deceptive cognitive warfare tool serving Japan's new militarism.
Looking outward through this Japanese drama case, in recent years Japanese literary and artistic works concerning war, security, and the image of neighboring countries have exhibited a set of habitual, sinister cognitive narrative routines. First, they swap historical roles and hype the "China threat theory." By setting up extreme confrontation plots and densely inserting Chinese names and Chinese dialogue into the villain camp, they depict China and other countries that suffered aggression by Japanese militarism as real threats, fundamentally inverting the historical relationship between perpetrator and victim, aggression and anti-aggression. Second, they beautify expansionist actions and break through the postwar system. Self-Defense Force overseas activities, intelligence operations, and even the use of force are wrapped in the shell of upholding justice, rescuing comrades, and defending the nation, while the peace constitution and the "exclusively defense-oriented" principle are treated as "red tape" obstructing "heroic actions." Third, they intensify camp confrontation and scheme for arms expansion and war preparation. The plots often simplify complex international relations into a binary opposition between "Japan and Western allies" and so-called external enemies, replacing factual judgment with friend-enemy narratives and substituting rational discussion with emotional mobilization. Fourth, they rely on entertainment packaging to numb and break through the psychological defenses of the domestic public. Stars, suspense, action, and high-tech elements greatly enhance watchability, and also allow biased value guidance and erroneous historical perceptions to infiltrate cognition while audiences are completely off guard, riding along with the characters' fates and emotional conflicts.
The concentrated emergence of this narrative is by no means the screenwriters' improvisation or a spontaneous cultural product of the market, but rather a premeditated, organized cognitive mobilization serving Japan's right-wing political agenda. In recent years, Japanese politics has continued to tilt rightward. Under the banner of "national normalization," right-wing forces have persistently pushed to lift the ban on collective self-defense, expand armaments, and extend the boundaries of strategic activities abroad, and a complete expansionist layout that challenges the postwar system is being implemented and advanced. Such major policy adjustments directly change the postwar security landscape. For them to be smoothly implemented and accepted by the domestic public, the prerequisite is to gradually change society's historical perceptions and steer public sentiment. On the one hand, they downplay the aggressive crimes of Japanese militarism and cast off the moral shackles imposed by historical reflection; on the other hand, they deliberately exaggerate external security threats to find rationalizations for continuous military expansion. Film and television dramas combine popular appeal with empathetic power—they have low dissemination thresholds, strong infectiousness, and broad audience coverage—making them a natural ideal vehicle for cognitive infiltration, capable of quietly implanting erroneous narratives during the process of entertainment viewing.Takaichi Sanae's public recommendation of the drama sends an even clearer signal: this series has long transcended the category of ordinary literary and artistic works and received the endorsement of high-level Japanese political forces, marking the open convergence of the right wing's history-distorting narrative logic with its military expansion route, with cultural propaganda and political schemes colluding with evil people for wicked purposes and mutually reinforcing each other.Although this cognitive warfare conducted through film and television differs in its external carriers from behaviors such as politicians visiting Yasukuni Shrine, textbooks deleting aggressive historical facts, and online hype of the "China threat theory," the underlying erroneous view of history and ulterior political goals are highly consistent. In essence, it is an attempt to break free from the legal constraints of the postwar international order, reshape social consensus by tampering with historical memory, clear cognitive obstacles for military expansion, and boost the resurfacing of old problems or bad elements (沉渣泛起, chen zha fan qi - "sinking, dregs, float up") of new militarism.
This cognitive warfare manipulated by Japan to promote new militarism distorts the truth and confuses right and wrong, with far-reaching harm. First, it tampers with historical truth and hurts war victims. Attributing the torture once used by the Japanese invading army to Chinese people who were war victims is not merely a failure of artistic ethics, but also an open tampering with historical memory and a second injury to the people of the victimized country. If such narratives are allowed to spread unchecked, the truth of Japan's war of aggression will be inverted, its culpability diluted, the justice of the anti-fascist war may be blurred, and the historical and legal foundations of the postwar international order will be eroded. Second, it poisons the historical perceptions of Japanese society, especially the younger generation. As war survivors gradually pass away, school education, public communication, and literary and artistic works become increasingly important to the formation of correct historical memory. Prolonged exposure to erroneous narratives makes it easy for the Japanese public to remember only the "victim" identity of their own people in the war, while failing to see the historical premise that Japanese militarism victimized the peoples of Asia; they feel only the fear manufactured by the plots, yet lack independent judgment about real policies. The prejudice accumulated in this way not only damages popular sentiment between Japan and neighboring countries, but also compresses the living space for peaceful and rational voices within Japan. Finally, it exacerbates the regional security dilemma. Fictional enemies may breed real hostility, and exaggerated threat perceptions may become a social pretext for arms expansion and war preparation. When erroneous historical views and military expansion support each other, it is easy to form an ideological security dilemma, trigger a regional arms race, increase the risk of miscalculation and conflict, and undermine the efforts of Asia-Pacific countries to jointly maintain peace and advance cooperation. For Japan itself, staking the nation's future on external aggression and expansion will only increase fiscal and social burdens, worsen the external environment, deviate from the postwar trend of peaceful development, and push itself into an abyss of militarism from which there is no return.
At present, international geopolitical competition is becoming increasingly complex, and the offensive and defensive battles of cognitive warfare in international public opinion are sinking and extending into every cultural product, quietly unfolding an invisible contest. History has already proven that the path of Japanese militarism once brought profound disasters to the peoples of Asia and also exacted a heavy price from the Japanese people themselves. The international community should remain highly vigilant against this cognitive warfare scheme—led by Japanese right-wing forces, shielded by popular culture, and centered on tampering with history. Any attempt to reverse the verdict on aggressive history or to build momentum for military expansion must not be lightly dismissed; its sinister intentions must be jointly exposed and its real-world harms jointly resisted. Only by jointly upholding historical truth, identifying cognitive traps, and actively resisting erroneous narratives can we build a solid ideological line of defense for peace and leave no space for Japan's new militarism to grow and spread through cognitive infiltration.
Return to TopBy: 杨猛
On December 12, 1995, the United Nations General Assembly, by the rare result of unanimous approval by 185 member states, adopted the "Resolution on the Permanent Neutrality of Turkmenistan," making Turkmenistan the first — and to date the only — permanently neutral state universally recognized by the international community through a General Assembly resolution. The original meaning of the word "neutrality" is "being between two opposing parties, inclining toward or favoring neither side," emphasizing a stance that does not stand on any side's position while retaining one's own independent judgment. The concept of permanent neutrality pursues an internationally recognized identity and status of a neutral state that, whether in peacetime or wartime, always implements neutralization, guarantees that it will not launch war itself, and will not participate in wars between any other states. Integrating the concept of permanent neutrality into foreign policy has provided clear theoretical guidance and value orientation for Turkmenistan's diplomatic practice, enabling it to always advance along the path of staying outside of wars and following an independent and autonomous course.
Turkmenistan's choice of a permanent neutrality policy is the joint result of the era's environment and historical traditions, and is also an autonomous exploration of a development path by a newly born state. First, it responded to severe geopolitical environmental pressures. At the beginning of independence, Turkmenistan faced an extremely perilous surrounding situation. Its southeastern neighbor Afghanistan was experiencing domestic political turmoil that continuously spilled over, and Tajikistan fell into civil war due to the infiltration of Afghan extremist forces — this sounded an alarm for Turkmenistan. Its southern neighbor Iran is a state integrating religion and politics, which has always harbored strong interest in exporting its Islamic revolution. The Caspian Sea to the west is rich in oil and gas resources, but because they are shared by multiple countries with undetermined status, there have always been interest disputes and security hazards. Choosing a neutrality policy could help it effectively avoid external security risks. Second, it isolated great powers from intervening in its domestic politics. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia attempted to continue controlling the Central Asian situation through institutional arrangements such as the Commonwealth of Independent States. At the same time, the United States and Europe also successively entered Central Asia, competing with Russia in the energy and security fields, and in particular exerting considerable pressure on Central Asian states on issues such as political liberalization and human rights, threatening the security of Turkmenistan's regime. The neutrality policy allowed Turkmenistan to maintain a controllable independence vis-à-vis external powers. Third, it was consistent with Turkmen national traditions. From the perspective of national traditions, the Turkmen people have long inhabited desert regions, surviving in dispersed tribal forms, and have historically maintained a cautious attitude toward political disputes, preferring to sustain a peaceful life in an environment free from external interference. The policy orientation of permanent neutrality precisely aligns deeply with this national character. The guidance of the permanent neutrality concept for Turkmenistan's diplomatic practice is concretely embodied in the following four aspects.
Refusing to take sides and avoiding involvement in great-power competition. The foreign policy of permanent neutrality has enabled Turkmenistan to handle matters with ease and skill (游刃有余, you ren you yu - "travel, within, have, surplus") among the great powers. Through economic leverage and diplomatic mediation, Turkmenistan has achieved a balanced relationship with major forces of the world such as Russia, China, the United States, and the European Union. Russia is Turkmenistan's traditional partner; the two countries face each other across the Caspian Sea and share a long history. After independence, Turkmenistan did not "prioritize Russia" but instead implemented a firm "de-Russification" policy, with both sides oriented toward pragmatic cooperation, and energy cooperation serving as the main line of bilateral relations. China and Turkmenistan established a comprehensive strategic partnership in 2023, with natural gas being a key area of cooperation between the two countries. Since 2009, Turkmenistan has supplied China with a cumulative total of over 460 billion cubic meters of gas, strongly supporting the economic and social development of both countries. While expanding the scale of natural gas cooperation, the two countries are also actively expanding cooperation in non-resource fields. Although Turkmenistan-U.S. relations are not as close as Turkmenistan-Russia or Turkmenistan-China relations, common interests do exist. On the one hand, the United States supports Turkmenistan in implementing diversified multinational natural gas pipeline and transportation projects, in order to weaken the influence of Russia and China in Central Asia; on the other hand, the two sides have cooperation needs on non-traditional security issues derived from the Afghanistan problem, such as counter-terrorism, drug control, and border control. The European Union plays an important role in Turkmenistan's integration into regional and global economic networks. Through the Global Gateway strategy, the EU has strengthened multi-field cooperation with Turkmenistan, with priority support for Turkmenistan's transport connectivity, energy diversification, and trade facilitation.
Fulfilling neutrality commitments and prudently joining international organizations. Turkmenistan participates in international organizations with a highly cautious attitude, making appropriate choices of inclusion or exclusion according to the nature of the organization. First, it strictly adheres to the red line of military neutrality and stays far away from all military alliances. Article 6 of the Turkmenistan Constitution and the Law on Permanent Neutrality explicitly prohibit participation in any military alliance or interstate organization carrying mandatory obligations or collective responsibility. Accordingly, Turkmenistan neither seeks to join NATO or GUAM, nor follows the Collective Security Treaty Organization; even within the framework of the CIS, it participates only as an "associate state" and does not assume collective responsibilities of a military nature. Second, it adheres to relying on the United Nations as its foundation and practices genuine multilateralism. Turkmenistan regards the United Nations as the primary platform for practicing the concept of permanent neutrality, facilitated the establishment of the UN Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia in Ashgabat, promoted the adoption of the "International Day of Neutrality" resolution by the UN General Assembly, and has implemented hundreds of cooperation projects involving multiple fields together with relevant UN agencies. Third, it flexibly participates in economic international organizations to serve the overall domestic development agenda. Without touching the military red line, Turkmenistan actively joins economic and trade cooperation mechanisms that carry no political conditions. For example, Turkmenistan has joined the Economic Cooperation Organization for Central and West Asia, the Economic Cooperation Organization Trade Agreement, and the Caspian Five economic cooperation framework. This strategy of "no military alignment, broad friendship in economics" has achieved a high degree of unity between the principle of neutrality and development interests.
Tapping its own advantages and actively conducting energy diplomacy. Relying on its abundant natural gas reserves, Turkmenistan actively conducts multi-directional energy diplomacy. Turkmenistan's natural gas is mainly exported to China, Europe, and South Asia. Among these, China is the largest buyer of Turkmenistan's natural gas, accounting for more than 70 percent of its total export volume. At present, China and Turkmenistan have built three gas pipelines with an annual transmission capacity of 55 billion cubic meters. In 2026, the two sides signed a Phase IV development agreement for the Galkynysh gas field, further consolidating the foundation of bilateral energy cooperation. Europe is also an important export destination for Turkmenistan's natural gas. There are mainly three routes for gas supply to Europe: the first is through the Russia-Ukraine pipeline; after the Ukraine crisis, Ukraine suspended transit services for Russian gas, and this route was blocked; the second is through the Iran-Turkey-Hungary pipeline, but because Iran is subject to U.S. and European sanctions and its domestic infrastructure is aging, this route has limited capacity; the third is through the Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline (TCP), which delivers gas directly to Europe via Azerbaijan and Turkey. This project was long stalled due to legal and geopolitical obstacles; after the signing of the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea in 2018, legal obstacles were greatly reduced, and with Russia mired in the Ukraine crisis with no time to attend to the situation in the South Caucasus, both Turkmenistan and Europe are currently actively promoting the restart of this project. Turkmenistan's gas supply to South Asia relies mainly on the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline project. Although the Turkmenistan section has been completed and the Afghanistan section has also made some progress, due to Afghanistan's political instability and sustained India-Pakistan hostility, the project still requires a considerable period of time before full completion.
Using its neutral identity to promote the resolution of hotspot issues. Turkmenistan actively participates in the mediation and reconciliation of regional hotspot issues in its capacity as a neutral state. A neutral state carries no historical baggage, does not take sides, and holds no ideological prejudice, enabling it to play a constructive role far exceeding its own size. On the Afghanistan issue, Turkmenistan's role as a mediator is particularly prominent. As a northern neighbor of Afghanistan, Turkmenistan has not become involved in competition among political proxies, but instead upholds the position of "neutrality, good-neighborliness and friendship, and non-interference in the internal affairs of other states," providing long-term electricity, humanitarian supplies, and medical assistance to Afghanistan, and supporting the UN-led peace process. On the issue of the legal status of the Caspian Sea, Turkmenistan has played a coordinating role unique to a neutral state. In 2018, the five Caspian littoral states signed the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea, ending a 22-year dispute over legal status. Turkmenistan's "demilitarization of the Caspian Sea" initiative proposed during the negotiations, as well as its suggestion that "littoral states retain only limited armed forces for defensive purposes," were to a large extent adopted by the Convention. In handling bilateral frictions among neighboring countries, Turkmenistan also tends to choose "quiet diplomacy" — that is, not publicly criticizing any side, not taking the lead in forming confrontational blocs, but instead releasing goodwill through means such as providing venues for dialogue and carrying out humanitarian assistance. In December 2025, on the occasion of commemorating the 30th anniversary of permanent neutrality, the President of Turkmenistan published a new work, "The Neutrality of Turkmenistan — A Bright Path of Peace and Trust." This work emphasizes the importance of Turkmenistan's permanent neutrality status, introduces the measures it has taken in safeguarding world peace and trust, and provides a "Turkmen sample" worthy of reference for small and medium-sized states participating in global governance.
Return to TopBy: 陈理
The communiqué of the Fifth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Party pointed out that to persistently advance full and rigorous self-governance of the Party, it is necessary to uphold the Party's overall leadership and the centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee. Upholding the Party's overall leadership and the centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee is the core content of Xi Jinping's thought on Party building and the fundamental guarantee for the steady and long-term progress of Chinese modernization. Since the 18th National Congress of the Party, General Secretary Xi Jinping has adhered to the Two Integrations (两个结合), and with a series of new concepts, new ideas, and new strategies, has systematically answered the fundamental question of "why uphold the Party's overall leadership and the centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee, and how to uphold the Party's overall leadership and the centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee," constructing a scientific theoretical system with rigorous logic and complete structure, pointing the direction and providing the guidelines for more consciously upholding the Party's overall leadership and the centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee on the new journey and persistently advancing full and rigorous self-governance of the Party.
The Intrinsic Basis for Upholding the Party's Overall Leadership and the Centralized, Unified Leadership of the Party Central Committee
Upholding the Party's overall leadership and the centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee has profound Marxist theoretical origins. Safeguarding the authority of the Party Central Committee and centralized, unified leadership is an important part of Marxist party-building theory, an important principle proposed by Marx and Engels when they founded the world's first proletarian party, the Communist League, and relevant requirements were clarified through the drafting of the "Rules of the Communist League." In the program drafted for the League, namely the "Communist Manifesto," Marx and Engels systematically elaborated the principles of scientific socialism and comprehensively declared the positions and views of the Marxist party. Later, Marx and Engels also criticized shortcomings among some members and grassroots organizations within the League, such as relaxing contact with the Central Committee, demanding that "this situation must end" and that "the workers' party must act as organized, as unanimous, and as independent as possible," emphasizing that "revolutionary activity can only exert its full strength under centralized conditions." These important ideas and practices provided important theoretical guidance for the creation and strengthening of the proletarian party's own construction, and for building the party into a strong leading core for the revolutionary and construction cause.
Upholding the Party's overall leadership and the centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee is the winning code for the Communist Party of China's century-long struggle in creating a series of great achievements. The Communist Party of China is a proletarian party established in accordance with Marxist party-building theory, and upholding the Party's overall leadership and the centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee is the Party's fine tradition and notable political advantage. As soon as the Communist Party of China was founded, it clearly wrote Marxism on its own banner. The Party's First National Congress program made clear provisions on the Party's name, nature, and program, as well as organizational rules, organizational structure, and membership conditions, well implementing Marxist party-building principles. The first Party Constitution formulated at the Party's Second National Congress further clearly stipulated that "all Party members must absolutely obey the resolutions of the National Congress and the Central Executive Committee" and that "lower-level organs must fully execute the orders of higher-level organs." The "Resolution on the Organizational Rules of the Communist Party" adopted at the Party's Second National Congress clearly pointed out that "if a revolutionary party lacks strict, centralized, disciplined organization and training, then it will only have revolutionary aspirations but will not have the strength to carry out revolutionary movements." In particular, the Zunyi Meeting, by summarizing the lessons of the failure of the Fifth Counter-Encirclement Campaign in the Central Revolutionary Base Area, ended the dominance of "Left" dogmatist errors in the Central Committee, concentrated on solving the most urgent organizational and military problems at the time, in effect established Comrade Mao Zedong's leadership position in the Party Central Committee and the Red Army, began to establish the leadership position of the correct Marxist line mainly represented by Comrade Mao Zedong in the Party Central Committee, began to form the Party's first generation of central leadership collective with Comrade Mao Zedong at its core, opened a new stage in which the Party independently solved the practical problems of the Chinese revolution, saved the Party, saved the Red Army, and saved the Chinese revolution at the most critical moment, becoming a turning point of vital importance to life and death (生死攸关, sheng si you guan - "life, death, have, relation") in the Party's history. The Party's century-long struggle fully proves that upholding the Party's overall leadership and the centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee is the fundamental experience running through the entire history of the Party and the greatest secret of the continuously regenerating or growing (生生不息, sheng sheng bu xi - "birth, birth, not, cease") and vigorous development of the Party and the people's cause.
Upholding the Party's overall leadership and the centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee is the fundamental reason for the historic achievements and historic changes in the cause of the Party and the state in the new era. Since the 18th National Congress of the Party, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has adhered to the Two Integrations, profoundly summarized the historical experience of the Party's century-long struggle, based on the new historical orientation of the new era, placed upholding the Party's overall leadership and the centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee in a more prominent and important position in governance, concentrated on solving the problems that existed within the Party for a period of time, such as vague understanding and weak action on upholding Party leadership, and the problem of weakened, virtualized, and diluted implementation of Party leadership, implemented upholding the Party's overall leadership and the centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee in all fields and aspects of reform, development, and stability, internal and foreign affairs, national defense, and Party governance, state governance, and military governance, continuously improved the system of Party leadership, made Party leadership methods more scientific, made the whole Party more unified in thought, more united politically, and more consistent in action, and significantly enhanced the Party's political leadership, ideological guidance, mass organization, and social appeal. The Party Central Committee, with great historical initiative, tremendous political courage, and a strong sense of responsibility, coordinated the overall strategic situation of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and the changes unseen in a century in the world, comprehensively advanced the great struggle, the great project, the great cause, and the great dream, coordinated the advancement of the Five-Sphere Integrated Plan (五位一体) overall layout, and coordinated the advancement of the Four-Pronged Comprehensive Strategy (四个全面) strategic layout, overcame many difficulties that had not been solved for a long time, accomplished many major matters of long-term importance, withstood tests and challenges from politics, economy, ideology, nature, and other aspects, promoted historic achievements and historic changes in the cause of the Party and the state, and fully demonstrated the decisive significance of the Two Establishments (两个确立) for the development of the cause of the Party and the state in the new era and for promoting the process of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
The Scientific Connotation of Upholding the Party's Overall Leadership and the Centralized, Unified Leadership of the Party Central Committee
The first of the "Ten Clarifications" of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era is "to clarify that the most essential feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics is the leadership of the Communist Party of China, that the greatest advantage of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics is the leadership of the Communist Party of China, and that the Communist Party of China is the highest political leadership force." This major assertion profoundly reveals the intrinsic relationship between the leadership of the Communist Party of China and the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics from the height of essential attributes, and scientifically answers at the fundamental level the fundamental question of why the leadership of the Communist Party of China must be upheld in adhering to and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics. In short, upholding the Party's leadership is inherent in the essential characteristics of socialism with Chinese characteristics, is the intrinsic and fundamental marker inherent in socialism with Chinese characteristics, and the generation, development, and improvement of the basic characteristics of the path, theory, system, and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics all originate from the leadership of the Communist Party of China. All the characteristics and advantages of socialism are rooted in the foundation of the most essential characteristic and greatest advantage of the leadership of the Communist Party of China. The path, theory, system, and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics are essentially the results of the Party leading the people to explore, create, and develop through long-term struggle. Without the leadership of the Communist Party of China, there would be no successful creation and adherence to and development of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and socialism with Chinese characteristics would lose its direction and soul.
General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out, "To uphold Party leadership, the first thing is to uphold the authority and centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee. This is the highest principle of Party leadership and cannot be ambiguous or shaken at any time or under any circumstances." This major assertion profoundly reveals the intrinsic relationship between the leadership of the Communist Party of China and the centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee, further clarifying that the most fundamental aspect of upholding the Party's overall leadership is upholding the centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee. Upholding the centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee is the practical expansion of "upholding Party leadership is the most essential feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics," scientifically answering the fundamental question of through what means the Party's overall leadership is realized. On the one hand, a prominent feature of the superiority of China's socialist political system is the leading core role of the Party in commanding the overall situation and coordinating all parties, figuratively described as "many stars surrounding the moon" (众星捧月, zhong xing peng yue - "many, stars, surround, moon"), and this "moon" is the Communist Party of China. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized, "The Party is the leading core of all our undertakings. As the ancients said, 'unifying the entire world or country' (六合同风,九州共贯, liu he tong feng, jiu zhou gong guan - "six, directions, same, wind; nine, provinces, together, connect"), in contemporary China, without Party leadership, this cannot be achieved." On the other hand, the Party Central Committee is the brain and the hub. In the great chess game of the national governance system, the Party Central Committee is the "commander" sitting in the central command tent, with the chariots, horses, and cannons each displaying their strengths, and the overall chess game is clearly defined. Upholding the centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee is the fundamental guarantee for ensuring the realization of the Party's overall leadership. As the intermediate link in implementing the decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee, the fundamental task of local Party organizations is to ensure that the decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee are implemented and effective, achieving immediate action when orders are given and immediate cessation when prohibitions are issued.
General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out, "For full and rigorous self-governance of the Party, the core is to strengthen Party leadership, the foundation is comprehensiveness, the key is rigor, and the crux is governance." This important assertion profoundly reveals the intrinsic relationship between full and rigorous self-governance of the Party and upholding the Party's overall leadership and the centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee, further answering the question of how to provide a strong guarantee for upholding the Party's overall leadership and the centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee through full and rigorous self-governance of the Party. On the one hand, the starting point and ultimate goal of full and rigorous self-governance of the Party is to uphold the Party's overall leadership and the centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee. Full and rigorous self-governance of the Party in the new era is not for the sake of full and rigorous self-governance of the Party itself; the ultimate purpose is to continuously enhance the Party's political leadership, ideological guidance, mass organization, and social appeal by solving all prominent problems within the Party that weaken Party leadership and damage the authority of the Party Central Committee and centralized, unified leadership, to build the Party into a stronger and more powerful force, and to ensure that the Party always becomes the strong leading core of the cause of Chinese modernization. On the other hand, only by persistently advancing full and rigorous self-governance of the Party can a strong and powerful guarantee be provided for upholding the Party's overall leadership and the centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee. Practice tells us that the Party's leadership position and ruling position are not innate or solving a problem once and for all (一劳永逸, yi lao yong yi - "one, labor, forever, ease"); the Party's leadership ability and governance level must be continuously improved and enhanced through persistent self-tempering. Under conditions of long-term governance, the Party faces the "Four Tests" and "Four Dangers" that will exist for a long time, and various risks and hidden dangers that weaken Party leadership and erode the authority of the Party Central Committee and centralized, unified leadership still exist. Only by persistently advancing full and rigorous self-governance of the Party and continuously correcting and treating various deep-seated and difficult-to-cure problems (顽瘴痼疾, wan zhang gu ji - "stubborn, miasma, chronic, disease") can the Party's advanced nature and purity be maintained, ensuring that the Party always becomes the strong leading core of the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
The Practical Path for Upholding the Party's Overall Leadership and the Centralized, Unified Leadership of the Party Central Committee
Further strengthen the Party's political construction and firmly grasp the correct direction of upholding the Party's overall leadership and the centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee. Political construction is the fundamental construction of the Party and determines the direction and effectiveness of Party building. The primary task of the Party's political construction is to ensure that the whole Party obeys the Central Committee and upholds the authority of the Party Central Committee and centralized, unified leadership. It is necessary to adhere to taking the Party's political construction as the guide, strictly enforce political discipline and political rules, educate and guide the majority of Party members and cadres to deeply understand the decisive significance of the Two Establishments, enhance the Four Consciousnesses (四个意识), strengthen the Four Confidences (四个自信), and achieve the Two Upholds (两个维护), consciously maintain a high degree of consistency with the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core in thought, politics, and action, ensure that the Party Central Committee's orders and prohibitions are unimpeded and implemented, and implement the decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee effectively without any discount.
Further strengthen theoretical arming and enhance the ideological and action consciousness of upholding the Party's overall leadership and the centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee. Theoretical cultivation is the core of the comprehensive quality of leading cadres, theoretical maturity is the foundation of political maturity, and political firmness stems from theoretical sobriety. It is necessary to unremittingly use the Party's innovative theories to consolidate the soul, grasp and apply the world view and methodology of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and the positions, viewpoints, and methods running through it, deeply study and implement Xi Jinping's thought on Party building, deeply grasp the reasoning, logic, and philosophy of upholding the Party's overall leadership and the centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee from the theoretical logic, historical logic, and practical logic, and continuously enhance the ideological, political, and action consciousness of upholding the Party's overall leadership and the centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee.
Further improve the system of Party leadership and continuously consolidate the institutional foundation for upholding the Party's overall leadership and the centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee. Institutions are fundamental, overall, stable, and long-term. It is necessary to adhere to governing the Party with institutions and regulations, further improve the system of Party leadership, improve the systems for the Party's leadership over the People's Congress, the government, the CPPCC, supervisory organs, judicial organs, procuratorial organs, armed forces, people's organizations, enterprises and public institutions, grassroots self-governing organizations, social organizations, etc., improve the institutional mechanisms for the centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee, and ensure that the Party Central Committee's overall leadership over all fields of work, including economy, politics, culture, society, ecology, national defense, foreign affairs, and Party building, is implemented. Build a strict organizational system that connects up and down and is effective in execution, strictly implement democratic centralism, and effectively transform institutional advantages into governance effectiveness.
Persistently advance full and rigorous self-governance of the Party and continuously provide a strong guarantee for upholding the Party's overall leadership and the centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee. Improve the system of full and rigorous self-governance of the Party with full content coverage, full object coverage, full responsibility chain, and full institutional integration, strengthen oneself with a thorough spirit of self-revolution, solve various prominent problems in Party management and governance, resolutely eliminate all factors that damage the Party's advanced nature and purity, resolutely eliminate all viruses that erode the Party's healthy body, solve the problem of weakened, virtualized, and diluted Party leadership from the root, continuously create a new situation of Party management and governance and Party revitalization and strengthening in the new era, ensure that the Party does not change its nature, color, or flavor, ensure that the Party always becomes a vigorous Marxist ruling party that is at the forefront of the times, sincerely supported by the people, able to withstand various storms and tests, and always becomes the strong leading core of the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
(The author is the former director of the Academic and Editorial Committee of the Central Institute of Party History and Literature)
Return to TopBy: 顾洁颖
Case Studies
The CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission reported that Zuo Yaofeng (左耀锋), member of the Standing Committee of the Haidong Municipal Party Committee and Secretary of the Ledu District Party Committee in Qinghai Province, along with Mo Yuling (莫玉玲), former member of the District Party Committee Standing Committee and former Secretary of the District Commission for Discipline Inspection, were held accountable for failing to fulfill their responsibilities for full and rigorous self-governance of the Party and for the occurrence of serious disciplinary and legal violations within their jurisdictions. Since assuming the post of district (county) party committee secretary in 2011, Zuo Yaofeng failed to earnestly advance Party conduct and clean governance building; his work remained at the level of signing target responsibility documents and making demands at meetings, without implementing routine education, management, and oversight of cadres, without sufficient analysis and assessment of integrity risks in key areas and critical positions, and with a loss of oversight and inspection over the "key minority." In December 2019, due to his failure to fulfill his primary responsibility, Zuo Yaofeng received a warning within the Party. Due to her failure to fulfill supervisory responsibility and her failure to promptly discover and correct disciplinary and legal violations, Mo Yuling received a serious warning within the Party. Other responsible personnel received corresponding handling.
The Chongqing Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervisory Commission reported on Su Bo (苏波), former Deputy Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Vice President of the Fuling District People's Court, for being slack and evasive in his work, failing to perform his duties or failing to perform them correctly. From January 2021 to December 2022, during his tenure as Deputy Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Vice President of the Fuling District People's Court, Su Bo was slack and evasive regarding the work under his purview, shifting documents that should have been reviewed and signed by him to other court leaders for review and signature, shifting meetings he should have attended or chaired to other court leaders to attend or chair, failing to take the lead in handling major, difficult, and complex cases as required by relevant regulations, and being absent from his post for extended periods, arriving late and leaving early, resulting in work backlog and delays. Su Bo received a warning within the Party and a demerit record in administrative discipline.
"Obstruction" (梗阻) is originally a medical term meaning blockage or impediment in the middle, and it also refers to the phenomenon in which some Party members and cadres, in the exercise of power, set up barriers, exploit their positions for personal gain, and cause government orders to fail to circulate, implementation to be ineffective, and efficiency to be low. The above cases are typical manifestations of obstructed government orders. Their prominent manifestations are: first, "selective implementation" in the execution of government orders. Some Party members and cadres lack overall awareness and a sense of responsibility toward the decisions and deployments of higher-level authorities; they implement what suits them and delay what does not, engaging in "policies from above, countermeasures from below," even using meetings to implement meetings and documents to implement documents, causing policies to be intercepted, suspended, and progressively diluted at each level, resulting in "hot at the top and bottom, cold in the middle" and "communication at the top but not the bottom." Second, "setting up barriers and seeking rent" in approval services. Some Party members and cadres artificially add preconditions, raise thresholds for handling matters, and increase approval procedures in administrative approval and service processes, keeping procedures, standards, and fees undisclosed and opaque, and even engaging in behind-the-scenes manipulation, demanding and accepting bribes. Third, acting with perfunctory attitude and shirking responsibility (敷衍塞责, fu yan sai ze - "spread, excuse, responsibility, blame") in daily performance of duties. Some Party members and cadres are not attentive or committed to their assigned work, respond untimely and perfunctorily to the expectations and demands of the masses, have weak service awareness, and fail to act, act slowly, or act arbitrarily. Higher-level government orders cannot reach the grassroots end or be implemented in practice, and the implementation chain is blocked at the middle level, seriously damaging the image of the Party and the government.
Tracing the root causes, on the one hand, power is departmentalized, interest-driven, and personalized, forming a "filter layer" for policies. Coupled with insufficient transparency and weak oversight, this leads some Party members and cadres to implement selectively, set up barriers, and seek rent, causing government orders to be intercepted and to spin in place. On the other hand, some Party members and cadres have weak purpose consciousness, insufficient capability, and poor work style; at the same time, coordination and oversight mechanisms are not smooth, making discovery and accountability difficult, and these become blockages to the smooth flow of government orders. Specifically, there are mainly four aspects: first, unsound thinking and work style, and lack of sense of responsibility. Some Party members and cadres have a misplaced view of political achievements, emphasizing statements over implementation, treating saying as doing and doing as doing well, with work "shelved" and policies spinning in place. Second, insufficient capability and lack of a sense of responsibility. Some Party members and cadres do not study deeply, are not proficient in their work, are dominated by the word "fear" and entangled by the word "delay" when encountering problems, dare not make decisions or take responsibility when facing difficulties, and even "kick the ball" between superiors and subordinates. Third, unsmooth working mechanisms and ineffective overall coordination. The boundaries of powers and responsibilities between departments are unclear, with overlapping responsibilities or regulatory gaps, and when encountering thorny problems, each side shifts responsibility to the other, causing policy advancement to get stuck at the intermediate level and fail to land. Fourth, oversight and accountability are too soft, and the constraint and incentive mechanisms are imbalanced. The intensity of investigation and punishment for "mid-level obstruction" (中梗阻) problems is insufficient, and accountability is not severe enough, resulting in low costs for violations; at the same time, the fault-tolerance and error-correction mechanism is not well-established, which to a certain extent dampens the enthusiasm of cadres to do their work and fosters a climate of lazy governance and passive inaction.
With regard to the problems in the above cases, both Party discipline and national law have relevant provisions. Article 57 of the Regulations of the Communist Party of China on Disciplinary Actions stipulates that where leading Party member cadres have a misplaced view of political achievements, deviate from the new development philosophy, depart from the requirements of high-quality development, and cause relatively major losses to the interests of the Party, the state, and the people, they shall be given a warning or a serious warning; where the circumstances are relatively serious, they shall be given removal from Party posts or probation within the Party; where the circumstances are serious, they shall be expelled from the Party. Those who engage in "image projects" and "achievement projects" that waste money and manpower shall be given heavier or aggravated punishment. Article 130 stipulates that where one is irresponsible in work or negligent in management, and fails to implement, execute, inspect, and supervise the implementation of the decisions and deployments of higher-level authorities, causing relatively major losses to the interests of the Party, the state, and the people as well as to public property, the directly responsible persons and the responsible leaders shall be given a warning or a serious warning; where major losses are caused, they shall be given removal from Party posts, probation within the Party, or expulsion from the Party. Where leading Party member cadres passively evade or shift responsibility for problems that existed before they assumed their posts and that fall within the scope of their duties, causing serious harm or serious adverse effects, they shall be dealt with in accordance with the provisions of the preceding paragraph. Item (2) of Article 7 of the Regulations of the Communist Party of China on Accountability points out that where Party political construction is not solidly carried out, one fails to maintain consistency with the Party Central Committee on major principled issues, fails to implement the Party's line, principles, and policies and to execute the major decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee, fails to observe the system of requesting instructions and reporting on major matters, disobeys orders and prohibitions, acting obediently in appearance but secretly defying orders (阳奉阴违, yang feng yin wei - "sun, obey, shade, violate"), deceiving superiors and misleading subordinates (欺上瞒下, qi shang man xia - "deceive, up, lie, down"), with prominent problems of forming cliques or factions (团团伙伙, tuan tuan huo huo - "group, group, clique, clique") and forming cliques or factions (拉帮结派, la bang jie pai - "pull, gang, tie, group"), where intra-Party political life is not serious or healthy, where the responsibility system for Party political construction work is not implemented properly, and where serious consequences or adverse effects are caused, accountability shall be pursued. To solve the problem of "mid-level obstruction," the core lies in unblocking the "meridians" of the organizational system from the central level to the grassroots, allowing the Party's leadership to run through all levels and all links, and ensuring that the Party Central Committee's government orders circulate without hindrance.
Correct deviations and set the right direction from the ideological root, guide Party members and cadres to establish a correct view of political achievements, firmly build the purpose consciousness of serving the people wholeheartedly, strengthen the sense of responsibility, and consciously implement all decisions and deployments from the height of the overall situation of the Party's and the state's undertakings. Adhere to systematic thinking and targeted measures, improve the mechanism for implementing the major decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee, improve the Party building leadership system and organizational management system, and form a work pattern in which each level grasps the next level, grasping one's own level well and leading subordinates, and vigorously building up the grassroots and strengthening the foundation. Focus on solving problems such as the weakening of the Party's leadership, the deficiency of Party building, and ineffective Party governance, and promote the implementation and landing of various policies through effective routine oversight. Only when Party organizations at all levels are sound and competent, forming a tightly connected and effectively executed organizational system, can the "mid-level obstruction" of those who are quick to make statements, loud in tone, but slow in implementation, who muddle through their work and lack ambition, lose their market and disappear.
Whether responsibility is pressed down firmly directly determines whether policy blockages can be thoroughly cleared. Clarify the responsibility for implementing the decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee to each level, press it down to each post, and specify it to each individual, build a clear closed-loop responsibility chain, avoid the problems of responsibility becoming hollow and spinning in place, and make every level of cadre clear about what they should do, what responsibility they should bear, and what consequences they will face if problems arise, thereby eliminating from the root the space for "everyone is responsible, no one takes responsibility." Further press down the primary responsibility of the "key minority," urge leading cadres to take the lead in implementation and in tackling difficulties, give play to the "leading goose effect," and avoid the progressive dilution of responsibility at each level. Build a clear and traceable closed-loop responsibility system, improve the supervision and assessment mechanism, take the effectiveness of policy implementation as an important criterion for testing cadres' ability to perform their duties, seriously pursue accountability for those whose poor implementation causes adverse effects, truly transmit pressure to the end, ensure that responsibility does not hang in the air and work does not become disconnected, and ensure that every decision and deployment of the Party Central Committee reaches the grassroots and benefits the masses along a tight and smooth organizational system.
Use a rigorous, efficient, flexible, orderly, and top-down integrated oversight system and multi-level, multi-channel, multi-form oversight means to ensure that all decisions and deployments are implemented in a timely and accurate manner. Centering on every link in the exercise of power, carry out precise oversight and innovative oversight, integrate oversight into daily work and regular practice, achieve full coverage with no dead corners, and compress the space for power rent-seeking. Adhere to a problem-oriented approach, strengthen the deterrent effect of accountability, and for those who fail to implement tasks, advance work ineffectively, are passive and negligent, act with a perfunctory attitude and shirk responsibility, or engage in fraud, seriously pursue accountability in accordance with regulations and discipline, use rigid accountability to force all personnel to know their responsibilities, bear their responsibilities, and fulfill their responsibilities, and effectively clear blockages, solve difficulties, and eliminate pain points.
Continuously improve the capability and quality of Party members and cadres, carry out routine professional training and practical exercise, fill capability gaps, promote cadres to develop solid skills in implementing policies and serving the masses, strengthen the understanding of cadres, especially leading cadres, of science and technology leading development and enhancing efficiency, take the initiative to understand, learn, and apply science and technology, make full use of cutting-edge technologies such as "Internet+," big data, cloud technology, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things, accelerate the construction of relevant smart platforms, and comprehensively improve work efficiency and administrative effectiveness. At the same time, establish a clear orientation for selecting and employing people that values practical work and practical results, select and use cadres who dare to take responsibility and are capable of action, promptly remove from the cadre ranks those who are lazy in governance, passive in action, or obstruct and delay affairs, and establish a clear orientation in which the capable are promoted, the excellent are rewarded, the mediocre are demoted, and the inferior are eliminated, fundamentally breaking the space for cadres who do not take responsibility or action. At the same time, continuously improve and perfect the fault-tolerance and error-correction mechanism, clearly support and encourage cadres who dare to take responsibility, work pragmatically, and seek no personal gain, dispel cadres' concerns about starting undertakings, fully mobilize the initiative and enthusiasm of cadres at all levels in implementing work and advancing undertakings, and make wanting to do things, being able to do things, and getting things done a common pursuit of the Party member and cadre ranks.
Return to TopBy: 石仲泉
On August 20, 2019, General Secretary Xi Jinping came to Gaotai County, Zhangye City, Gansu Province, paid homage at the Monument to the West Route Army of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army and the Martyrs' Cemetery, visited the Memorial Hall of the West Route Army of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, and presented flower baskets to the revolutionary martyrs. After gaining an in-depth understanding of the West Route Army's combat history and moving deeds, General Secretary Xi Jinping said with deep emotion: "History is written in this way: great aspirations arise from great sacrifices! The major, irreplaceable, and indelible contributions they made are forever recorded in the annals of history. They demonstrated our Party's revolutionary spirit and fighting spirit, and embodied the Red Army spirit and the Long March spirit." This important speech by General Secretary Xi Jinping established a new benchmark for studying the relationship between the entire Red Army's Long March and the West Route Army's expedition to the Hexi region, and provided fundamental guidance for the Party history academic community to conduct more in-depth and comprehensive research on the history of the Red Army's Long March and to correctly understand the historical status of the West Route Army.
The Tragic and Solemn Course of the West Route Army's Campaign in Hexi
After the Red Army's Eastern Expedition and Western Expedition concluded, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China considered the question of developing toward western Gansu and the Ningxia-Suiyuan region. On August 25, 1936, Mao Zedong and other central leaders jointly sent a telegram to the representative of the CPC Central Committee to the Communist International, expounding the Red Army's strategic policy: in order to preserve the existing base areas, the main forces of the Red Army must occupy western Gansu, Ningxia, and the Suiyuan area. At present, the Red Army's finances and grain had already reached an extremely difficult point, and only by occupying Ningxia could this situation be changed. On September 11, the Communist International replied by telegram, agreeing to the CPC Central Committee's plan and proposing to provide assistance after the occupation of the Ningxia region.
On September 19, a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee discussed the question of seizing Ningxia. Mao Zedong stated in his speech: Seizing Ningxia is the pivotal point for linking up with the Soviet Union, developing the Red Army, opening up the situation in the Northwest, and fighting against Japan. All our work should revolve around this link. On October 9, the command headquarters of the Fourth Front Army of the Red Army arrived at Huining and joined forces with the First Front Army of the Red Army. On the 11th, the "October Combat Program" issued by the CPC Central Committee and the Central Revolutionary Military Commission required the entire army to strive to use one month for rest and reorganization, and to make various preparations including crossing the Yellow River, after which the main forces of the Red Army would develop northward, seize Ningxia, consolidate and expand the Soviet areas, open up the international route, and obtain Soviet support. From October 25 to 29, the headquarters of the Fourth Front Army of the Red Army, together with the Fifth Army, the Ninth Army, and the Thirtieth Army of the Red Army, totaling 21,800 officers and soldiers, crossed the Yellow River westward by order of the Central Revolutionary Military Commission to execute the Ningxia Campaign plan.
But this decision was changed at the time of the initial battles of the Hexi forces that had crossed the Yellow River. On November 3, the Communist International sent a telegram to the CPC Central Committee, changing the direction and location of military material assistance, namely from Mongolia to Xinjiang. The Party Central Committee and the leaders of the Hexi Red Army agreed that, in order to obtain this batch of military material assistance, the Hexi Red Army would change from advancing north to Ningxia to advancing west to Guazhou, Gansu, and then to Xinjiang. After the Party Central Committee solicited the opinions of the leadership of the Hexi forces, on November 11 the Central Committee formally ordered the Hexi Red Army to be organized as the West Route Army, changing from advancing north to Ningxia to advancing into the Hexi Corridor, beginning an even more arduous and extraordinary journey.
With regard to the West Route Army of the Red Army that had penetrated deep into the Hexi Corridor, Chiang Kai-shek instigated Ma Bufang, Ma Buqing, and other forces to pursue, encircle, and "suppress" them. The broad masses of commanders and fighters resolutely carried out the Central Committee's orders, feared no sacrifice, and fighting bravely with blood and sweat (浴血奋战, yuxue fenzhan - "bathe, blood, fight, struggle"), launching a series of battles.
Seizing Hubaokou by surprise attack, and capturing Yitiaoshan and Wufosi. On October 25, 1936, the vanguard regiment of the Thirtieth Army of the Red Army launched a surprise night attack and successfully forced a crossing at Hubaokou in Jingyuan County, and more than 20,000 men of the West Route Army all crossed the Yellow River. In early November, they captured important strongpoints for advancing north to Ningxia; after repeated contests of encirclement and counter-encirclement, the Thirtieth Army of the Red Army brought Yitiaoshan and Wufosi under control.
The Fierce Battle of Gulang. The West Route Army advanced toward Liangzhou in two columns, north and south. On November 12, the Ninth Army of the Red Army in the southern column drove straight for Gulang; after ten consecutive days of contesting with the main forces of the Ma family army, although they killed or wounded more than 2,000 enemy troops, they themselves suffered more than 2,400 casualties, and subsequently merged into the northern column for operations.
The Fifth Army of the Red Army Fought Bloodily at Gaotai. The Fifth Army of the Red Army in the northern column captured Gaotai on January 1, 1937, and on the 5th the West Route Army headquarters, the Thirtieth Army, and the Ninth Army occupied Linze. Ma Bufang concentrated more than 20,000 troops and used human-wave tactics to besiege Gaotai in turns from all sides. After five days of hand-to-hand combat, the Fifth Army of the Red Army ended up perishing together with the enemy (同归于尽, tong gui yu jin - "together, return, at, end"), and on January 20 Gaotai fell.
The West Route Army Headquarters Broke Out but Fell into a Dead End. On the day after the fall of Gaotai, the West Route Army should have broken out from Niijayingzi and returned eastward, but Chen Changhao, disregarding the opposition of Xu Xiangqian and others, returned to Niijayingzi and was subjected to a frenzied siege by the Ma family army. After nine days and nine nights of bloody fighting, killing or wounding more than 10,000 enemy troops, the West Route Army that broke out westward to Sandaoliugou on February 27 numbered fewer than 10,000 men, and its situation became increasingly perilous. Thereafter came the defeat at Liyuankou and the fall at Shiwoshan. At dusk on March 14, the headquarters held its final enlarged meeting of the Military and Political Committee, deciding that Xu Xiangqian and Chen Changhao should leave the troops and return to Yan'an to report to the Central Committee; Li Zhuoran, Li Xiannian, and others were to form a working committee, organized into three detachments to disperse, fight as guerrillas, and break out.
After the Shiwoshan Conference, the remaining forces of the West Route Army broke out in separate routes. The left detachment led by Li Xiannian traversed high mountain gorges at altitudes of four to five thousand meters, engaging in a life-and-death struggle against severe cold, hypoxia, and hunger. After more than 40 days of fighting and marching, enduring untold hardships, more than 400 men of the left detachment finally arrived at Xingxingxia on the border between Gansu and Xinjiang at the end of April.
The Strategic Significance of the West Route Army's Campaign in Hexi
Under extremely difficult conditions, the West Route Army engaged in a life-and-death struggle with the enemy, lasting as long as half a year, annihilating more than 25,000 enemy troops, effectively coordinating with the strategic actions of the Red Army east of the Yellow River, and writing with blood and life a stirring and tragic magnificent chapter in the history of the Chinese revolution. Because it had no base area to rely upon, and no replacements of troops or supplies, the West Route Army fought alone under the extremely unfavorable circumstances of being outnumbered by the enemy. Although the outcome was very tragic, its achievements were outstanding and its significance was great, in at least five respects.
First, it annihilated more than 25,000 troops of the Ma family army. The Ma family army committed to the fighting 9 brigades totaling more than 30,000 men, plus more than 90,000 men of the militia, and its main force was formidable cavalry. To be able to annihilate so many powerful enemies was no easy matter. This campaign in Hexi also provided experience for the later advance of the People's Liberation Army into the greater Northwest.
Second, it pinned down the Central Army of the Kuomintang and effectively coordinated with the operations of the Red Army east of the Yellow River. The West Route Army's advance into Hexi was a part of the Party's overall strategy. The Fourth Army and the Thirty-first Army of the Fourth Front Army of the Red Army had originally been meant to cross the river, but later, on the one hand because the situation had changed, and on the other hand in order to participate in the Shanchengbao Campaign east of the river, they did not cross. The West Route Army's campaign in Hexi reduced the investment of forces by Hu Zongnan and other units in the Shanchengbao Campaign, thereby enabling the Red Army east of the Yellow River to smoothly annihilate a part of Hu Zongnan's forces at Shanchengbao.
Third, it coordinated with the peaceful resolution of the Xi'an Incident. In accordance with changes in the situation, the West Route Army first obeyed orders to temporarily not advance westward, and later obeyed orders to return eastward, causing the West Route Army to be held at Yongchang and Shandan for as long as half a month. On the one hand, this effectively pinned down more than 100,000 Chiang's troops and actively cooperated with the peaceful resolution of the Xi'an Incident; on the other hand, it also caused them to miss opportunities in battle, which could not but have an impact on the subsequent fate of the West Route Army.
Fourth, it was the first time that local Party organizations of the CPC and Soviet political power were established in the Hexi Corridor. In accordance with Central Committee instructions, the West Route Army established three local Party committees in the Zhangye area. During the period when the West Route Army occupied the four counties of Yongchang, Shandan, Gaotai, and Linze, it established four county-level and 22 sub-county-level Soviet political organs. These organizations and political organs did a great deal of work in mobilizing and propagating among the masses, expanding the influence of the Communist Party and the Red Army, and the revolutionary seeds they sowed played an important role in the later development of the Party and the people's army in the Northwest.
Fifth, it preserved and trained a number of military backbone cadres. Through the Party's active rescue efforts, and through the undaunted by many setbacks (百折不挠, bai zhe bu nao - "hundred, bend, not, yield") struggle of the scattered and captured officers and soldiers of the West Route Army, more than 5,000 people returned to the revolutionary ranks, and many of them became backbone cadres of the Party and the people's army, laying the foundation for the establishment of the technical arms of our army.
These historical achievements of the West Route Army, as General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized, are "irreplaceable, indelible," and "forever recorded in the annals of history."
The Spirit of the West Route Army Is Inherited from the Long March Spirit
General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: "The heroic spirit of the West Route Army in fearing no hardship or danger and fighting bravely with blood and sweat, and its spirit of courageous dedication to the Party and the people, are inherited from the Long March spirit, and are an important component of the red gene of Chinese Communists and the precious spiritual wealth of the Chinese nation."
The spirit of the West Route Army and the Long March spirit belong to one spiritual pedigree. The Long March spirit is the general system of a series of spirits formed by the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army during the Long March, including such spirits as the Zunyi Conference spirit, and the spirit of the West Route Army is a subsystem under this general system of the Long March spirit. The relationship between the two is that of mother system and child system, general spirit and branch spirit. These two are unquestionably of the same blood and inheriting a tradition from previous generations (一脉相承, yi mai xiang cheng - "one, vein, carry, inherit").
The broad masses of officers and soldiers of the West Route Army had been baptized by the Long March spirit, and in the process of bloody fighting in Hexi they continued and displayed the Long March spirit. For example, among the connotations of the Long March spirit, "the spirit of placing the fundamental interests of the people of the whole country and the Chinese nation above all else, firmly establishing revolutionary ideals and convictions, and firmly believing in the inevitable victory of the just cause" — this refers to ideals and convictions as the driving force for the broad masses of Red Army officers and soldiers to defeat the enemy, overcome dangers and obstacles, and get through difficulties. It was also the source of strength for the heroic spirit of the West Route Army's officers and soldiers in fearing no hardship or danger and fighting bravely with blood and sweat. Dong Zhentang, commander of the Fifth Army of the Red Army, was ordered to lead more than 2,000 men in holding Gaotai alone, lost contact with the headquarters, and finally almost all died in battle, fully displaying firm revolutionary ideals and convictions. Another example: among the connotations of the Long March spirit, "the spirit of fearing no hardship or danger, and sparing no sacrifice, in order to save the country and the people" — this was manifested with exceptional prominence in both the senior commanders and ordinary soldiers of the West Route Army. The bloody battle at Liyuankou was the West Route Army's final group operation. The Women's Independent Regiment of the West Route Army performed in this group operation in a manner that moved heaven and earth and was extremely tragic. When the regiment was formed it had more than 1,300 members, and in the end almost all were killed or captured, and its establishment ceased to exist. Yet another example: among the connotations of the Long March spirit, "the spirit of closely relying on the masses of the people, sharing life and death with the masses, sharing weal and woe, and working hard" — this was likewise reflected to the fullest in the West Route Army. Li Xiannian led the left detachment to Mogoutaizi in Anxi County in late April 1937. There was a Taoist temple there, and when Abbot Guo Yuanheng learned that this force had been fighting and marching in the Qilian Mountains for more than 40 days and was short of grain and salt, he and his disciples selflessly gave the grain, rice, oil, and salt that the temple had accumulated over many years to the left detachment of the West Route Army. Cheng Shicai, commander of the Thirtieth Army of the Red Army, had his staff officer make a list of the oil, grain, and other items, sign it, and give it to Abbot Guo. After the founding of New China, in December 1961, Cheng Shicai, then deputy commander of the Armored Forces, wrote a letter to Abbot Guo Yuanheng, thanking him for his help to the revolution more than 20 years earlier when the Red Army passed through Wanfoxia under such difficult circumstances. At present, in the West Route Army Memorial Hall beside the Taoist temple, this letter is still on display. This is historical testimony to the West Route Army's close reliance on the masses of the people in displaying the Long March spirit of the Red Army.
In his speech at the conference commemorating the 90th anniversary of the victory of the Long March of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that "the great Long March spirit fully demonstrates the power of loyalty, the power of truth, the power of justice, and the power of unity." The spirit of the West Route Army is inherited from the Long March spirit, and possesses a value that transcends time and space and is becoming more vibrant with the passage of time (历久弥新, li jiu mi xin - "pass, long, increasingly, new").
Return to TopBy: 付文谦
"Outline of the Resolution of the Enlarged Meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee Summarizing the Lessons and Experiences of the War to Crush the Fifth 'Encirclement and Suppression' Campaign" (held in the collection of the Central Archives)
"Order on the Reorganization and Reduction of Various Army Corps" (held in the collection of the Central Archives)
The Zunyi Meeting, convened in January 1935, achieved a great turning point of vital importance (生死攸关, sheng si you guan - "life, death, have, relation") in the history of the Party, but constrained by the extremely urgent wartime environment at the time, many major decisions could not be implemented. In February 1935, the Central Red Army's Long March entered the Zhaxi region of Weixin, Yunnan. The Central Political Bureau convened a series of meetings continuously during the march, completing the division of responsibilities among the Standing Committee members after the Zunyi Meeting, passing the Zunyi Meeting resolution, discussing and guiding the strategic guidelines for the national Soviet areas and the Red Army, and studying issues such as the direction of advance of the Central Red Army and the reorganization and reduction of troops — collectively referred to by the academic community as the Zhaxi Meeting. Important archives held in the collection of the Central Archives, including the "Outline of the Resolution of the Enlarged Meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee Summarizing the Lessons and Experiences of the War to Crush the Fifth 'Encirclement and Suppression' Campaign" and the "Order on the Reorganization and Reduction of Various Army Corps," record a series of major decisions made at the Zhaxi Meeting, outlining and restoring the glorious continuation of the great turning point of the Chinese revolution.
Setback at Tucheng, Falling into Difficulty Again
After the Red Army captured Zunyi, Chiang Kai-shek quickly deployed, mobilizing 400,000 troops to press toward the Zunyi area, attempting to encircle and annihilate the Central Red Army northwest of the Wujiang River on the border of Sichuan and Guizhou. To break free from the enemy's encirclement, in accordance with the decisions passed at the Zunyi Meeting, the Central Red Army quickly crossed the Yangtze River northward, advancing toward western Sichuan or northwestern Sichuan. At the end of January 1935, the Central Red Army launched the Battle of Tucheng. Due to erroneous pre-battle intelligence and underestimation of the strength of the Sichuan Army, the battle fell into a passive stalemate, and with enemy reinforcements about to arrive, the original operational plan to quickly break through the defensive line and cross the Yangtze River northward could not be realized. To preserve the vital forces of the revolution, the Central Red Army decided to quickly withdraw from the battle, cross the Chishui River westward, and instead assemble at the watershed on the border of Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guizhou provinces, and at places such as Zhaxi.
At that time, the Party and the Red Army were not only deeply mired in the external crisis of the enemy's pursuit and interception, but also faced multiple difficulties in ideology, organization, and military affairs, and the development of the revolution encountered a severe test. Ideologically, although the Zunyi Meeting pointed out the errors in the military command of Bo Gu and Li De and ended the rule of "Left" dogmatist errors in the Central Committee, it had not yet had time to form a meeting resolution; moreover, due to urgent military circumstances and continuous marching and fighting, the spirit of the meeting could not be promptly and accurately conveyed to the entire Party and the entire army, and grassroots commanders and fighters lacked unified ideological guidance and operational standards. Organizationally, although the Zunyi Meeting added Mao Zedong as a member of the Standing Committee of the Central Political Bureau, it did not clarify the specific division of responsibilities among the Standing Committee members, and Bo Gu continued to preside over the central work. According to the record in the "Outline for Conveyance of the Enlarged Meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee in Zunyi" written by Chen Yun in 1935, "Comrade Bo Gu did not completely and thoroughly admit his own mistakes"; under such circumstances, correct operational guidelines were difficult to implement effectively. At the military level, after the heavy losses of the Xiangjiang River Battle and continuous long-distance mobile warfare, when the Central Red Army entered the Zhaxi region, the troops had suffered severe attrition. Although the designations of the various army corps, divisions, regiments, battalions, and companies were still retained, many units were already empty shells. The levels of the Military Commission and army corps organs were bloated, combat personnel were lacking, which seriously affected the troops' mobility and made it difficult to adapt to the needs of mobile warfare.
In addition, before the Zunyi Meeting, due to the erroneous leadership of Bo Gu and Li De, coupled with the urgent domestic situation, the Central Committee's guidance to the various Soviet areas and the Red Army nationwide had been greatly weakened during the four months after the Long March began. Facing the Kuomintang's zoned "mopping-up" campaigns against the Central Soviet Area, Xiang Ying sent telegrams to the Central Committee on February 1 and 4, successively requesting instructions on whether the "overall operational guideline" should be "concentrated action" or "dispersed objectives," and criticizing the Central Committee and the Military Commission for having "given no instructions, no replies, and not arranged an overall general policy for the whole country since setting out."
Moving to Zhaxi, Setting Policy While Marching
To complete the tasks that the Zunyi Meeting had not had time to complete, from February 5 to 9, 1935, the Central Political Bureau successively convened meetings at the Huafangzi in Shuitian Village, the Zhuangzi Shang in Dahetan, and the Jiangxi Guild Hall in Zhaxi Town within the Zhaxi area. The meetings were presided over by Zhang Wentian. Those attending the meetings included: Mao Zedong, Zhang Wentian, Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, Chen Yun, Bo Gu, Wang Jiaxiang, Liu Shaoqi, Deng Fa, Kai Feng, and others. The main content of the meetings covered the following aspects.
Discussion and decision on the division of responsibilities among the Standing Committee members of the Central Political Bureau. On February 5, the Party Central Committee, the Red Army headquarters, and the Military Commission column arrived at Shuitian Village. That evening, in a building in Shuitian Village known as "Huafangzi" (Flower House), famous for its doors and windows carved with patterns of flowers, plants, insects, and birds, the Party Central Committee convened a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau, formally implementing the Zunyi Meeting's decision on "further appropriate division of responsibilities among the Standing Committee members," discussing and deciding "to have Comrade Luofu (Zhang Wentian) replace Comrade Bo Gu in assuming overall responsibility." Mao Zedong assisted Zhou Enlai in military command, and Bo Gu served as acting director of the General Political Department of the Red Army.
Discussion and passage of the Zunyi Meeting resolution drafted by Zhang Wentian. On February 8, the Central Political Bureau convened a meeting at Zhuangzi Shang in Dahetan. The meeting discussed and passed the "Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on the Summary of the Counter-Campaign Against the Enemy's Fifth 'Encirclement and Suppression'" (i.e., the Zunyi Meeting resolution), drafted by Zhang Wentian. The resolution was drafted by Zhang Wentian after the Zunyi Meeting, based on the content of the speeches of the majority of the participants, especially Mao Zedong's speech. The resolution fully affirmed the basic principles of strategy and tactics adopted by Mao Zedong and others in commanding the Red Army to repeatedly win victories in the counter-"encirclement and suppression" campaigns, and clearly pointed out that Bo Gu's and Li De's "purely defensive line in military affairs was the main reason we could not crush the enemy's fifth 'encirclement and suppression' campaign." This historically significant document laid the ideological and theoretical foundation for the Central Red Army and the Red Army across the country to break out of encirclement and shift, crush the "encirclement and suppression" campaigns, and achieve victory in the Long March. After the resolution was passed, to facilitate its conveyance and implementation, Zhang Wentian, based on the spirit of the resolution, wrote it into an outline-style "Outline of the Resolution of the Enlarged Meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee Summarizing the Lessons and Experiences of the War to Crush the Fifth 'Encirclement and Suppression' Campaign," which was issued that same day in the name of the "Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China."
Discussion of the direction of advance of the Central Red Army and the issue of troop reorganization and reduction, making the decisions to "return troops to northern Guizhou" and "reorganize and reduce." On February 9, 1935, the Central Political Bureau convened an enlarged meeting at the Jiangxi Guild Hall in Zhaxi Town, discussing the direction of advance of the Central Red Army and the issue of troop reorganization and reduction. At the meeting, Mao Zedong proposed the guideline of turning back eastward, crossing the Chishui River again, and recapturing Zunyi, holding that advantage should be taken of the enemy's misperceptions, favorable opportunities for battle should be sought, superior forces should be concentrated, the specialty of our army in mobile warfare should be brought into play, and the enemy should be actively annihilated. To this end, he proposed lightening the troops' equipment, streamlining the organs, and strengthening the companies. The meeting accepted Mao Zedong's propositions. On February 10, the Central Revolutionary Military Commission issued the "Order on the Reorganization and Reduction of Various Army Corps," and the Central Red Army began its reorganization in the Zhaxi area. To meet the needs of combat and strengthen the combat effectiveness of each company, the entire army, except for the cadre regiment, was reorganized and reduced to 16 regiments, distributed among the First, Third, Fifth, and Ninth Army Corps of the Red Army, greatly enhancing the troops' combat effectiveness and mobility.
Study and discussion of the strategic guidelines and organizational issues of the Central Committee and the other Soviet areas and Red Army units nationwide, and issuance of directives. On February 5, the Central Committee sent an "extremely urgent" directive telegram to Xiang Ying to be forwarded to the Central Branch Bureau, requiring that "the Branch Bureau should persist in guerrilla warfare in the Central Soviet Area and its neighboring Soviet areas," and deciding to establish a Central Sub-Committee of the Revolutionary Military Commission, with all important military issues to be discussed through the Military Commission. On February 11, the Central Committee made arrangements for the strategic guidelines and organizational leadership of the Second and Sixth Army Corps of the Red Army, namely "decisive defensive warfare rather than purely defensive warfare, mobile warfare rather than positional warfare," and formed a sub-committee of the Revolutionary Military Commission. The Zhaxi Meeting also decided to establish the Southern Sichuan Special Committee of the Communist Party of China and to form the Sichuan-Yunnan-Guizhou Guerrilla Column of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, to remain in the Sichuan-Yunnan-Guizhou border region to carry out guerrilla struggles, so as to pin down the enemy and coordinate operations.
Linking the Past and the Future, Completing the Turning Point
The Zhaxi Meeting was the continuation and final completion of the Zunyi Meeting. The division of responsibilities among the Standing Committee members of the Central Political Bureau and the formal written formulation of the Zunyi Meeting resolution were both finally completed at this meeting. The supporting outline of the resolution briefly summarized the basic spirit of the resolution, facilitating rapid conveyance and study by grassroots troops. After the meeting, Standing Committee members of the Central Political Bureau Mao Zedong, Zhang Wentian, Chen Yun, and others successively conveyed the resolution at cadre meetings of the Military Commission column and the various army corps. Through the issuance and propagation of the resolution, the ideological achievements of the Zunyi Meeting were transformed from a high-level consensus into an ideological standard uniformly followed by the entire army, breaking the shackles of dogmatist ideology and providing ideological support for the Red Army's flexible mobile operations. Liu Bocheng wrote in "Reviewing the Long March," "When the spirit of the Zunyi Meeting was conveyed to the troops, the entire army was inspired, as if the heavy fog had been parted and sunlight had been seen, and all feelings of doubt and discontent were completely swept away (一扫而光, yi sao er guang - "one, sweep, and, light")."
The Zhaxi Meeting further promoted the formation of the Party's first generation of central leadership collective with Comrade Mao Zedong at its core. Since the beginning of the Long March, Zhang Wentian had gradually come to identify with and support Mao Zedong through independent thinking and practical understanding. After Zhang Wentian assumed overall responsibility, he supported Mao Zedong's progression from "assistant in military command," to assuming the post of political commissar of the Front Army Headquarters after the recapture of Zunyi, to entering the new "Three-Person Group" after the plan to attack Dagushan New Field was rescinded, thereby further realizing the leadership position of Comrade Mao Zedong in the Party Central Committee and the Red Army that had been effectively established at the Zunyi Meeting, and enabling the correct military line and the principles of strategic guidelines and tactics represented by Comrade Mao Zedong to be implemented and carried out.
After the Zhaxi Meeting, in accordance with the new strategic guidelines and tactical principles, the Central Red Army crossed the Chishui River a second time, returned to northern Guizhou, launched a surprise attack on Loushan Pass, recaptured Zunyi City, annihilated 2 enemy divisions and 8 regiments, captured more than 3,000 enemy troops, and achieved the greatest victory of the Central Red Army since the beginning of the Long March; the Red Army in the Central Soviet Area changed its organizational form and method of struggle, quickly broke out of encirclement, and dispersed to persist in guerrilla warfare in the south for as long as three years, tempering and preserving a large number of backbone cadres for the revolution; the Second and Sixth Army Corps of the Red Army strengthened leadership in the counter-"encirclement and suppression" struggle, adjusted their strategic guidelines, gradually turned from passivity to initiative, and won a series of victories; the Fourth Front Army of the Red Army coordinated with the new strategic guidelines of the Central Red Army, won the victory in the Jialing River Battle, and disrupted the enemy's "joint suppression" plan in the Sichuan-Shaanxi area.
The great turning point was not accomplished in one single step (一蹴而就, yi cu er jiu - "one, kick, and, achieve") at a single meeting, but was gradually realized through continuous struggle, constant reflection, and sustained adjustment. From Tongdao, Liping, Hochang, and Zunyi to Zhaxi, the Party led the Red Army in adhering to seeking truth from facts, adhering to independence and self-reliance, and daring to engage in self-revolution, step by step, and through the practical test of blood and fire, found a revolutionary path suited to China's national conditions.
Return to TopBy: 王瑜
"The Inaugural Message of The Communist" is the inaugural message personally written by Mao Zedong on October 4, 1939, for the formal publication of The Communist, the Party Central Committee's internal journal, and it is included in Volume II of the Selected Works of Mao Zedong. In this classic document, Mao Zedong called Party building a great project, systematically expounded the three magic weapons of the united front, armed struggle, and Party building and their dialectical relationships, and scientifically answered how, in the long-term dispersed rural guerrilla warfare environment, to build a nationwide, broadly mass-based, ideologically, politically, and organizationally fully consolidated Bolshevik-style Communist Party of China. This classic document not only guided our Party in tempering itself and winning victory during the revolutionary era, but also provided important guidance for generations of Communists to continuously advance Party building. On the new journey, rereading this classic document is of great significance for our profound understanding of the major significance of strengthening Party building in the new era, for building our Party into an even stronger and more powerful force, and for forever preserving the Party's advanced nature and purity.
Build a Party that is fully consolidated ideologically, politically, and organizationally. From the day of its founding, the Communist Party of China has faced the major issue of "what kind of Party to build and how to build it." Mao Zedong explicitly proposed building "a nationwide, broadly mass-based, ideologically, politically, and organizationally fully consolidated Bolshevik-style Communist Party of China," which at the time pointed out the direction for Party building.
"Nationwide scope" means emphasizing that Party organizations must move from local base areas to the whole country, achieve full organizational coverage, form an organizational system that connects upper and lower levels and spreads throughout cities and rural areas, ensure that the Party's propositions can reach the grassroots directly, and lay the organizational foundation for the Party to lead the national revolution. "Broadly mass-based" means emphasizing that the Party must maintain close ties with the masses, transform from an organization of a few advanced elements into a mass-based party representing the interests of the broadest masses of the people, mobilize and rely on the strength of workers, peasants, and all social strata, and win the people's hearts in revolutionary practice. "Ideologically, politically, and organizationally fully consolidated Bolshevik-style" refers to building a proletarian party that is ideologically firm, politically clear-headed, organizationally rigorous, and strictly disciplined, mainly including the following three aspects: first, full ideological consolidation, overcoming subjectivism, sectarianism, and Party formalism, and establishing the ideological line of seeking truth from facts. Second, full political consolidation, requiring ensuring the authority of the Party Central Committee, adhering to the principle of independence in the united front, and grasping the correct direction in armed struggle. Third, full organizational consolidation, requiring adherence to democratic centralism, strict Party discipline, purification of Party ranks, improvement of organizational systems, formation of a strong and effective leadership core and a rigorous organizational system, and ensuring the whole Party's unity and solidarity.
However, at that time, building such a Marxist party in China was far more difficult than ordinary imagination. In the semi-colonial and semi-feudal old China, peasants and other petty bourgeoisie constituted the main body of Party membership, and various non-proletarian ideologies inevitably eroded the Party's body. After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, with the rapid increase in Party membership, problems such as ideological impurity and lax organizational discipline also became prominent. Against this background, achieving the goal of Party building was by no means a natural process of something happening naturally as a result of conditions (水到渠成, shui dao qu cheng - "water, arrive, channel, form"), but rather a project requiring tremendous effort, extreme arduousness, and long-term nature. Mao Zedong solemnly called this task a "great project," which was a milestone theoretical innovation in the Party's understanding of its own building.
The practice of Party building since the Party's founding provided a reference for Mao Zedong to answer the question of "how to build the Party." First, Party building must be good at summarizing experience from history; summarizing historical experience and lessons is the logical starting point and important basis for constructing Party building theory. Mao Zedong emphasized: "Concentrating the experience of eighteen years and the current fresh experience and transmitting it to the whole Party, making the Party consolidated as firmly as iron, and avoiding the mistakes once committed in history — this is our task." It is precisely through summarizing historical experience that "The Inaugural Message of The Communist" embodies a profound grasp of the laws of Party building. Second, Party building cannot deviate from the essential attributes of a Marxist party, nor can it mechanically copy classical theory; it must be based on "China's historical conditions and social conditions, the characteristics of the Chinese revolution, and the laws of the Chinese revolution." The particularity of the Chinese revolution, the complexity of the social class structure, and the stage-by-stage development of Party organizations all require that Party building be based on local realities, combining Marxist party-building theory with China's specific realities; the degree of integration of theory and practice directly determines the level of Party building. Finally, Party building must always closely revolve around the Party's political line and advance in close connection with the political line. Party building is by no means a purely internal self-building issue of Party organizations; it is closely connected with the Party's understanding of its central tasks and with the Party's correct handling of various important issues in accomplishing its central tasks. If the Party's political line is correct, Party building can find the right direction and advance steadily, and Party organizations can continue to develop, grow, and become strong and effective; conversely, if the political line deviates and falls into error, Party building will lose its direction and go astray, and the revolutionary cause will also suffer setbacks, even facing tests of life and death. Therefore, Party building must always closely revolve around the Party's political line and advance in close connection with the political line.
The Party's organization is the brave warrior wielding the two weapons of the united front and armed struggle. Mao Zedong explicitly proposed that the united front, armed struggle, and Party building are the three magic weapons by which the Communist Party of China defeated the enemy in the Chinese revolution, and profoundly elucidated the dialectical relationships among the three.
The three magic weapons were an inevitable choice determined by China's national conditions. At that time, internally China had no democratic system and was oppressed by feudalism, externally it had no national independence and was oppressed by imperialism, and the reactionaries held powerful counter-revolutionary armed forces, which determined that the proletariat and its party must use revolutionary armed force to oppose counter-revolutionary armed force, and that armed struggle was the main form of struggle in the Chinese revolution. At the same time, the enemies of the Chinese revolution were exceptionally powerful, and the proletariat had to unite all forces that could be united. The establishment of the united front gathered scattered forces into a mighty combined force that changed the balance of power between the enemy and ourselves. But the united front was by no means unprincipled accommodation and concession; the basic strategy was to adhere to independence and self-reliance, implementing both unity and struggle.
The three magic weapons are not three isolated blocks but an organic and unified whole. Mao Zedong used vivid metaphors to elucidate the relationships among the three. First, "the united front and armed struggle are the two basic weapons for defeating the enemy." Only through establishing a broad united front can the balance of power between the enemy and ourselves be changed, creating favorable conditions for revolutionary struggle. Armed struggle is the fundamental means by which the revolutionary class defends itself, strikes the enemy, and seizes political power, and is the strong guarantee for winning revolutionary victory. Second, "the united front is the united front for carrying out armed struggle." The establishment and development of the united front is to gather scattered forces into a powerful combined force supporting armed struggle; divorced from the core goal of armed struggle, the united front loses its reason for existence. Conversely, without the deterrence and protection of armed struggle, reactionary forces will suppress the progressive forces in the united front through violent means, dividing and disintegrating the revolutionary alliance. Finally, "the Party's organization is the brave warrior wielding the two weapons of the united front and armed struggle to charge against the enemy." The united front is a united front under the Party's leadership, and armed struggle is armed struggle under the Party's leadership. Without the strong and correct leadership of the Communist Party of China, the united front will lose its direction, armed struggle will lose its soul, and the Chinese revolution cannot achieve victory. Only through deepening Party building can the Party be forged into a strong and effective leading force. The success or failure of Party building determines the success or failure of the united front and armed struggle, and also determines the future and destiny of the entire revolutionary cause.
Persistently advance the new great project of Party building in the new era. From the "great project" to the new great project of Party building in the new era, the history of our Party's more than one hundred years of advancing its own building has been inheriting a tradition or lineage (一脉相承, yi mai xiang cheng - "one, vein, mutual, inherit") and consistent throughout. The great practice of the War of Resistance Against Japan and the War of Liberation proved the tremendous power of the three magic weapons; after the founding of New China, Party building shifted from the revolutionary war environment to governing conditions, continuously consolidating and developing through exploration; since the reform and opening up, the 15th National Congress of the Party formally proposed continuing to advance the new great project of Party building, and Party building has been continuously strengthened through reform and innovation. History has eloquently proven: an important reason why our Party has been able to grow from small to large, from weak to strong, and from victory to victory, is that it has always treated Party building as a great project to be grasped.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Party, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has advanced full and rigorous self-governance of the Party with unprecedented courage and resolve. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that among the great struggle, the great project, the great cause, and the great dream, what plays the decisive role is the new great project of Party building in the new era. Party building has always been carried out around the Party's political line. As long as the Party is built well and built strong, there will be a strong political and organizational guarantee for achieving continuous victories in the great struggle, advancing the continuous development of the great cause, and realizing the Chinese Dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. The new great project of Party building in the new era both inherits a tradition or lineage and advances with the times (与时俱进, yu shi ju jin - "with, time, together, advance") compared with the "great project" of the revolutionary era: what is inherited is adhering to the nature of a Marxist party, adhering to the vanguard nature of the Party, adhering to the fundamental principle of building the Party ideologically, and so on; what advances with the times is that, based on long-term governing conditions, an important layout has been formed with Party political building as the lead, comprehensively advancing the Party's political building, ideological building, organizational building, work-style building, and discipline building, running institutional building through all of them, and deeply advancing the fight against corruption.
Full and rigorous self-governance of the Party is the strategic policy and distinctive theme for advancing the new great project of Party building in the new era. General Secretary Xi Jinping profoundly explained: "Full and rigorous self-governance of the Party, the core is strengthening the Party's leadership, the foundation is comprehensiveness, the key is rigor, and the crux is governance." Among these, "the core is strengthening the Party's leadership" points out the dialectical relationship between "the Party's leadership" and "Party building"; managing and governing the Party must be carried out under the Party's leadership, and the Party is the subject advancing full and rigorous self-governance of the Party; the goal of full and rigorous self-governance of the Party is to continuously cultivate and forever preserve the Party's advanced nature and purity, ensuring that the Party always remains the strong leadership core of the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Since the new era, full and rigorous self-governance of the Party has achieved historic and pioneering achievements, produced all-round and deep-reaching effects, solved many prominent problems within the Party, significantly enhanced the Party's ability to purify itself, improve itself, reform itself, and enhance itself, fundamentally reversed the lax, loose, and soft state of managing and governing the Party, continuously formed and developed a clean and upright political atmosphere (风清气正, feng qing qi zheng - "wind, clear, air, upright") within the Party, and the Communist Party of China, having traversed more than one hundred years of struggle, has become even stronger and more powerful through revolutionary tempering.
The Fifth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Party, standing at the strategic height of consolidating the Party's governing position and realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, made important arrangements for persistently advancing full and rigorous self-governance of the Party. The whole Party must adhere to and apply the valuable experience of full and rigorous self-governance of the Party in the new era with higher standards and more concrete measures, rectify and solve the prominent problems facing Party building, consolidate and develop the sound political situation formed by managing and governing the Party, and continuously create a new situation of managing and governing the Party and revitalizing and strengthening the Party in the new era.
Return to TopBy: 吴雨星
Jonathan Woetzel, former director of the McKinsey Global Institute, is a foreign economist who has lived and worked in China for a span of 42 years. In 1983, he came to China for the first time, and thereafter remained rooted in this land for a long period, observing China's economic development at close range and witnessing the miracle by which, since reform and opening up, our country grew from economic backwardness and limited scale into the world's second-largest economy. Woetzel's long career serving world-renowned enterprises has enabled him both to understand deeply the operating logic of the Chinese and Western economic systems and to discern the intrinsic differences between the two. Insights into the Chinese Economy is precisely a work written on the basis of his personal observation, research, and consulting practice.
The courage to venture and experiment is an important factor in China's success. In Woetzel's view, the success of China's economic development cannot be simply attributed to factors such as the demographic dividend, but rather originates from a reform spirit of daring to venture and experiment.
Woetzel verifies this reform spirit of daring to venture and experiment across various fields of economic development. For example, in the dimension of the development of multinational corporations, he believes this spirit is embodied in the resolute choice of opening up to the outside world: in an era when mature market rules were still lacking, China took the initiative to open its doors, tentatively introduced foreign-invested enterprises, and learned advanced technology and management through friction and collision. From the perspective of state-owned enterprise reform, daring to venture and experiment means breaking down the barriers of the traditional system and establishing a modern enterprise system. In the development of the private economy, countless market entities—self-employed households, township enterprises, and the broad mass of private entrepreneurs—broke through layers of constraints and blazed a path of market exploration and growth amid uncertainty. In terms of the urbanization process, Woetzel states bluntly, "China's urbanization is by far the largest social experiment ever conducted," and China has followed a distinctive path of first relying on rural reform and primary industrialization to complete wealth accumulation, then gradually entering urban infrastructure construction and industrial upgrading. From the dimension of the green economy, this daring to venture and experiment manifests as a proactive leap in development philosophy: at a stage when the economic level still had a considerable gap with developed countries, China took the initiative to designate environmental protection as a basic state policy and became a global leader in the green economy. In the field of scientific and technological innovation, China has focused on breakthroughs through independent innovation, achieving leapfrog development from catching up to laying out positions on the frontier track.
Pooling the wisdom and strength of the whole society. In Woetzel's view, the vigorous reform and transformation ultimately rests on the concrete choices of countless decision-makers, entrepreneurs, and ordinary workers. Whether it is government managers boldly launching reform pilots, private entrepreneurs breaking into entirely new markets, or scientific researchers devoting themselves to tackling key technical problems, behind the grand changes of the era is the gathering of the strength of the whole society, jointly committing to economic and social construction.
The courage and exploration of individuals converge to form a wave of reform at the level of the whole society. Woetzel emphasizes that if there is only the willingness to try but a lack of institutional enabling mechanisms that release vitality, individual attempts will be difficult to convert into tangible development momentum; and if only development opportunities are provided but the spirit of daring to venture and experiment is lacking, reform will also find it hard to achieve substantive breakthroughs. The two complement each other and together constitute the solid driving force of China's economic development. In the book, Woetzel also raises a practical question that China's high-quality development needs to answer: namely, when some individuals have become prosperous and the sharpness of reform exploration has somewhat diminished, how to release greater creative potential—this is a question worthy of attention. He believes that only by continuously stimulating the initiative of individuals and "empowering every Chinese person" can the pioneering and enterprising spirit of individuals continue to drive the overall rise of society.
Woetzel proposes that viewed from a longer historical perspective, the development energy contained in individuals still has enormous room for release, and modernization is a long-term undertaking of continuously activating individual initiative. Chinese modernization adheres to fully mobilizing the enthusiasm, initiative, and creativity of the whole society, and on the basis of activating the innovative potential of individuals, further pools the wisdom and strength of the whole society, so that the exploratory practices of countless entities converge into a powerful joint force for advancing modernization.
Committed to solving problems on the basis of facts. The spirit of daring to venture and experiment that Woetzel speaks of is by no means reckless action that disregards consequences. Behind the "formula" of China's successful experience, the pragmatic and prudent governance capacity of decision-makers cannot be separated as an important support. Woetzel believes that China's ruling party insists on seeking truth from facts and always takes actual conditions as the yardstick—piloting first, summarizing and reviewing, and gradually promoting—bringing individual-level exploration and trial-and-error into a controllable institutional framework, achieving the organic unity of bold exploration and risk prevention and control. It is precisely this pragmatic spirit that has enabled China's reform neither to adhere to old ways and refuse to change (因循守旧, yīn xún shǒu jiù - "follow, follow; old, keep") nor to stay in one's ways and refuse to progress (故步自封, gù bù zì fēng - "old, step; self, seal"), nor to detach from national conditions and blindly advance rashly, but rather to find a dynamic balance between stability and progress.
Woetzel mentions that this pragmatic spirit is rooted in a principle that runs through everything: proceed from reality in everything and take one's own path. From the ideological line of "seeking truth from facts" to the adherence of Chinese leaders to this principle, China's development has always been built on a sober understanding of its own national conditions. China's decision-makers do not copy any ready-made textbook, nor do they seek from history plans that can be simply replicated, but rather base themselves on practical problems and seek concrete methods under concrete conditions. This practical orientation, grounded in reality and facing the future, has enabled China to dynamically adjust its development strategies at different stages of development. From this, it is not difficult to understand a basic judgment of Woetzel's: "No matter how things change, China will always be China. China will make changes in its own way."
If, under the leadership of pragmatic decision-makers, the reform spirit of daring to venture and experiment, together with the joint force formed by individuals, explains why the miracle of China's economic development occurred, then these experiences also provide inspiration for current and future development. In the book, Woetzel, based on analysis of key areas, distills development ideas oriented toward the future.
From the perspective of globalization, the market environment changes rapidly, there are no permanent leaders, and enterprises cannot rest on past successes and stay in one's ways and refuse to progress. Looking back, multinational corporations once entered the Chinese market by virtue of technological and managerial advantages, at one time viewing China as a manufacturing base and sales market and underestimating the growth potential of local enterprises; while Chinese local enterprises gradually grew from chasers into formidable competitors, and in some fields even achieved a reversal of roles, completing the transformation from learners to participants and competitors. Woetzel judges that the first truly global enterprises are expected to be born in China, and Chinese enterprises need to complete the transformation from "passively adapting to globalization" to "actively defining the rules of globalization." But this does not mean moving toward confrontation with multinational capital; beyond competition, cooperation still has broad space. Facing the reality of geopolitical conflicts and the resurgence of anti-globalization sentiment, simply choosing to withdraw is not a way out of resolving contradictions. Continuing to participate in the global division of labor and dynamically adjusting one's own strategy amid friction is a more realistic and feasible path.
At the level of scientific and technological innovation, Woetzel believes that maintaining an enterprising mindset is an important prerequisite for development. Technological iteration changes with each passing day; if one does not advance, one falls behind, and no country or enterprise can achieve permanent leadership. On the one hand, it is necessary to innovate thinking and break through boundaries, not to rely excessively on paths that have proven effective in the past, and to dare to break path dependence and established paradigms. On the other hand, it is necessary to attach importance to the talent foundation, reshape an education system suited to innovative development, and advance the building of a lifelong learning society. Innovation is not an undertaking exclusive to young people; older people possess rich practical experience, a steady and rational mindset, and various resources accumulated over the long term, constituting a unique comparative advantage for participating in innovation and entrepreneurship. In addition, improving the social security system and reducing the worries behind entrepreneurial failure and career mobility are also important institutional safeguards for fully releasing the innovative vitality of the whole society.
Insights into the Chinese Economy, from the unique perspective of a foreign economist, uses micro-level facts, data, and cases to show readers: the miracle of China's economic development is not accidental, but the product of the organic combination of bold exploration and pragmatic governance. This book offers a novel perspective and has certain reference value for understanding the practical path of China's economic development.
Return to TopBy: 牛先锋
The Fifth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Party emphasized the need to "continuously strengthen the Party's political leadership, ideological guidance, mass organization, and social appeal, ensuring that the Party always remains a vibrant Marxist ruling party that stays at the forefront of the times, enjoys the heartfelt support of the people, and withstands various trials and tribulations, and always serves as the strong leading core of the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics." Continuously strengthening the Party's political leadership, ideological guidance, mass organization, and social appeal is a new requirement for improving the Party's governance capability and leadership level in the new era, and is an important task for deeply advancing the great new project of Party building in the new era.
Continuously strengthening the Party's political leadership, ideological guidance, mass organization, and social appeal, ensuring that our Party forever maintains vigorous vitality and strong combat effectiveness
The Communist Party of China is a long-term ruling Marxist party. The Party's political leadership is mainly reflected in its leadership over major decisions such as the Party's line, principles, and policies; its leadership over major judgments concerning the country's development path, development stage, development layout, and international situation; and its leadership in defending political positions, keeping the political direction correct, adhering to political principles, maintaining political resolve, and preventing political risks. Since the 18th National Congress of the Party, General Secretary Xi Jinping has clearly stated that "the most essential feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics is the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the greatest strength of the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics is the leadership of the Communist Party of China, and the Communist Party of China is the highest political leadership force." Affairs are conducted in all directions, but the key lies in the central authorities. Strengthening the Party's political leadership, the most important and fundamental aspect, is to resolutely uphold the authority and centralized, unified leadership of the Central Committee, ensuring that orders are carried out and prohibitions are heeded, and ensuring that the major decisions and deployments of the Central Committee are implemented and benefit all the people.
The Party's ideological guidance is mainly reflected in adhering to Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, the important thought of the Three Represents, and the Scientific Outlook on Development; fully implementing Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era; deeply studying and implementing Xi Jinping's thought on Party building; adhering to the combination of the basic principles of Marxism with China's specific realities and with China's excellent traditional culture, continuously opening up new realms of adapting Marxism to the Chinese context and the needs of the times; and adhering to arming the whole Party with the Party's innovative theories, educating the people, and using the latest achievements of adapting Marxism to the Chinese context and the needs of the times to lead society forward.
The Party's mass organization is mainly reflected in two aspects: First, adhering to the Party's mass line, doing everything for the masses, relying on the masses, coming from the masses and going to the masses, firmly believing that the masses are the creators of history, believing that the masses possess inexhaustible wisdom and strength, effectively solving the urgent, difficult, and anxious problems of the masses, and continuously enhancing the masses' sense of gain, happiness, and security. Second, Party organizations at all levels and individual Party members leading by example (以身作则, yi shen zuo ze - "take, body, act, rule"), setting an example and taking the lead, always walking ahead of the masses, setting benchmarks and demonstrating for the masses through their own words and deeds, attracting and organizing the masses with their own advanced nature, and consolidating a deep mass foundation.
The Party's social appeal is mainly reflected in the Party inspiring society through beautiful visions, guiding society with scientific strategic arrangements, mobilizing society with sound organizations, attracting society with tangible achievements, and influencing society with an incorruptible and people-friendly image. Social appeal is the manifestation of the Party uniting the people, consolidating consensus, mobilizing society, and ultimately forming strong social vitality.
The Party's political leadership, ideological guidance, mass organization, and social appeal are both inherent requirements for advancing the great new project of Party building in the new era and important goal orientations for advancing the great new project of Party building in the new era. The Party's political leadership, ideological guidance, mass organization, and social appeal are closely linked and mutually interconnected. Among them, strengthening the Party's political leadership holds a commanding position, strengthening the Party's ideological guidance is a foundational project, strengthening the Party's mass organization is necessary to promote practical development, and strengthening the Party's social appeal is an important goal orientation. Only by strengthening the Party's political leadership, ideological guidance, mass organization, and social appeal can we ensure that our Party forever maintains vigorous vitality and strong combat effectiveness, enabling our Party to always remain a strong leading core in the historical process of upholding and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics.
Persistently advancing full and rigorous self-governance of the Party, strengthening the Party's political leadership, ideological guidance, mass organization, and social appeal
The Communist Party of China is a long-term ruling Marxist party. Consolidating the Party's long-term ruling position and maintaining the advanced nature and purity of a Marxist party inevitably requires persistently advancing full and rigorous self-governance of the Party and continuously strengthening the Party's political leadership, ideological guidance, mass organization, and social appeal.
The core force leading our cause is the Communist Party of China. The most fundamental aspect of the leadership of the Communist Party of China is political leadership, and political leadership is largely realized through formulating and implementing correct lines, principles, and policies. When the Party's lines, principles, and policies are correct and effectively implemented, the cause of the Party and the state will advance through the waves. When the Party's lines, principles, and policies are not in line with reality or are poorly implemented, the cause of the Party and the state will encounter setbacks. Persistently advancing full and rigorous self-governance of the Party inevitably requires the whole Party to be adept at viewing problems from a political perspective, judging the nature of problems from a political perspective, analyzing the roots of contradictions from a political perspective, grasping the direction of development of things from a political perspective, and standing firm on political positions, adhering to political principles, and clearly stating political attitudes in the face of major issues of right and wrong. Only when the Party's political leadership is strengthened can correct lines, principles, and policies be formulated and implemented, and can directional and subversive errors be avoided.
The theoretical foundation guiding our thinking is Marxism. Marxism is the theoretical cornerstone of our Party's founding and governance, and of the Party's prosperity and the country's development. The Party's ideological guidance is mainly reflected in the degree of mastery of Marxism and the level of practical application of the basic principles of Marxism. Marxism is a scientific worldview and methodology, and a theoretical weapon for Communists to transform the subjective and objective world. Only with theoretical clarity can one be politically firm and act with consciousness. Phenomena that violate Party principles, such as abandoning the Party's ideals and beliefs, lacking organization and discipline, failing to distinguish between public and private interests, using public power for private gain, offering and accepting bribes, and taking bribes and bending the law, are all closely related to an incorrect worldview. Persistently advancing full and rigorous self-governance of the Party requires carrying out self-revolution from the depths of thought, treating serious study of Marxism as a required course, and firmly mastering Marxism as the essential skill. Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era is the Marxism of contemporary China and the Marxism of the 21st century. Only by adhering to arming the whole Party and educating the people with Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era can the Party's ideological guidance be strengthened.
The masses are the creators of history. The cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics was achieved by hundreds of millions of Chinese people themselves. Only when the masses are organized through the Party can they think with one mind and exert their strength in one direction, coalescing into an invincible force. The Communist Party of China is the vanguard of the Chinese working class, and at the same time the vanguard of the Chinese people and the Chinese nation. The advanced nature of the Party determines that the Party can organize the masses and unite them into a solid whole. However, the danger of the Party becoming detached from the masses also often exists. Under conditions of long-term governance and in the face of brilliant achievements, some Party members and cadres have weakened their concept of the masses and are not good at mass work. Over time, they lose the will to organize the masses and discard the ability to organize the masses. When real risks and trials arrive, it is too late to organize the masses. The collapse of the Soviet Communist Party and the Soviet Union is greatly related to its long-term detachment from the masses and loss of the ability to organize the masses. Our Party comes from the masses, is rooted in the masses, and serves the masses. The Party's foundation lies in the masses, its bloodline lies in the masses, and its strength lies in the masses. Persistently advancing full and rigorous self-governance of the Party is precisely about continuously consolidating the mass foundation of the Party's governance and enhancing the Party's ability to organize the masses.
Social vitality is the enduring driving force for economic and social development. Full and rigorous self-governance of the Party is not for the sake of governing the Party itself, nor is it about replacing social vitality with the Party's leadership. Persistently advancing full and rigorous self-governance of the Party first requires building the Party well, and then, through the exemplary and leading role of Party members and Party organizations at all levels, calling on social forces to participate in the cause of the Party and the state, and stimulating the vitality of the whole society to achieve the Party's goals of governing the country. Strengthening the Party's social appeal, combining the Party's leadership with the people being the masters of the country, and enhancing the Party's social mobilization capacity, interest integration capacity, and ideological guidance capacity through the Party's good image, style, and organization, forms a mighty force for Chinese modernization.
Adhering to the guidance of Xi Jinping's thought on Party building, continuously strengthening the Party's political leadership, ideological guidance, mass organization, and social appeal
Xi Jinping's thought on Party building is an important ideological weapon for governing and managing the Party, and for rejuvenating and strengthening the Party in the new era. On the new journey of comprehensively building a modern socialist country, continuously strengthening the Party's political leadership, ideological guidance, mass organization, and social appeal must adhere to the guidance of Xi Jinping's thought on Party building.
As a Marxist party, our Party's emphasis on politics is a prominent feature and advantage. To emphasize politics, one must first understand what politics is. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that "comprehensively advancing the great cause of building a strong country and national rejuvenation through Chinese modernization is the central task of the Party and the state on the new journey of the new era, and is the greatest politics of the new era." Strengthening the Party's political leadership must adhere to the fundamental requirement of "taking political construction as the guide," closely focus on the central task of Chinese modernization, clearly discern the political direction, consolidate the political foundation, cultivate the political ecosystem, prevent political risks, forever maintain political integrity, continuously improve political judgment, political understanding, and political execution, and consciously maintain a high degree of consistency with the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core in thought, politics, and action.
Marxism is the theoretical foundation of the ideals and beliefs of Communists. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that "once we join the Party, we commit to Marxism, and to socialism and communism." Continuously strengthening the Party's ideological guidance must closely focus on the fundamental task of Party ideological construction, which is "persistently using the Party's innovative theories to unite hearts and souls," reading original works, studying original texts, and comprehending principles, and mastering Marxism as the essential skill. In particular, it is necessary to seriously study, implement, and practice Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, adhere to building the Party ideologically and strengthening the Party theoretically, solve the "master switch" problem of worldview, outlook on life, and values, build a solid foundation of faith, replenish the calcium of spirit, and steady the rudder of thought.
The strength of the Party's mass organization first depends on whether the Party can truly adhere to the values of "doing everything for the masses and relying on the masses." General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that "the Communist Party of China has never represented the interests of any interest group, any power group, or any privileged stratum," and "on the fundamental question of who we govern for, who we use power for, and who we seek benefits for, our minds must be especially clear and our positions especially firm." Only by considering the interests of the masses in every matter can the masses be willing to follow the Party. Second, it depends on whether the Party can truly adhere to the methodology of "coming from the masses and going to the masses." General Secretary Xi Jinping taught young cadres, "We must persist in going to the masses and to practice, listening to what grassroots cadres and the masses think, urgently need, and expect, understanding and grasping the real situation, and must not make a superficial inspection, skim the surface without depth, become conceited after a single success, or draw general conclusions from biased or partial evidence." Only by adhering to coming from the masses and going to the masses can the policies and measures formulated conform to the reality of the masses, and can the masses be organized to follow the Party. Strengthening the Party's ability to organize the masses must adhere to the effective path of "promoting the normalization and long-term effectiveness of work style improvement," which maintains the flesh-and-blood connection between the Party and the masses, resolutely break privileged thinking and privileged behavior, rectify the Four Malfeasances, foster new practices, and persevere with unremitting effort (锲而不舍, qie er bu she - "carve, and, not, abandon") in implementing the spirit of the Central Committee's Eight-Point Regulation.
Upholding and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics is a great and arduous cause that requires mobilizing all advantageous resources of society and calling on all positive forces of society. Over more than 40 years of reform and opening up, under the guidance of the Party's and the state's principles and policies, China's private economy has grown from small to large and from weak to strong, and has become a major field for entrepreneurship and employment, an important subject of technological innovation, and an important source of national tax revenue. The vast number of private entrepreneurs have vigorously promoted the entrepreneurial spirit, actively participated in the implementation of major national strategies, taken industrial patriotism and industrial development as their mission, and strived to be models of patriotism, dedication, law-abiding operation, innovation and entrepreneurship, and giving back to society. Together with workers, peasants, and intellectuals, they are all builders of socialism with Chinese characteristics. On the new journey of building a strong country and national rejuvenation, strengthening the Party's social appeal must be based on new changes in the economy and society, fully mobilize and incentivize the factor input of owners of different factors of production, let the vitality of all labor, knowledge, technology, management, and capital burst forth, let all sources of social wealth flow fully, and, under the leadership of the Party, jointly converge into a powerful force for the construction of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
[The author is the Executive Deputy President of the Party School (School of Administration) of the Party Committee of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region]
Return to TopBy: 陈如平
As early as June 1950, Mao Zedong, responding to the issue of student health, issued the important directive "health first, study second," which clarified the value ordering between the psychological and physiological dimensions in the Party's educational policy for the new China. In 2018, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized at the National Education Conference: "We must establish the educational concept of health first, offer sufficient and complete physical education classes, and help students enjoy pleasure, strengthen their physique, improve their character, and temper their will through physical exercise." From "health first" to "the educational concept of health first," the deepening of the formulation reflects the Party's continuously advancing understanding of the laws of education, and is also embodied in a series of educational policies.
Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Party and government's policy formulations concerning adolescent health have undergone an evolution in three stages: the first stage, from 1950 to 1999, mainly incorporated student health into the scope of school health work, with the policy focus placed on hardware and physiological aspects such as infectious disease prevention and control, cafeteria hygiene, and desk and chair standards. Health was regarded as a "non-teaching matter," handled by the school clinic or general affairs department, and was only weakly connected to the main line of education and teaching. The second stage, from 2000 to 2017, was a health promotion stage with physical education as the entry point. The "Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Strengthening Youth Sports and Enhancing Youth Physique" issued in 2007 was the landmark document of this stage; policy began to take physical education as the main lever for improving students' physique, explicitly proposing "one hour of exercise per day." However, during this period, health was still mainly understood as "physical health." Although mental health education was mentioned, it was often marginalized in grassroots practice. The third stage, from 2018 to the present, is a stage of systematic reconstruction led by concepts. After the National Education Conference, health was no longer merely a special task of the physical education or health departments, but was elevated to a core value guiding the entire educational process. A series of documents, including the "Opinions on Comprehensively Strengthening and Improving School Physical Education Work in the New Era" and the "Special Action Plan for Comprehensively Strengthening and Improving Mental Health Work for Students in the New Era (2023–2025)," incorporated physical health, mental health, vision health, and nutritional health into a unified framework, marking the formal establishment of the "comprehensive health" educational concept.
From school health work to a core educational concept, this discursive shift contains at least three layers of policy implications. First, health has risen from logistical support to an educational goal. Health is no longer merely about keeping students "free from illness and able to attend school," but is an inevitable or essential part of a topic (题中应有之义, ti zhong ying you zhi yi - "topic, should, have, exist, meaning") of "promoting students' comprehensive development and healthy growth." Monism of body and mind has replaced dualism of body and mind; health has become an ontological value of education rather than an instrumental condition. Second, health has expanded from departmental responsibility to all-staff responsibility. In the past, health education was undertaken by physical education teachers, school doctors, and psychology teachers; now, all subject teachers, homeroom teachers, and administrative management personnel are incorporated into the health education network. This implies an adjustment in school organizational structure—health education is no longer an additional module, but is embedded in the underlying logic of all educational activities. Third, health has been upgraded from a school matter to a social governance issue. Multiple actors, including families, communities, medical and health institutions, media, and the internet, have been incorporated into a collaborative system; educational governance has shifted from acting alone without coordination or support (单兵突进, dan bing tu jin - "single, soldier, rush, advance") by schools to coordinated advancement by the whole society.
Although the direction of policy evolution is clear, in grassroots practice, "health first" still faces four structural dilemmas. The first is the path dependence of the evaluation system. The core contradiction in the current educational evaluation system lies in the huge gap between the "simultaneous development of five educations" and "integration of five educations" in policy discourse and the "dominance of a single education" at the operational level. The high school and college entrance examinations still use scores as the core admission criterion, and in local government performance assessments of education, enrollment rates still retain implicit weight. Under this evaluation orientation, schools and teachers face the institutional pressure of saying one thing while doing another (说一套做一套, shuo yi tao zuo yi tao - "speak, one, set, do, one, set"): policy requires attention to health, but the core of performance appraisal and rewards is scores, and this tension is particularly acute in graduating grades. Surveys in some localities have found that the proportion of physical education classes squeezed out in the third year of junior high and the third year of senior high is far higher than in other grades, and recess activities have been compressed into an ultra-minimalist model of "going to the bathroom + getting water." Schools are not unaware of the importance of health, but under the existing evaluation framework, the returns on health education are long-term, implicit, and difficult to quantify, while the returns on academic training are short-term, explicit, and directly linked to enrollment outcomes. The second is the insufficient supply of spatial resources. Taking urban schools as an example, the phenomenon of 22 mu of land accommodating nearly 3,000 students is not uncommon. Under extremely tight physical space, having all students pour into the playground during a 15-minute recess is neither realistic nor safe, so "corridor confinement" has become the second-best choice many schools reluctantly adopt. Behind the space shortage lies a structural contradiction between urban planning and the supply of educational land: newly built schools are often located on the urban fringe where land costs are lower, meeting the per-student floor area standard but with too large a service radius; old urban schools are located in core areas with a reasonable service radius but essentially no room for expansion or renovation. This contradiction is difficult to fundamentally resolve in the short term. The third is the unbounded expansion of safety responsibility. The legal boundaries of campus safety responsibility are blurred; when accidental injuries occur to students at school, schools often have to simultaneously face multiple consequences including parental claims for compensation, public opinion pressure, and administrative accountability. School administrators tend to adopt the most conservative strategy—compressing students' free activity time and space to minimize risk. The fourth is the utilitarian inertia of family expectations. The parenting anxiety of "not losing at the starting line," compounded by the "backflow effect" after the governance of off-campus tutoring, leaves many families with ambivalent attitudes toward schools' health education measures: on the one hand they hope their children are physically and mentally healthy, and on the other they worry that "other people's children are in tutoring classes while my child is jumping rope." This collective action dilemma leads to severely insufficient health support at the family level—problems such as insufficient sleep, excessive screen time, and unbalanced nutrition often have their roots in the family rather than the school.
Despite the structural dilemmas described above, in recent years some localities and schools have, through institutional innovation and resource integration, explored practical experience with value for wider promotion. But from the policy level, implementing the "health first" concept cannot rely on the dedication of individual principals or the exploration of individual schools; it requires a complete set of institutional arrangements: the evaluation system points the direction, the curriculum system provides the vehicle, the spatial system consolidates the foundation, the safety system provides safeguards, and the collaborative system provides support. Only when these systems form a combined force can "health first" move from policy text into daily campus life, and from an educational concept into educational reality.
First, incorporate student health indicators into the performance evaluation system for local governments and implement "hard linkage." At the national level, core indicators such as the excellent and good rate of students' physical fitness, the myopia rate, and the abnormal rate of mental health screening should be explicitly incorporated into the indicator system for evaluating local governments' performance of educational duties, and a closed-loop mechanism of "annual monitoring—notification and admonishment—rectification within a time limit" should be established. Through the rigid constraint of the "baton," local governments should be pushed from passive response to proactive action.
Second, deepen the reform of physical education and health education curricula and promote "subject penetration + data-driven" approaches. Educational administrative departments should accelerate the formulation of guidelines for the penetration of health education into subjects, clarifying the functional positioning and teaching content of each subject in health education. At the same time, a nationally unified student health data platform should be established to realize the automatic aggregation and dynamic analysis of physical fitness monitoring, vision screening, and psychological assessment data. Schools should be required to form teaching improvement reports based on health data each semester, converting health data into evidence-based grounds for adjusting teaching, and avoiding the problem of "measuring without using, and using without changing."
Third, improve the legal definition of campus safety responsibility to loosen restrictions on free activity during recess. The "Measures for Handling Student Injury Accidents" should be revised more quickly to clarify the boundary of schools' responsibility in accidental student injuries, distinguishing "managerial dereliction" from accidents in normal activities. At the same time, full coverage of commercial insurance for campus accidental injuries should be promoted, and a rapid handling mechanism of "insurance pays first, responsibility determined afterwards" should be established. Through the dual safeguard of law and institutions, school administrators should be enabled to dare to "let go," allowing students to once again have recess periods in which they can run freely.
Fourth, increase investment in health education resources, with emphasis on filling the gaps in hardware and software. In terms of hardware, it is recommended that in the project for improving weak links in compulsory education and enhancing capacity, funds for the renovation of sports venues and facilities, psychological counseling rooms, and school clinics be listed separately. In terms of software, the focus should be on solving the problems of insufficient staffing of psychology teachers and the structural shortage of physical education teachers: full-time psychology teachers should be allocated as soon as possible according to a teacher-student ratio of 1:500, and the work volume calculation standards for physical education teachers should be aligned with those of subject teachers, eliminating the institutional disparity of receiving different pay for the same work (同工不同酬, tong gong bu tong chou - "same, work, not, same, pay").
Fifth, build a collaborative health support network involving schools, families, and communities. It is recommended that education, health, sports, civil affairs, and other departments jointly issue guidance on school-family-community collaboration to promote student health, clarifying the division of responsibilities and collaborative mechanisms of each department, specifically including: community public sports facilities opening free of charge to schools; medical and health institutions establishing one-to-one health service relationships with schools; and media platforms reducing narratives of the "tiger mother" and "chicken-raising" style of parenting while increasing the dissemination weight of scientific parenting and health education content. Through the coordinated efforts of multiple actors, a full-time-and-space health support network covering inside and outside school, online and offline, and in and out of class should be built.
Sixth, cultivate a school culture of "health first" and promote the internalizing of values and manifesting them through actions (内化于心、外化于行, nei hua yu xin, wai hua yu xing - "internalize, at, heart; externalize, at, behavior"). Beyond institutions, the power of school culture cannot be ignored. "Health first" should be incorporated into the core module of training for the qualifications of primary and secondary school principals to enhance principals' leadership in health education. At the same time, schools should be encouraged to create a campus cultural atmosphere of "sports are glorious, health is precious" through vehicles such as healthy classes, health champions, and sports carnivals, so that the concept of "health first" is transformed from a slogan on the wall into a consensus among teachers and students, and from an external requirement into an internalized self-awareness.
Health is the "1," and everything else is the "0" that follows. Making "health first" the core concept of education is not lowering the requirements for academic study, but returning to the essence of education—cultivating complete human beings. When our children possess both a strong physique and a sunny mentality, and also solid knowledge and innovative thinking, only then has education truly fulfilled its mission.
(The author is Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Educational Sciences)
Return to TopBy: 刘海英
General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out that libraries are an important indicator of a country's cultural development level and an important venue for nourishing the national spirit and cultivating cultural confidence. The rapid development of artificial intelligence is profoundly reshaping the way knowledge is acquired and reading habits. Large language models represented by ChatGPT and DeepSeek have brought about a fundamental transformation in knowledge retrieval methods, and the status of traditional libraries has come under obvious challenge; at the same time, algorithm-driven recommendations carry the risk of "machine hallucination," raising concerns that deep reading may be diluted. However, data show that in 2025, the 3,253 public libraries nationwide recorded approximately 1.47 billion total visits for the year, an increase of 130 million visits over 2024, with topics such as "spending a day at the library" and "library healing" frequently trending on hot searches. This is not a passing fad, but a two-way convergence of the upgrading of the public's spiritual needs and the development of library services.
From "people seeking books" to "books seeking people"
The essence of AI intervention lies not in replacing librarians with machines, but in extending the reach of services through technology, achieving a model leap from "people seeking books" to "books seeking people."
24-hour AI librarians have broken through the limits of time and space. Intelligent Q&A systems such as the Capital Library's "Tu Yue Yue" and Donghua University's "Dong Xiao Tu" provide round-the-clock consultation services, extending service from standard working hours (朝九晚五, chao jiu wan wu - "morning nine, evening five") to "open all year round." This achieves a paradigm shift from "supply within limited time" to "accessibility at any time," lowering the psychological threshold for using libraries.
Personalized recommendation systems have reshaped the way readers connect with collections. Recommendation systems based on big data and deep learning comprehensively analyze readers' borrowing history, browsing trajectories, and interest tags to achieve precise recommendations.A well-designed system should be a "humble guide"—capturing preferences while judiciously introducing new knowledge, stimulating curiosity to explore the unknown, and achieving the transformation from "passive retrieval" to "active discovery."
Intelligent circulation systems save readers time costs. AGV robots have made automated sorting and transport of books possible, and some libraries have already achieved delivery of books to hand within 15 minutes. This reduces the "cognitive load" on readers in accessing resources, allowing them to focus more on knowledge absorption itself.
Lowering the threshold for reading is another mission of AI. AI translation and intelligent word lookup can instantly remove language barriers; generating book outlines and knowledge maps helps build macro-level frameworks. But it must be emphasized that these tools are intended to "assist entry" rather than "replace reading." AI suffers from "machine hallucination," often fabricating false references and conveying biased viewpoints, and cases of academic misconduct caused by blind trust in AI have already emerged both at home and abroad. While introducing AI assistance, libraries have an even greater responsibility to undertake information literacy education, guiding readers to maintain critical thinking, so that technology becomes a ladder for climbing the heights of knowledge rather than a disguise leading astray.
Immersive experiences bring books to "life"
In the AI era, library spaces are expanding from single-purpose document storage venues into composite cultural fields integrating knowledge acquisition, cultural perception, and aesthetic experience.
Dialogue with historical figures endows spaces with entirely new imagination. Digital human technology is used to recreate historical figures such as Lu Xun and Su Shi, building dialogue mechanisms that span time and space. Classics are transformed from abstract symbols into perceptible, approachable living presences, and cultural inheritance occurs naturally through a sense of immersion. This breaks the one-way relationship between reader and text in traditional reading, constructing a three-way interactive structure of "reader—medium—classic."
AIGC technology transforms ancient texts into animations, videos, and even interactive games. The Fujian Provincial Library has developed the mobile game "Yingya Wonder Voyage" around Yingya Shenglan, designing the ancient text's themes as a puzzle-solving exploration game in which readers enter the historical panorama of Zheng He's voyages to the Western Seas; the National Library's "Chinese Ancient Texts Intelligent Services Platform" uses AI to achieve classical-to-vernacular translation and automatic punctuation of more than 140,000 ancient texts, and within less than a year of its launch, visits exceeded ten million. This kind of transformation is not a departure from the original appearance of ancient texts, but a contemporary translation under the premise of unchanged core semantics, rebuilding connections with history and culture through familiar media.
Expanding the boundaries of service demonstrates attention to diverse needs. Innovations such as AI glasses for intelligent explanation and AI self-study rooms move libraries from "reading spaces" toward "learning and growth spaces." But technological intervention should follow the principle of "non-intrusion," safeguarding that precious tranquility and providing flexible space with differentiated scenario support for readers with different needs.
Strengthening emotional connection makes books "warmer"
The enhancement provided by technology is meant to better serve people, not to pull them away from authentic cultural experiences. The charm of libraries ultimately comes from their unique character as "spaces of people"—that unconditional inclusiveness, that service with human warmth, those sincere face-to-face exchanges.
Care for special groups is the yardstick of humanistic warmth. Age-friendly designs such as large-print interfaces and voice interaction for elderly readers ensure that the digital dividend is not blocked by age; the Capital Library's "Angel Eye" intelligent reading device uses text recognition and speech synthesis to help visually impaired readers "hear" text. The core of these applications is not the pursuit of efficiency, but the realization of equal rights—so that everyone who wishes to read, regardless of physical condition, can enjoy the joy and dignity of reading, which reflects the public service function of libraries as public cultural institutions.
Strengthening emotional connection is the core value that AI cannot replace. No matter how sophisticated the recommendation system, it cannot replace the warmth of a librarian handing over a good book; no matter how lifelike the digital human, it cannot replicate the genuine warmth of intellectual collision at a book club. Community activities such as book clubs, cultural salons, and human libraries elevate libraries from resource providers to cultural connectors, elevating individual reading into collective spiritual co-construction. What these activities build is "bridging social capital"—breaking down barriers between circles and promoting cultural exchange among readers of different backgrounds, which is precisely what algorithm-driven recommendations find difficult to achieve.
The charm of libraries in the AI era lies not in how dazzling the technology is, but in extending the breadth and depth of reading through technology while still safeguarding that tranquility, care, and emotional connection. Technology is a means, not an end; a bridge, not a barrier. Technology itself is neutral, and its social effects depend on the value orientation of its users. When technology is placed within the value framework of serving people's comprehensive development and promoting equitable access to knowledge, it becomes a bridge connecting readers and knowledge, tradition and modernity, individuals and communities. Looking to the future, it is also necessary to confront the difficulties faced by grassroots libraries, promote the flow of quality resources and AI tools down to the grassroots level, and help grassroots libraries with tight budgets and talent shortages achieve digital transformation through inter-library collaboration, resource sharing, and personnel training. Only when the dividends of technological progress cover both urban and rural areas will "making readers fall in love with libraries" be more than just a slogan.
Return to TopBy: 丁俊萍
The Fifth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Party proposed that strengthening Party spirit is the fundamental task of full and rigorous self-governance of the Party. Party spirit is the cornerstone of Party members and cadres' conduct, career, speech, and moral character. Party spirit education is a required course for Communists to cultivate their moral character and also the "study of the mind" for Communists. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that only by mastering scientific theory and consolidating the ideological foundation can full and rigorous self-governance of the Party have solid support. It is necessary to grasp well the foundation of ideological development, unremittingly advance the arming of the Party's innovative theory, persistently strengthen Party spirit education, and guide Party members and cadres to transform the strategic policy of full and rigorous self-governance of the Party into conscious action. Persistently strengthening Party spirit education is an important path to accomplishing the fundamental task of strengthening Party spirit under full and rigorous self-governance of the Party. Correctly understanding the connotation and essence of persistently strengthening Party spirit education, scientifically grasping the practical requirements of persistently strengthening Party spirit education, and grasping it firmly as a long-term project will help consolidate the ideological foundation of full and rigorous self-governance of the Party and persistently advance full and rigorous self-governance of the Party.
Deeply Understand the Great Significance of Persistently Strengthening Party Spirit Education
Persistently strengthening Party spirit education is an important component of persistently advancing full and rigorous self-governance of the Party. Since the 18th National Congress of the Party, the Party Central Committee has incorporated full and rigorous self-governance of the Party into the strategic layout of the Four-Pronged Comprehensive Strategy (四个全面), adhered to a problem-oriented approach, and emphasized "strict governance in ideology, insisting on arming the mind and uniting the soul with the latest achievements of Marxism in China, and using ideals, beliefs, and Party spirit education to strengthen the foundation and nourish the essence (固本培元, gu ben pei yuan - "solidify, foundation, nourish, origin") and to supplement calcium and strengthen the bones." The reason for placing strict governance in ideology first is that various problems in intra-Party political life ultimately stem from the shaking of the "ballast stone" of ideals and beliefs of some Party members and cadres, and the loosening of the "master switch" of their worldview, outlook on life, and values. Party spirit education is the key to eliminating confusion and returning to the original source (正本清源, zheng ben qing yuan - "correct, root, clear, source") and strengthening the foundation from the ideological root. Full and rigorous self-governance of the Party must be truly managed and strictly managed, boldly managed and strictly managed, and persistently managed and strictly managed. It must never fall into the cycle of grasping for a while, relaxing for a while, and then grasping again when problems arise, only to relax again. It must persistently promote the deepening of full and rigorous self-governance of the Party. The long-term nature, complexity, and extreme importance of governing the Party determine that Party spirit education must move in the same direction and exert sustained effort. If Party spirit education is relaxed for a while and tightened for a while, the ideological foundation will waver, and the main tone of strictness will be difficult to sustain. Only by making Party spirit education regular, detailed, and long-term can full and rigorous self-governance of the Party have solid ideological support.
Persistently strengthening Party spirit education is a lifelong topic running through the entire process of Party members and cadres' growth. The advanced nature and purity of a Marxist political party are not naturally maintained over time, and the Party spirit of Communist Party members does not naturally improve with the growth of Party seniority and the promotion of positions. The original aspiration does not remain fresh and guaranteed forever; if not carefully attended to, it may become tarnished and faded, and if not nourished for a long time, it may dry up and wither. It must be tempered through continuous study, education, and intra-Party political life. Party spirit is the greatest virtue of Party members and cadres. Some cadres have problems mainly because of problems in "virtue" and weak Party spirit. Party members and cadres who violate rules, discipline, and law mostly lack due Party spirit cultivation. Some frankly admit in their confession letters that they do not understand or are unfamiliar with the Party Constitution, Party regulations, and Party discipline, and only suddenly come to their senses (幡然醒悟, fan ran xing wu - "suddenly, realize, awaken") after problems arise. These lessons profoundly show that strengthening Party spirit education and enhancing Party spirit cultivation is a process requiring lifelong effort. Only by treating Party spirit education as a required course to be constantly cultivated and refined, constantly comprehended and advanced, can the phenomenon of being a "good cadre" today and a "prisoner" tomorrow be prevented.
Persistently strengthening Party spirit education is an inherent requirement for always maintaining sobriety and firmness in solving the unique problems of a major party. Under conditions of long-term governance, factors that weaken the Party's advanced nature and harm the Party's purity exist at all times, dangers that violate the original aspiration and mission and shake the Party's foundation are everywhere, and prominent problems within the Party such as impure ideology, impure politics, impure organization, and impure work style have not yet been fundamentally solved. These factors and problems are concrete manifestations of the unique problems of a major party, which General Secretary Xi Jinping profoundly summarized with the "six hows and alwayss." Solving these problems fundamentally depends on strengthening the foundation and nourishing the essence, and on strengthening Party spirit. Strengthening Party spirit education is the basic work of supplementing calcium and strengthening the bones, expelling toxins and sterilizing, removing diseases and healing wounds, and eliminating decay and regenerating flesh from the ideological root. Solving the unique problems of a major party is bound to be a long and arduous process, which determines that Party spirit education must maintain the tenacity of "always being on the road." As long as factors that weaken the advanced nature and harm the purity still exist, Party spirit education has no reason to rest. Persistently strengthening Party spirit education is an inherent requirement for always maintaining sobriety and firmness in solving the unique problems of a major party, and an important guarantee for the Party to respond to various risks and challenges and consolidate its long-term governing position in the new era and new journey.
Notable Achievements and Valuable Experience of Party Spirit Education Since the New Era
Since the 18th National Congress of the Party, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has placed Party spirit education in a prominent position, promoted the whole Party to become stronger through revolutionary tempering, and accumulated valuable experience in tempering strong Party spirit.
Adhere to deepening Party spirit education with the Party's political development as the guide. The Party's political development is the fundamental development of the Party, determining the direction and effectiveness of Party development. In the new era, Party spirit education has always placed political cultivation first, taken safeguarding the authority of the Party Central Committee and its centralized, unified leadership as the highest political principle, and guided Party members and cadres to enhance the Four Consciousnesses (四个意识), strengthen the Four Confidences (四个自信), and achieve the Two Upholds (两个维护). Party schools at all levels take political training and political tempering as the core content of Party spirit education, promoting Party members and cadres to temper political character, accumulate political experience, and enhance political acuity in serious intra-Party political life. Through sustained efforts, the whole Party's political judgment, political understanding, and political execution have significantly improved, and the practice of the Two Upholds has become more conscious and firm. Practice has profoundly shown that Party spirit education must firmly grasp the political direction and carry through the maintenance of a firm political stance and strict political discipline throughout, to ensure that education does not deviate.
Adhere to the simultaneous and coordinated efforts of ideological education and institutional constraints. Full and rigorous self-governance of the Party relies on both education and institutions; the two, one soft and one hard, must exert force in the same direction and at the same time. Since the 18th National Congress of the Party, the Party has adhered to using the Party's innovative theories to unite the soul, using ideals, beliefs, and Party spirit education to strengthen the foundation and nourish the essence and supplement calcium and strengthen the bones; continuously improved the system of intra-Party laws and regulations, formulated and implemented a series of intra-Party laws and regulations closely related to Party spirit tempering, and fixed the achievements of Party spirit education in institutional form. It established the system of staying true to the Party's original aspiration and founding mission, improved the Party's organizational life systems such as the "three meetings and one lesson" and organizational life meetings, and promoted the standardized operation of Party spirit education on the institutional track. Practice has profoundly shown that only when educational guidance and institutional constraints complement each other can Party spirit education both touch the soul and manage the long term.
Adhere to the close integration of concentrated education and regular education. Concentrated education solves prominent problems, while regular education consolidates educational achievements. Since the 18th National Congress of the Party, the Party Central Committee has organized concentrated education within the whole Party nine times in a row, each time clearly putting forward requirements for strengthening Party spirit and Party spirit tempering. Intra-Party concentrated education and concentrated Party spirit education are interrelated and advance in coordination. At the same time, the Party Central Committee attaches great importance to the "crucible" role of intra-Party political life, closely combining the serious and earnest conduct of intra-Party political life with the in-depth advancement of Party spirit education, integrating Party spirit education into daily life and regular work, and promoting the expansion of intra-Party education from the "key minority" to the broad masses of Party members and its extension from concentrated education to regular education. Practice has profoundly shown that only by combining concentrated education with regular education can Party spirit education have both the effect of concentrated force to solve prominent problems and the resilience of accumulated daily progress and sustained, long-term effort.
Adhere to grasping Party spirit, Party conduct, and Party discipline together. Party spirit is the foundation, Party conduct is the manifestation, and Party discipline is the guarantee; the three form an organic whole. An important strategy of full and rigorous self-governance of the Party in the new era is to connect Party spirit education with work style development and discipline development, seeking the root of work style problems in Party spirit and strengthening the foundation of discipline awareness by strengthening Party spirit. In particular, since the development of Party discipline study and education, the whole Party has seriously studied, understood, clarified, and observed discipline, tempered strong Party spirit through serious and strict discipline education, enhanced the high degree of consciousness in studying, understanding, clarifying, and observing discipline by improving Party members and cadres' Party spirit cultivation and strengthening Party spirit tempering, and unified thought, will, and action across the whole Party. Practice has profoundly shown that only when Party spirit education is closely connected with rectifying conduct, enforcing discipline, and combating corruption can a systematic, integrated, and coordinated force for governing the Party be formed.
The achievement of these achievements and experiences fundamentally lies in the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core attaching great importance to the strategic value of Party spirit education, and in the ideological and action consciousness formed across the whole Party of not relaxing or resting in grasping Party spirit education. These experiences also provide basic guidelines for further strengthening Party spirit education.
Focal Points for Persistently Strengthening Party Spirit Education on the New Journey
"Governance values constancy; governance requires regularity." Party spirit education is a long-term project, valuing persistence and emphasizing practical results. Persistently strengthening Party spirit education must continuously exert force in normalization, institutionalization, and effectiveness, and strive to overcome tendencies such as "a passing gust of wind" and "going through the motions."
Adhere to integrating into daily life and grasping in regular work. Further improve the mechanism combining regular education with concentrated education, promote the establishment and improvement of a daily and regular Party spirit tempering system, and integrate Party spirit education into daily life and regular work. Test and strengthen Party spirit in the process of adhering to proceeding from reality and seeking truth from facts, adhere to the unity of Party spirit and affinity to the people in the process of closely connecting with the masses, strengthen Party spirit tempering in the process of seriously conducting criticism and self-criticism, strengthen Party spirit consciousness in the process of adhering to and improving democratic centralism, and continuously enhance the effectiveness of Party spirit education in the process of strictly enforcing Party discipline. Seriously and earnestly conduct intra-Party political life, so that Party members and cadres enhance their Party consciousness and Party member consciousness through influencing someone imperceptibly over time (潜移默化, qian yi mo hua - "subtle, move, silent, transform"), and prevent education from being hot for a while and cold for a while.
Adhere to leading by example from above and consolidating responsibility. Whether Party spirit education can be persistently advanced and strengthened depends on whether the political responsibility for strengthening Party spirit education can be persistently implemented. Party committees (Party groups) at all levels should treat Party spirit education as an important political task, incorporate it into the Party development work responsibility system, and form a coordinated mechanism with unified leadership of the Party committee, overall planning and promotion of the organization department, and specific implementation by Party schools and cadre education and training institutions. Leading cadres, especially the "top leaders," should fulfill the responsibility of the first responsible person, both taking the lead in receiving education and personally planning and advancing it, preventing the phenomenon of "important in words, secondary in deeds, and neglected when busy," and ensuring with rigid responsibility that Party spirit education is not interrupted or downgraded.
Adhere to a problem-oriented approach and the combination of learning and application. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that speaking the truth and doing practical things best test and temper Party spirit. Party spirit education cannot be empty talk; it must be closely connected with reality. Set differentiated educational content according to the ideological reality and post characteristics of Party members and cadres at different levels and in different fields. Combine solving ideological problems with solving practical problems, and ultimately implement educational results in practical actions of promoting high-quality development and serving the people. Whether Party spirit is strong is ultimately tested in overcoming difficulties and reflected in benefiting the people. To improve the effectiveness of Party spirit education, it is necessary to guide Party members and cadres to implement the general requirements of "building the Party for the public, benefiting the people, making scientific decisions, and doing solid work," and create achievements that stand the test of practice, the people, and history.
Adhere to the unity of knowledge and action and lifelong cultivation. General Secretary Xi Jinping clearly required that leading cadres take tempering Party spirit and improving ideological awareness as a lifelong topic, learning, studying, and cultivating until old age. Party spirit education ultimately depends on the consciousness of Party members and cadres; external educational guidance can only truly work when transformed into internal self-cultivation. Guide Party members and cadres to frequently examine themselves against the Party Constitution, frequently brush off ideological dust, give play to the exemplary role of advanced models and the warning role of negative examples, and gradually internalize Party spirit requirements into daily behavioral habits that are used without conscious awareness.
"Those who plant trees must cultivate their roots; those who cultivate virtue must nourish their hearts." Party spirit education is the "study of the mind" for Communists and the foundational project of full and rigorous self-governance of the Party. On the new journey, the tasks facing Party development are more arduous and the risks and challenges more complex. Only by grasping Party spirit education firmly as a systematic and long-term project, continuously guiding the broad masses of Party members to work hard in firming up ideals and beliefs, forging loyalty to the Party, deepening the sentiment of serving the people, adhering to seeking truth from facts, purifying moral character, and maintaining integrity and honesty, achieving loyalty, cleanliness, and responsibility, and always maintaining the political character of Communists, can the Party be ensured to always be the strong leading core of the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics and provide a strong political guarantee for comprehensively advancing the building of a strong country and the great cause of national rejuvenation through Chinese modernization.
(The author is a researcher at the Research Center for the Theoretical System of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics in Hubei Province and a professor at the School of Marxism, Wuhan University)
Return to TopBy: 王晓霞
In July 1935, Fan Changjiang set out from Chengdu as a special correspondent for the Ta Kung Pao, passing through Mianyang, Jiangyou, Pingwu and other places, and arrived in Lanzhou on September 2. On September 4, he began writing dispatches on the Red Army's Long March, relying on on-the-ground visits and first-hand observations along the route to restore the true course of the Long March, breaking the Kuomintang authorities' monopoly on public opinion through false propaganda and stigmatization of the Red Army, and bringing the Red Army's Long March into the view of the public at home and abroad. Fan Changjiang was thus hailed as "the first person to openly and truthfully report the 25,000-li Long March of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army in a domestic newspaper."
Wanting to learn some truth about the Red Army
After the September 18 Incident, Fan Changjiang was deeply pained that the Northeast had been "given away silently," and realized that "China's most urgent problem is the problem of resistance against Japan," and that one must "find a way out in actual struggle." He once went as a volunteer to the front lines along the Rehe and Great Wall areas to comfort the troops, and also took a military vehicle to Suiyuan to conduct a ten-day social survey. As the crisis in the Northeast and North China deepened, the strategic position of the Northwest became prominent, prompting him to focus his attention on the West. Could the West become the great rear area for China's War of Resistance? It was with precisely this question that Fan Changjiang resolutely decided to go deep into the West for on-the-ground investigation, to seek the path to a breakthrough in the national war of resistance.
Wanting to learn some truth about the Red Army was the inner intellectual motivation behind Fan Changjiang's reporting on the Red Army's Long March. In 1933, when the situation in North China was critical, the Kuomintang authorities led by Chiang Kai-shek ignored the overall situation of resistance against Japan and concentrated large forces to launch the fifth military "encirclement and suppression" campaign against the Red Army. In Fan Changjiang's view, this was a "huge drain on national strength." At that time he did not understand the Chinese Communist Party, nor did he "know a single Communist," obtaining only fragments of information from newspapers or from slogans on the streets. Which side, the Kuomintang or the Communist Party, was true and which false, and where right and wrong lay, was something he simply could not distinguish. In order to understand "what this large-scale civil war was for," Fan Changjiang in the summer of 1934 in Nanchang collected through multiple channels "a large batch of mimeographed pamphlets printed on coarse paper from the Red Army side," reading them eagerly and voraciously (如饥似渴, ru ji si ke - "as, hungry, like, thirsty"), and concluded that Chiang Kai-shek's war against the Red Army had not the slightest "moral foundation," and that he "derived excitement and joy" from the Chinese Communist Party's proposal for a "united front against Japan." The trip to Nanchang brought about a change in Fan Changjiang's thinking; he began to realize that "my past understanding of the Communist Party was fundamentally wrong, that I had been deceived," and thus developed a strong interest in the Red Army.
As Fan Changjiang himself said, "I wanted to study the question of the Red Army marching north to resist Japan; the best way was to go into the Red Army and get the whole thing clear." In his capacity as a special correspondent for the Ta Kung Pao, "by traveling to western China, I could get close to the Red Army, or even enter the Red Army, and then the biggest question that concerned me would be resolved."
Objectively reporting the Red Army's Long March and restoring the Red Army's true face
From July 1935 to May 1936, Fan Changjiang's journey to the Northwest lasted ten months and covered several thousand kilometers. During this period, he observed and assessed at close range the Red Army's Long March movement posture, and successively published in the Ta Kung Pao a series of reports including "Is Xu Haidong Really a Second Xiao Ke?", "The Course of Mao Zedong Passing Through Gansu and Entering Shaanxi," "From Ruijin to the Shaanxi Border — The Self-Narration of a Wandering Youth," and "Before and After the Songpan Campaign," vividly presenting the major events and important figures of the Red Army's Long March.
Fan Changjiang was the first to report on the entire course of the Central Red Army's Long March. In the article "From Ruijin to the Shaanxi Border — The Self-Narration of a Wandering Youth," he adopted the personal experience of an ordinary Red Army soldier as the writing perspective, narrating the entire course of the Central Red Army's 25,000-li Long March from Ruijin to northern Shaanxi. The report contains both descriptions of mentality and documentary records of scenes and details. The eyewitness recalled the extreme danger of crossing Mount Jiajin: "The snow on the mountain was several feet thick, and the air was insufficient; upon reaching the summit everyone was dizzy, and those who slipped and fell to the ground died immediately. Crossing this mountain, quite a few people died." The eyewitness also recounted the terror of crossing the grasslands: "In the grassland one could see a plain stretching to the horizon, with no trees and no villages, not a single human figure in sight; the ground was dotted with clumps of tangled grass at intervals, and the surface was soft soil mixed with water and mud that could not support a person's weight — one's feet would sink one or two feet deep with each step, and after walking half a li one already felt utterly exhausted." "At night, characterized by heavy wind and rain (风雨交加, feng yu jiao jia - "wind, rain, intermingle, add"), the dampness below penetrated through the grass, one's whole body trembled, and the cold pierced to the heart!" Between the lines, the difficulty of the Long March is evident, and the Red Army's tenacious revolutionary will in defying hardship and danger is brought into full relief.
Fan Changjiang consistently upheld a truthful and objective journalistic stance, insisting on "faithfully reporting to the readers," opposing "the Kuomintang's stance of being determined to destroy the Communist Party," and putting forward the basic view that the Kuomintang and the Communist Party should have equal status, and that first of all the Kuomintang should stop the "bandit-suppression" civil war and jointly discuss plans for resistance against Japan. In his public reports he directly used the appellation "Red Army," and when mentioning "bandit suppression" he added quotation marks to indicate his own position. In response to the Kuomintang's erroneous claim slandering the Red Army as having no political objectives, Fan Changjiang firmly asserted that the Red Army was "marching north to resist Japan." These reports gave people at home and abroad a rational understanding of the Red Army's Long March and especially of the Red Army's proposition of marching north to resist Japan.
Fan Changjiang's series of Long March reports truthfully presented to the outside world the Red Army's strict discipline and fine conduct. In the article "Is Xu Haidong Really a Second Xiao Ke?", he recorded in detail the fine conduct of the 25th Red Army, which was strictly disciplined and did not take a single needle or thread from the people: "Wherever they passed, not taking even the smallest thing from the people (秋毫不犯, qiu huo bu fan - "autumn, small, not, violate"), and for any supplies they took, they always paid cash, giving only more than the market price, never less." Even when they encountered peasants who had already fled, "if they took anything, they always paid double the price and left it in the peasant's home, absolutely never taking advantage." These vivid examples and plain language revealed the Red Army's true character of loving and being close to the people and strictly observing discipline.
In the article "The Course of Mao Zedong Passing Through Gansu and Entering Shaanxi," Fan Changjiang directly pointed out the Red Army's organizational characteristics: "As for the Red Army's particularity, the military absolutely obeys the Party's command," and "Mao Zedong, representing the Party, is the center of the Red Army." In the article "Is Xu Haidong Really a Second Xiao Ke?", Fan Changjiang wrote that the Red Army soldiers were "mostly rural youths between fifteen and twenty years old," that the army's clothing was "padded, lined, unlined, military uniforms and civilian clothes, having everything one could possibly need (应有尽有, ying you jin you - "should, have, all, exist")," and that the basic requirements for electing cadres below the rank of company and platoon commanders included "loyalty," "endurance of hardship," "not fighting," "not cursing people," and so on. These plain and objective words restored the true appearance of the Red Army officers and soldiers during the Long March and disseminated the true image of the Red Army and the Long March.
Keeping domestic and international attention on and deepening understanding of the Red Army
Fan Changjiang's series of dispatches on the Red Army's Long March punctured the lies of the Kuomintang authorities' false propaganda, truthfully presented to readers at home and abroad the actual conditions of the Red Army's Long March, displayed the rich scenes of the Long March, and constructed the initial historical narrative of the Long March. During the War of Liberation, at a meeting of the Xinhua News Agency's Pingjin Front General Sub-Bureau, Tan Zheng, then Director of the Political Department of the Northeast Field Army, and Xiao Xiangrong, Director of the Propaganda Department, spoke highly of these reports: "Under the difficult circumstances of the Kuomintang's massive offensive and 'encirclement and suppression,' to tell the people the Red Army's movements and propositions, sometimes in a roundabout way and sometimes directly, was extremely difficult." Li Zhuang, a former editor-in-chief of the People's Daily, also commented: "Of the other travel dispatches Fan Changjiang wrote in 1935, the breadth of their circulation and the magnitude of their impact are astonishing."
After Fan Changjiang's series of dispatches were successively published in the Ta Kung Pao, they "lit up half the sky and attracted the attention of people throughout the country." The articles were reprinted by the Kuo Wen Weekly, the Shanghai edition of the Ta Kung Pao, and others, and by virtue of the newspapers' vast distribution networks, the true situation of the Red Army's Long March was "seen" by more and more people. Moreover, the Jiuguo Shibao (National Salvation Times), the organ of the Chinese Communist Party delegation to the Communist International, also reprinted some of the reports. The article "The Red Army's Expansion in the Northwest" published in the inaugural issue of the Jiuguo Shibao on December 9, 1935, quoted from "Is Xu Haidong Really a Second Xiao Ke?" the phrase "neither occupying territory nor attacking cities, only circling around a few times" to summarize the Red Army's mobile warfare in the Northwest. The publication of these articles in Paris, together with Chen Yun's "An Account of the Westward Journey with the Army," serialized in the Paris-based All People's Monthly beginning in March 1936, formed a "synergistic effect" that triggered sustained international attention to the Red Army's Long March.
The series of Long March reports was also of great significance to Fan Changjiang personally. Not only did it resolve the confusion that had long haunted him and give him a completely new understanding of the Chinese Communist Party and the Red Army, but it also enabled him to see clearly, through his on-the-ground observations, the prospects and future of China's War of Resistance, planting the intellectual seed for his later growth into a Party journalist.
Return to TopBy: 安培
After World War II in 1945, German territory was divided, the economy collapsed, and the gross national product fell back to 40 percent of its 1938 level. In 1949, the Federal Republic of Germany formally introduced the social market economy, entered a period of revival and prosperity in the 1950s, and by 1970 had become the third largest capitalist economic power after the United States and Japan, with rapid economic development becoming the primary driving force behind the modernization of postwar Germany. Many factors contributed to the rapid economic growth of the Federal Republic of Germany, among which the "dual system" vocational education model, which organically combines practical training in enterprises with theoretical instruction in vocational schools, has been called the "secret weapon" of the Federal Republic of Germany's postwar "economic miracle" and has had an important influence on the process of German modernization.
The origin and establishment of the "dual system." The German "dual system" can be traced back to the guild apprenticeship training of the Middle Ages. At the beginning of the 20th century, Germany, having undergone the Second Industrial Revolution, had already become an important industrial country, and more further-education schools of a vocational character, such as craft schools and commercial schools, were established. Beginning in 1937, the German central level promoted the close integration of enterprise training and vocational schools by formulating unified teaching plans. In 1938, vocational schools were made compulsory education, and in 1940 the teaching hours of vocational schools were unified, promoting the standardized development of vocational school education and raising the quality of vocational school education and teaching. During this period, although the concept of the "dual system" had not yet appeared, the "dual" model of enterprise training and the study of cultural knowledge in vocational schools had already become established by convention or long-standing practice (约定俗成, yuē dìng sú chéng - "agree, settle, follow, custom") in training in German handicrafts, industry and commerce, and other sectors, and was deeply rooted in people's minds.
After World War II, the industrial development and economic recovery of the Federal Republic of Germany required more high-quality skilled workers, and the federal government placed greater emphasis on vocational education and training. Article 12 of the 1949 Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany stipulates that all Germans have the right to freely choose their occupation, place of work, and place of training. In 1964, the Federal Republic of Germany's Education Commission, in its "Expertise on Historical and Current Vocational Training and Vocational School Education," for the first time expressed the "dual" form of vocational education between enterprises and vocational schools, which had existed for more than 100 years, with the term "dual system." In 1969, the Federal Republic of Germany promulgated the Vocational Training Act of the Federal Republic of Germany, which clarified the remuneration obligations of training employers and trainees, the recognition of training occupations, the registration of training relationships, examinations, control and supervision, penalty provisions, and other content, using legal form to uniformly regulate the development of the "dual system" so that it could better adapt to the development needs of technology, the economy, and society. Thereafter, the "dual system" entered a new stage of iterative upgrading and development, and also became the core of the German vocational education and training system and the main path for young people's employment.
What is the "dual system." "Dual system" vocational education refers to an educational form in which young people, according to their own wishes and abilities, choose a state-recognized training occupation, receive vocational skill training in enterprises, and receive professional theory and general cultural knowledge education in vocational schools, with the aim of cultivating high-quality technical personnel needed to promote the development of the German economy, industry, and modernization.
"Dual system" vocational education is an educational form at the second stage of German secondary education, equivalent to vocational education at the senior high school level in China, admitting graduates of the general education of the first stage of secondary education (equivalent to junior high school graduates in China), and is the main body of German vocational education. The teaching content of "dual system" vocational education follows the principle of "vocational orientation," closely linking apprentices' skill training and practical operation training in enterprises or factories with the entire process of vocational production, learning at the production site to analyze and solve vocational practice problems, vocational behavioral norms, quality awareness, work attitude, labor discipline, and so on, with the goal of improving apprentices' vocationally related professional competence, methodological competence, and social competence. In vocational schools, systematic theoretical instruction is mainly conducted through classroom teaching, where students learn theoretical knowledge related to their occupations.
In the "dual system," one "component" is the enterprise, and the other "component" is the vocational school, with the enterprise as the core and enterprise training as the mainstay. The enterprise is responsible for recruiting apprentices, signing training contracts with apprentices, formulating enterprise training plans, and carrying out enterprise training. In the training cycle of "dual system" vocational education, the time apprentices spend on skill training and practical operation in training centers of enterprises or factories accounts for approximately 70-80 percent, and the time spent studying in vocational schools accounts for approximately 20-30 percent. The funding input for "dual system" vocational education is also mainly provided by enterprises; enterprises bear the training costs of apprentices in the enterprise and provide living allowances for trainees, with enterprise training investment accounting for approximately two-thirds of total funding and the state bearing approximately one-third.
"Dual system" vocational education has a long history and profound cultural heritage, and its most typical feature is the possession of two independent yet interrelated systems of education, training, and management, in which all young people entering the system simultaneously hold the dual identity of enterprise apprentice and vocational school student. Enterprises sign legally effective vocational education contracts with young people receiving "dual system" vocational education, clarifying the rights and obligations of both parties during the training period, providing legal constraints for enterprises to strictly carry out high-quality apprenticeship training in accordance with the contract. The dual identity of enterprise apprentice and vocational school student also stimulates apprentices' (students') sense of identity and actively enhances their vocational abilities.
The "dual system" promoted the rapid economic growth of the postwar Federal Republic of Germany. "Dual system" vocational education is an important institutional pillar supporting German modernization; it vigorously promoted the rapid economic growth of the postwar Federal Republic of Germany in terms of talent cultivation, the development of modern industry and foreign trade, and the enhancement of the international influence of German products.
Providing an inexhaustible or continuous stream (源源不断, yuán yuán bù duàn - "source, source, not, continuous") of human resources support for economic prosperity and development. "Dual system" vocational education is an important pathway for cultivating highly skilled workers. Former German Chancellor Kohl once commented: "Young people who have received good vocational training are our country's greatest capital and the guarantee of economic stability." After the war, with the natural increase of the population and large numbers of immigrants from other regions, the labor force of the Federal Republic of Germany continuously increased, with the employed population growing from 20.38 million in 1950 to 26.7 million in 1965, and the new labor force needed to undergo training before taking up posts. During the period from 1975 to 1992, the number of apprentices trained by enterprises grew from 1.33 million in 1975 to 1.83 million in 1985, and the scale of "dual system" vocational education reached its peak. According to statistics, in 1960, young people receiving various types of vocational education and training nationwide already accounted for 56.6 percent of young people of the same age (16-18 years old), and in 1965 this rose further to 57.7 percent. This laid a solid human resources foundation for the rapid economic development of the postwar Federal Republic of Germany.
Promoting the establishment of a modern industrial system and the growth of foreign trade. "Dual system" vocational education is highly compatible with the economic structure and trade structure of the Federal Republic of Germany. After World War II, the industry and foreign trade of the Federal Republic of Germany achieved tremendous development. From 1951 to 1980, the average annual growth rate of industrial production in the Federal Republic of Germany was 5.7 percent, surpassing the United States, France, and the United Kingdom. In 1962, the Federal Republic of Germany rose to become the world's second largest trading nation. From 1950 to 1970, the industrial turnover of the Federal Republic of Germany grew sixfold, and by 1972 the turnover of the four industrial sectors of automobile manufacturing, electrical and electronic industry, chemical industry, and machinery manufacturing accounted for 38.3 percent of industrial turnover. Correspondingly, during the period from 1977 to 1992, industry and trade were the fields with the largest number of people in "dual system" vocational education, followed by handicrafts, the liberal professions, public services, and agriculture. By 1992, the proportion of apprentices in industry and trade was 52 percent of the total, in handicrafts 33.7 percent, and in other industries, in order, the liberal professions accounted for 7.2 percent, public services 4.0 percent, and agriculture 2.2 percent. "Dual system" vocational education is committed to precisely aligning with and precisely serving the needs of the Federal Republic of Germany's industrial progress and foreign trade development, making a vital contribution to Germany's establishment of a modern industrial system, development of an export-oriented economy, and construction of a major trading nation.
Enhancing the global competitiveness of "Made in Germany." In the 19th century, "Made in Germany" once became synonymous with cheap and inferior quality. After World War II, the Federal Republic of Germany developed a social market economy, relying on high-quality "dual system" vocational education to improve production processes and rebuild the quality system of the manufacturing industry. After vigorously implementing the "dual system" vocational education model, the employed population of the Federal Republic of Germany continued to increase, the unemployment rate fell from 8.2 percent in 1950 to 0.5 percent in 1970, and labor productivity continuously improved. The large numbers of skilled industrial workers trained by "dual system" vocational education increased Germany's industrial competitiveness and strengthened Germany's competitiveness among European countries. "Made in Germany" also changed from its original label of inferior quality to a mark of high-standard, high-quality products. After World War II, the Federal Republic of Germany deliberately printed the words "Made in W. Germany" on its products, and because of the Federal Republic of Germany's high standards, strict requirements, and meticulous processes in manufacturing, the "German standard" was adopted by multiple influential international organizations such as the European Union and the World Trade Organization. "Made in Germany" became synonymous with globally high-quality manufacturing, and "dual system" vocational education greatly enhanced the international visibility and global competitiveness of German goods.
Return to TopBy: 张健
As a treasure of China's excellent traditional culture, Qinqiang opera possesses distinctive regional characteristics. Through its sonorous and lively "happy tones" and its plaintive and mournful "bitter tones" and other colorful modal patterns, it displays a candid, resolute, tenacious, and plainspoken collective personality, serving as an important vehicle of regional cultural identity. Traditional local operas are mostly highly bound to dialect regions, thus presenting a fixed spatial distribution pattern. However, from the late Ming Dynasty to the early Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, Qinqiang opera broke through the constraints of the northwestern region. Relying on its sonorous and generous artistic qualities and its popular and approachable forms of expression, it formed a trend of cross-regional dissemination, becoming a typical model of the integrated development of Chinese opera culture.
Qinqiang opera spread from the northwest to the Jiangnan region. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, Qinqiang culture experienced ups and downs of prosperity and decline, gradually completing an evolutionary process of continuous diffusion from the northwestern regions such as Shaanxi and Gansu to the Jiangnan region and beyond.
During the Chongzhen reign of the late Ming Dynasty, Li Zicheng's troops, which had risen in arms in the northwest, used Tongzhou Bangzi (the eastern route of Qinqiang opera) as military opera and spread it with the army. Among the people there was a folk saying that "it sang red in Nanjing and Yanshan," reflecting the situation of Qinqiang opera crossing the Yangtze River to the south at that time. From the thirty-ninth year of the Qianlong reign to the seventh year of the Jiaqing reign of the Qing Dynasty, Wei Changsheng, a famous Qinqiang actor skilled at portraying worldly human feelings and performing stories of loyalty and filial piety, went north to the capital three times. During this period, in the fifty-second year of the Qianlong reign, he also went south to Yangzhou. Through continuous dissemination through performances in multiple places, a Qinqiang culture craze was ultimately formed, constructing a cross-regional cultural popular zone. Wei Changsheng's performance activities expanded the distribution pattern of Qinqiang opera during the Qianlong reign of the Qing Dynasty, pushed Qinqiang culture toward its peak period, prompted local troupes to actively absorb Qinqiang singing styles and imitate Qinqiang repertoires, and led famous Jiangnan actors to study Qinqiang performance techniques one after another, forming a development trend of "mutual imitation spreading even to remote villages."
Many literati poems and writings recorded the popularity of Qinqiang opera at that time. Works such as Fei Xuan's "Yangzhou Dream Fragrance Lyrics" and Wei Litong's "Jiangnan Bamboo Branch Lyrics" vividly depict the social fashion of Yangzhou people listening to Qinqiang opera and pursuing the Bangzi vocal style. Among them, the line "after the dance, bangzi sounds are wildly struck, and the Qinqiang voice startles the Guangling tide" directly displays the unique cultural landscape of the collision and fusion between Qinqiang opera's powerful singing and Jiangnan's regional charm. Qinqiang opera's influence radiated to Nanjing, Suzhou, Hangzhou, and other core cultural areas of Jiangnan, with its audience covering all strata from gentry, merchants, and traders to common city dwellers.
From the late Qianlong period to the Jiaqing reign of the Qing Dynasty, the once-flourishing Qinqiang opera craze gradually cooled and moved toward decline, but it did not completely die out. Instead, it deeply integrated and iterated with local Jiangnan operas, injecting fresh blood such as singing styles, repertoires, and performance techniques into local theatrical genres, achieving mutual absorption, borrowing, and innovative development between heterogeneous cultures.
Commercial exchanges and population migration enabled Qinqiang opera's cross-regional dissemination. The development of Qinqiang opera beyond regional barriers during the Ming and Qing dynasties was not an accidental artistic phenomenon, but was gradually formed through the cross-regional commercial exchanges of Shaanxi and Shanxi merchants, the cultural perseverance of migrant groups, and the spatial carrier of geographically based guild halls. This cross-regional cultural phenomenon transcends the purely artistic and aesthetic sphere. It is both a manifestation of continuous interaction between regional cultures and an important vehicle for the continuous reconstruction of cultural identity among mobile groups.
The frequent cross-regional commercial exchanges between Shaanxi and the Huaiyang region during the Ming and Qing dynasties provided a key channel and economic guarantee for Qinqiang opera's southward movement. After the Ming Dynasty implemented the policy of "paying grain to open the salt monopoly," the government allowed merchants to deliver grain to border areas in exchange for salt licenses to sell salt. Shaanxi merchants thus traveled back and forth between the northwest and the Huaiyang region in the capacity of "border merchants," monopolizing the core resources of Huai salt trade. After the reform of "converting the grain payment to silver," the government required merchants to pay silver to the court instead of delivering grain to border areas, in exchange for salt licenses to sell salt. Thereafter, large numbers of Shaanxi and Shanxi merchants left the border areas, took up residence in Yangzhou, and transformed into inland salt merchants, taking root in the Huaiyang region for long-term business development. In addition to the salt industry, Shaanxi and Shanxi merchants also dominated cross-regional trade in furs, cloth, and silk, thereby forming a two-way circulation pattern of commerce. It can be seen that commercial exchanges constructed a major cultural dissemination channel from the northwest to Jiangnan. The Shaanxi and Shanxi merchant groups residing in Jiangnan became the core audience and economic supporters of Qinqiang opera, and also provided the economic foundation for Qinqiang opera troupes to move south and develop in other places.
Population migration and the formation of migrant cultural circles were the cultural foundation for Qinqiang opera to take root in other places. According to historical records, during the Ming and Qing dynasties, large numbers of Shaanxi and Shanxi merchants moved their entire families to Jiangnan, prompting the gathering of northwestern migrant groups. Among the gentry and merchants of migrant origin residing in Yangzhou during the Ming Dynasty, Shaanxi scholars who passed the imperial examinations and merchant households accounted for an extremely high proportion. Among the jinshi and juren degree holders alone, those of Shaanxi origin already accounted for one-fifth. The large numbers of migrant merchants and their group social activities, through factors such as dialect, customs, concepts, and aesthetic values, profoundly influenced the local regional cultural context and landscape. At the same time, the nostalgia for their native places and cultural identity of migrant merchants made Qinqiang opera a spiritual vehicle for them to express homesickness and maintain geographical connections, providing a stable audience base and cultural atmosphere for Qinqiang opera's dissemination and development in Jiangnan.
As the core carrier of geographically based commercial and cultural exchange during the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Shaanxi-Shanxi Guild Hall's core function was to "unite fellow townsmen's sentiments and uphold trust and righteousness," maintaining the geographical connections and cultural identity of migrants in other places. Opera performance was its core cultural activity. Shaanxi-Shanxi guild halls in various places during the Ming and Qing dynasties all built accompanying stages and opera towers, and regular Qinqiang performances became the spatial-temporal nodes of Qinqiang culture's diffusion. The Yangzhou Shaanxi-Shanxi Guild Hall was one of the earliest commercial guild halls established in Jiangnan. Its grand scale and far-reaching influence made it not only a venue for commercial negotiations and the gathering of peers in the same trade, but also the source of Qinqiang culture's diffusion to other places. Relying on the guild hall stages, the regular performance activities of Qinqiang opera troupes gradually enabled Qinqiang opera to step out of the migrant circle and be accepted and even loved by local people. At the same time, Jiangnan salt merchants commonly kept opera troupes and established music departments. Their abundant capital support enabled Qinqiang performances to develop steadily, thereby promoting the dissemination of Qinqiang culture to other places.
The cross-regional dissemination of Qinqiang opera promoted cultural identity between north and south. The historical practice of Qinqiang opera's cross-regional dissemination during the Ming and Qing dynasties has profound historical significance and contemporary value in such aspects as the blending of northern and southern cultures, the construction of regional identity, the cultivation of feelings of family and country, and the inheritance of traditional culture. It provides important historical inspiration for the innovative development of China's excellent traditional culture in the contemporary era and the coordinated development of regional cultures.
Qinqiang opera carries the folk historical memory of the people. Its repertoire is mostly drawn from historical stories and folk legends of loyalty and righteousness. Through narrative methods that ordinary people can perceive and empathize with, and through plain and straightforward singing, it roots the values of loyalty, filial piety, patriotism, mutual assistance and help among people (守望相助, shou wang xiang zhu - "guard, watch; help, assist"), and the upholding of virtue and propriety among the common people, becoming an important vehicle for moral education at the grassroots level and the cultivation of feelings of family and country. Since the Ming and Qing dynasties, Qinqiang opera's westward expansion and eastward advance, northward movement and southward journey, have broken down regional cultural barriers and promoted the fusion and coexistence of different opera cultural characteristics, from the rugged and plain to the gentle and elegant. The Shaanxi and Shanxi merchants residing in Jiangnan maintained their native-place memories and consolidated geographical consensus through Qinqiang opera, constructing a sense of cultural belonging in other places. Meanwhile, local Jiangnan people broke through the limitations of regional cognition and came to understand the cultural characteristics of the northwestern region through Qinqiang opera. The cross-regional dissemination of Qinqiang opera and the cultural fusion it produced, while weakening regional cultural estrangement, strengthened the overall identity of people from different regions with Chinese opera culture, and also demonstrated the core characteristic of the diversity-in-unity of Chinese civilization.
The cross-regional dissemination of Qinqiang opera during the Ming and Qing dynasties was the result of commercial exchanges, population mobility, and cultural fusion. This both confirms the historical law of traditional opera that "mobility is vitality, and fusion is rebirth," and clearly displays the evolutionary process of regional culture from local perseverance to cross-regional dissemination, and then from collision and exchange to fusion and coexistence. Through cross-regional dissemination and the collision of heterogeneous cultures, cultural connotations can be continuously enriched and cultural innovation can be promoted. The fusion of Qinqiang opera and Jiangnan opera both preserved its own spiritual core and absorbed Jiangnan's aesthetic characteristics, thereby enabling the upgrading and iteration of opera art.
Return to TopBy: 王坤
In recent years, China Tobacco Sichuan Industrial Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as the Company) has adhered to using full and rigorous self-governance of the Party to lead and guarantee high-quality development, transforming the Party's political and organizational advantages into developmental, governance, and competitive advantages, blazing a path of deep integration between Party building and production and operation, and safeguarding the Company's high-quality development with a clean and wholesome political atmosphere (风清气正, feng qing qi zheng - "wind, clear; air, upright").
Using Full and Rigorous Self-Governance of the Party to Steer the Course of High-Quality Development
Deepening theoretical armament and consolidating the political foundation of loyalty to the Party. The Company places political construction first and makes speaking politics with a clear-cut stance the primary requirement for the leadership team in performing its duties. It strictly implements the "First Agenda" system, relies on carriers such as the Party group theoretical learning center group study, the "Three Meetings and One Lesson," themed Party days, and special training sessions to carry out regular theoretical study, special seminars, and propaganda and interpretation, insists on reading original works, learning original texts, and comprehending principles, formulates the "Five Studies, Five Lectures, Five Integrations" working mechanism, with the leadership team taking the lead in seminar exchanges and special propaganda, promoting theoretical study into workshops, into work teams, and into minds, making the Party's innovative theory the first course and main course in training for Party members and cadres at all levels, and guiding all Party members and cadres to deeply understand the decisive significance of the Two Establishments (两个确立) and resolutely achieve the Two Upholds (两个维护).
Adhering to the integration of study and application to boost development quality and efficiency. "The clearer one's understanding, the more steadfast one's actions" (知之愈明，则行之愈笃, zhi zhi yu ming ze xing zhi yu du - "know, more, clear; then, act, more, firm"). The Company unifies the resolution of ideological and cognitive problems with the resolution of practical problems, transforms the Party Central Committee's decisions and deployments and industry work requirements into the Company's task books and construction drawings, establishes and expands and upgrades the "Three Major Strategic Tasks" development map, and transforms theoretical study into operable practical arrangements. It integrates the key work of full and rigorous self-governance of the Party into difficult points and bottlenecks in product research and development, production and manufacturing, brand marketing, and cost reduction and efficiency enhancement, implements project-based advancement, list-based implementation, and regularized supervision for key tasks, ensuring that every matter receives a response and everything shows results.
Upholding the strict tone and consolidating the responsibility for Party management and Party governance. The Company integrates primary responsibility and supervisory responsibility in one body, with the "two responsibilities" organically linked and jointly integrated; integrates the responsibility of the first responsible person and the "dual responsibilities for one post" in one body, insisting that wherever work responsibilities extend, the responsibility for Party management and Party governance covers there too; integrates departmental supervisory responsibility and the specific responsibilities of Party members and cadres in one body, forming a complete closed-loop chain. It builds a four-dimensional linkage work pattern of "Party group sets the example, Party committee strengthens demonstration, Party branch committees take the lead, and the masses assess actual results," connecting the five major systems of organization, education, supervision, institutions, and responsibility to the production chain, supply chain, project chain, and data chain, so that strict requirements reach the machine stations and work teams and are implemented with specific responsible persons. It adheres to the clear orientation of vigorously strengthening grassroots work, deeply advances the standardized and normalized construction of grassroots Party branch organizations, builds a smart Party building information platform, explores new paths for extending the organizational system, carries out the "Gathering New Momentum of Thought" major study and major discussion among branches, carries out "One Hundred Secretaries Tackle One Hundred Problems," with branch secretaries leading projects to solve practical problems in production and operation. It promotes post-90s Party members into branch committee teams, equips workshops with section-level cadres around 35 years old and includes them in assessment. It makes good use of the "Two Posts, One Zone, Two Teams" carrier, organizes Party members to tackle and establish projects around production and operation difficulties, and has been awarded the title of "Sichuan Province State-Owned Enterprise Demonstration Party Member Commando Team," with multiple grassroots Party branches receiving commendations from the Party committees and governments where the factories are located, achieving unity of thought, alignment of goals, and synchronization of action.
Building a High-Quality Development Barrier with a Rigorous Governance System
Improving the institutional system and regulating the flow of power operations. Putting power in the cage of institutions is an important task of full and rigorous self-governance of the Party in the new era. The Company adheres to governing power with institutions and exercising power according to rules, strictly implements the systems of reporting and requesting instructions on major matters and the "Three Major and One Large" decision-making supervision system, builds an internal supervision institutional system in accordance with the requirements of "dense but not cumbersome, effective and practical," implements the "Provisions on Integrity and Self-Discipline in the Performance of Duties by Leaders of State-Owned Enterprises," establishes and improves institutional mechanisms such as the handling of violations of discipline and law by employees, the handling of matters concerning weddings and funerals by leading cadres, supervision of leading cadres outside working hours, the employment conduct of cadres after leaving office, and the execution of disciplinary decisions. In the past two years, it has formulated and revised 126 standardized systems including procurement supervision and management, and continuously carries out evaluations of the effectiveness of the implementation of systems such as conduct in dealings with suppliers, procurement management, marketing materials, and selection and appointment of personnel, ensuring the vitality of the institutions.
Focusing on political supervision and promoting the implementation of decisions. With political supervision as the guide, the Company advances the concretization, precision, and regularization of political supervision, focuses on the "Three Major Strategic Tasks," closely follows key tasks of high-quality development and modernization construction, includes key work such as learning and education, planning compilation, cadre market liaison posts, technical research, and safety production within the scope of supervision, establishes a mechanism of "list-based supervision, project-based advancement, closed-loop management" for political supervision, forms a closed-loop control of "deployment-implementation-supervision-rectification-review," and resolutely rectifies problems such as discounting, making alterations, and making choices in implementation, as well as non-action, slow action, and arbitrary action, eliminating the phenomenon of "mid-level obstruction."
Connecting the joint force of supervision and enhancing the effectiveness of comprehensive governance. The Company does a good job of rectifying problems found in inspections and tours and applying the results, continuously consolidates the effectiveness of special governance, improves and deepens the "inspection-tour-audit linkage" and "inspection-tour + N" collaborative supervision mechanisms, anchors on key areas of power operation, orderly advances full coverage of routine inspection tours, focuses on key sectors such as logistics and transportation and material procurement to carry out special inspection tours, consolidates the responsibility for rectification and governance, systematically promotes the complete resolution and clearing of problems, and continuously amplifies the comprehensive effectiveness of inspection-tour supervision; it builds a whole-process "penetrating" supervision pattern of prevention beforehand, control during the process, and traceability afterward, establishes a multi-departmental bimonthly consultation mechanism in the bidding and tendering field, strengthens the screening and punishment of suppliers with bad conduct, deeply advances centralized procurement, builds a fund early-warning indicator system, a full-level fund supervision mechanism, and a procurement transaction supervision platform supported by digital and intelligent technologies, explores embedded supervision through the Company's smart decision-making information system, uses artificial intelligence data extraction and comparison analysis technology to promote the early detection, early warning, and early handling of risk signs.It carries out special governance of non-duty-related illegal and criminal acts, consults local discipline inspection and supervision commissions to take inquiry measures in accordance with rules and discipline, and promotes integrated governance through whole-chain collaboration.
Deepening the treatment of both symptoms and root causes and fostering a clean and upright atmosphere for work. The Company advances the "Three No's" in one body, strictly and practically rectifies the Four Malfeasances (四风), continuously resolutely stops hedonism and extravagance, and rectifies formalism and bureaucracy. It deepens the centralized rectification of unhealthy tendencies and corruption problems around the masses, carries out full-coverage, level-by-level, and post-by-post special screening of integrity risks, comprehensively uncovers clues to "Four Malfeasances" problems since the 20th Party Congress, adheres to "simultaneous investigation and governance of malfeasance and corruption," and deeply digs into the "Four Malfeasances" and corruption problems behind non-duty-related illegal and criminal acts such as drunk driving and driving under the influence. It comprehensively uses measures such as warning education conferences, case notifications, discipline and law lectures, knowledge tests, collective integrity talks, and the issuance of discipline inspection and supervision recommendation letters to carry out hierarchical and classified warning education, highlights education for the "three key groups" and "five key posts," carries out "marketing team work style rectification," deepens the construction of the "upholding integrity and honesty" integrity culture, strengthens the construction of family, family education, and family values, deeply explores the cultural heritage of Dongpo integrity, builds an integrity culture corridor, and promotes integrity culture into workshops, into work teams, and into families. It adheres to the combination of strict management and sincere care and the equal emphasis on encouragement and restraint, allowing cadres to act boldly and take responsibility within the framework of observing rules.
Activating the Endogenous Driving Force of High-Quality Development with a Correct View of Political Achievements
The Company consolidates and expands the learning and education results of establishing and practicing a correct view of political achievements, adheres to making political achievements for the people and making political achievements through practical work, guides Party members and cadres to focus their minds on doing undertakings and devote their energy to implementation, and truly transforms the results of full and rigorous self-governance of the Party into development achievements that can stand the test.
Deeply cultivating cost reduction and efficiency enhancement to improve operational quality and efficiency. Adhering to "every expenditure must be questioned for effectiveness, no effectiveness, no expenditure," the Company promotes all-round cost control across the entire industry chain including marketing revenue expansion, financial efficiency enhancement, production consumption reduction, logistics cost reduction, and management potential tapping. In the first half of the year, various controllable costs were reduced by 20.0053 million yuan.
Doing a solid job of quality control and consolidating the development bottom line. The Company continuously deepens the "High-Quality and Fine Product Project," strictly adheres to fine and precise standards, deeply cultivates intelligent manufacturing, tempers product quality, adheres to whole-process, all-round, and all-dimensional quality control, with the comprehensive product quality score firmly ranking in the industry's first echelon, six products receiving industry circular commendations, and production and manufacturing process quality levels continuously maintaining industry first-class status.
Gathering strength for scientific and technological breakthroughs and activating core momentum. The "1+6+N" technical research system continues to exert its force, overcoming multiple key technical difficulties, taking the lead in building an industry innovation center, constructing a key technology innovation system, and shaping a new pattern of scientific and technological innovation leading development.
Building a strong talent team and consolidating the development foundation. The Company constructs a "1415+N" talent management system, opening up four growth channels for administrative management, professional technology, professional skills, and outstanding employees, with advanced models emerging such as "National Model Workers," "Industry Discipline Leaders," and "Industry Skill Masters"; in 2026, it appointed 74 high-skilled talents, 12 senior professional and technical positions, and 25 people were rated with senior industry professional titles, breaking historical records.
Cultivating a rich corporate culture and empowering high-quality development. The Company promotes the creative transformation and innovative development of excellent traditional Chinese culture such as "Dongpo Culture," has been honored with the "National Civilized Unit" award five consecutive times, and has received the title of "2025 Provincial Advanced Unit for Propaganda, Ideological, and Cultural Work in the State-Owned Assets and State-Owned Enterprise System," with the entire Company rallying a high-spirited and upward energy, and in the 2025 annual assessment of industry directly affiliated units, it was rated as excellent.
The Company will, with the tenacity and perseverance of always being on the road, persistently advance full and rigorous self-governance of the Party, and with new achievements in full and rigorous self-governance of the Party, contribute new strength to serving the national strategy and promoting the high-quality development of the industry and the local economy.
Return to TopJilin Yang Jingyu Cadre Academy is a Party spirit education base themed on the spirit of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army, and is among the first batch of such bases in Jilin Province to be included in the filing catalog of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee. It is also among the first batch of national practical teaching bases for "great ideological and political courses." The academy is adjacent to the Yang Jingyu Martyrs' Cemetery and the Memorial Hall of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army, and adopts architectural forms such as snow-ridge settlements, horse-rack shelters, and dugout cellars that reflect the combat and living conditions of the Anti-Japanese United Army, covering a total area of 140,000 square meters and capable of accommodating 1,500 people for training and study at the same time. The academy has always regarded inheriting and carrying forward the red genes of the spirit of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army and other such spirits as the soul of its educational mission, and is determined to build itself into a national demonstration base for Party spirit education. It has developed a distinctive curriculum system centered on Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, with political loyalty education, red spirit inheritance, and performance capability enhancement as its main contents, supported by multiple teaching forms such as thematic teaching, on-site teaching, interview teaching, immersive teaching, case teaching, and flipped classrooms. It has created educational platforms for forging the soul and empowering capabilities, including a research and study platform for Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, an immersive red situational teaching hall on "loyalty to the Party," a "red archives" themed classroom, a "three places, three cradles" red Jilin themed classroom, and a "vigorously carry forward the spirit of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army" themed classroom, making the education of the Party's innovative theories more vivid and lively (生动鲜活, sheng dong xian huo - "vivid, fresh"), and making Party spirit education more attractive and appealing. It has built core on-site teaching points such as the Yang Jingyu Detachment battle flag, the Anti-Japanese United Army chessboard, the Anti-Japanese United Army secret camps, and the sculpture garden of national hero Yang Jingyu, and has extended its teaching routes to the locations of the province's "three places, three cradles" red landmarks, including FAW, Changchun Film Studio, and the Air Force Aviation University, as well as to areas rich in red resources such as Changchun, Jilin, Siping, and Baishan, thereby constructing a province-wide pattern of on-site teaching and continuously consolidating the foundation for the academy's connotative high-quality development, striving to build the academy into an important position for studying, comprehending, and practicing the Party's innovative theories, an academic highland for the nationwide integration of learning and application of red resources, and a demonstration base for the integration of teaching and research on the spirit of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army. (Contact number: 0435-3558555; 17543571911)
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Recently, Party schools (schools of administration) in various localities have carried out activities such as Party spirit education, special exhibitions, and academic seminars to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the victory of the Red Army's Long March.
The theoretical learning center group of the Party Committee of the Beijing Municipal Party School (School of Administration), building on an earlier visit to the themed exhibition "The Great Expedition — Commemorating the 90th Anniversary of the Victory of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army's Long March," conducted focused exchange and discussion around the theme "Deeply Studying and Implementing Xi Jinping's Thought on Party Building, Carrying Forward the Great Long March Spirit, and Continuously Advancing the Construction of a First-Rate Party School Worthy of the Capital." Deeply grasping the rich connotations embodied in the great Long March spirit, members of the school (academy) committee, in connection with their respective areas of responsibility, directly confronted issues in running the school, analyzed shortcomings in their work, and planned development paths, emphasizing that the Long March spirit must be integrated into the entire process of running and governing the school, and that the new Long March road must be traversed well.
The Party School (School of Administration) of the Heilongjiang Provincial Party Committee, jointly with the Provincial Party Committee Publicity Department and the Yudu Museum of the History of the Central Red Army's Long March Assembly and Departure, organized more than 200 trainees from four main training classes at the school, as well as personnel from some provincial-level directly affiliated organs and enterprises and public institutions, to visit the "The Great Departure, the Eternal Long March — Historical Exhibition of the Departure of the Central Red Army on the Long March" and to carry out special Party spirit education.
The Party School (School of Administration) of the Jiangxi Provincial Party Committee held on October 22 the event "Carrying Forward the Long March Spirit and Forging Ahead with the Original Aspiration and Founding Mission — Commemorating the 90th Anniversary of the Victory of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army's Long March and the Collective Party Day Theme Activity of the Autumn Main Training Classes." A total of more than 580 people, including trainees from 11 main training classes and faculty and staff representatives from relevant departments, participated. The entire event was presented in a form integrating "poetry, song, and situational drama," encompassing multiple artistic forms such as recitation of red family letters, poetry recitation, situational performance, and chorus. On the same day, trainees of the autumn semester main training classes at the Party School (School of Administration) of the Anhui Provincial Party Committee carried out the themed activity "Reciting Red Family Letters and Inheriting the Long March Spirit." During the activity, trainees successively recited in situational style several family letters from Red Army commanders and fighters; their full of passion and emotion (声情并茂, sheng qing bing mao - "voice, emotion, also, abundant") renditions displayed the martyrs' unswerving loyalty until death (死不渝, si bu yu - "death, not, change") to the revolution, moving all present listeners deeply.
The Party School (School of Administration) of the Hubei Provincial Party Committee held from October 19 to 23 the "The Great Departure, the Eternal Long March — Historical Exhibition of the Departure of the Central Red Army on the Long March." The exhibition was jointly sponsored by the Wuhan Revolution Museum, the Yudu Museum of the History of the Central Red Army's Long March Assembly and Departure, and the Library of the Party School (School of Administration) of the Hubei Provincial Party Committee. Relying on detailed historical materials and precious historical photographs, it systematically reproduced the glorious course of the 25,000-li Long March road and profoundly explained the rich connotations and contemporary value of the great Long March spirit.
The Party School (School of Administration) of the Guizhou Provincial Party Committee held from October 17 to 18 the academic seminar "Local Practice of Carrying Forward the Long March Spirit and Forging a Sense of Community for the Chinese Nation." The seminar emphasized that the Party's ethnic work practice during the Long March period was an early exploration of the Sinicization of Marxist ethnic theory, accumulating valuable experience for forging a sense of community for the Chinese nation. The Long March spirit and the Zunyi Conference spirit should be used to lead the work of ethnic unity and progress, and to forge a sense of community for the Chinese nation. The stories of ethnic unity along the Long March route should be told well, guiding people of all ethnic groups to firmly establish the concept of the Chinese nation as a community of "sharing four aspects," continuously enhance the "five identifications," and, centering on building a model province for forging a sense of community for the Chinese nation, strive to create the "six exemplars." The Guizhou practice of forging a sense of community for the Chinese nation should be summarized well and explained well, and high-quality research results should be produced.
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On October 22, the Party School (School of Administration) of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Party Committee held an expanded meeting of the school (academy) committee, conveying and studying the important speech and important instructions of General Secretary Xi Jinping during his inspection tour in Ulanqab, Inner Mongolia, and researching and deploying the work of study, publicity, implementation, and enforcement. First Deputy Principal (Vice President) Gao Zugui presided over the meeting and delivered a speech.
The meeting pointed out that General Secretary Xi Jinping's personal visit to Inner Mongolia for inspection once again fully demonstrated the profound concern and deep affection and care (深情厚爱, shen qing hou ai - "deep feeling, thick love") of the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core for Inner Mongolia, and further pointed out the direction of progress, provided fundamental guidance, and injected strong impetus for the high-quality development of Inner Mongolia. All faculty and staff should raise their political positioning, deeply understand the great significance of General Secretary Xi Jinping's inspection on this occasion, and effectively unify their thinking and actions with the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speech and important instructions, continuously enhancing the political consciousness, ideological consciousness, and action consciousness of being grateful and striving forward.
The meeting required that we firmly grasp the original aspiration of the Party School of "cultivating talents for the Party and offering counsel for the Party," focus on the key tasks of the autonomous region's high-quality development, do solid work in teaching, scientific research, and propaganda and lecturing, and promote the implementation of the important speech and important instructions so that implementation that yields tangible results (落地见效, luo di jian xiao - "land, see, effect") is achieved. We must do solid work in cadre education and training, strictly implement the deployment of the autonomous region Party committee, take the important speech and important instructions of General Secretary Xi Jinping as required courses for various training classes and special topic classes, organize training by level and by batch, promptly invite specially appointed teachers, open special topic courses in main body classes, promptly organize relevant teaching and research departments to apply for, develop, update, and improve special topic courses, integrate ecological protection, green computing power, agricultural and livestock product base construction, new quality productive forces, and other content into the teaching system, and continuously enhance the pertinence and effectiveness of training. We must deepen theoretical research and interpretation, organize teaching and research forces to carry out systematic and thematic research around General Secretary Xi Jinping's important instructions and requirements, closely follow the autonomous region's major strategic deployments to carry out countermeasure research, strive to produce weighty and implementable think tank achievements, and serve as good staff assistants to the Party committee and government. We must extensively carry out publicity and lecturing, organize backbone teachers to go deep into the grassroots frontline, select full-time teachers to join the autonomous region's lecturing group to carry out lectures, interpret the spiritual essence and practical requirements from all angles and in multiple dimensions, and transmit General Secretary Xi Jinping's profound concern to all walks of life and to all families and households (千家万户, qian jia wan hu - "thousand, family, ten thousand, household"), continuously consolidating the strong joint force of the whole region's unity in struggle and dedication to work. We must make overall plans to do a good job in our own construction, benchmark against the deployments of the Party Central Committee and the autonomous region Party committee, combine the spirit of implementation with running the school and governing the school and strictly governing the school, continuously create a clean and upright atmosphere (风清气正, feng qing qi zheng - "wind, clear, air, upright") for educating people, and provide strong ideological support for all kinds of talents and cadres to work and start businesses.
The meeting emphasized that we must effectively strengthen organizational leadership and promptly set off a wave of study, publicity, implementation, and enforcement in the school (academy). Members of the school (academy) committee should take the lead in studying, take the lead in discussion, take the lead in lecturing, and drive all faculty and staff to study deeply and understand thoroughly by setting an example from above. All departments and all teaching and research departments should consolidate responsibilities, refine supporting implementation measures, and promote the tasks of study, lecturing, scientific research, and training in an integrated manner, adhere to integrating learning, thinking, and practice (学思用贯通, xue si yong guan tong - "learn, think, use, connect through") and unifying knowledge, belief, and action (知信行统一, zhi xin xing tong yi - "know, believe, act, unify"), and transform the results of study into practical actions of improving the quality of running the school and serving the overall situation of the center, contributing the strength of the Party School to writing a new chapter of Chinese modernization in Inner Mongolia.
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On October 23, the Sixth Urban Governance Academic Symposium, themed "High-Quality Development and Governance Innovation of Yangtze River Delta Cities — New Vision and New Exploration for the 15th Five-Year Plan," was held at the Shanghai Municipal Party School (School of Administration). At the meeting, two special reports were released: "High-Quality Life in Yangtze River Delta Cities: Review of the 14th Five-Year Plan and Outlook for the 15th Five-Year Plan" and "High-Level Opening-Up of Yangtze River Delta Cities: Framework, Indicators, and Evaluation." Zeng Jun, Executive Vice President (Vice Dean), attended and delivered a speech; Luo Feng, Vice President (Vice Dean), presided over the meeting.
At the symposium, three experts and scholars delivered keynote speeches, sharing academic reflections and practical insights on the opportunities and challenges facing the development of the Yangtze River Delta. Xiao Jincheng, Chairman of the Council of the China Society of Territorial Economists, addressed the shortcomings in current regional cooperation and proposed systematically building a long-term mechanism for regional cooperation from four aspects: legislative safeguards, organizational structure, financial support, and planning guidance. Sun Zhiyan, Research Fellow at the Department of Development Strategy and Regional Economy Research of the Development Research Center of the State Council, focused on the impact of artificial intelligence technological transformation on high-quality urban development. She argued that Yangtze River Delta cities possess strong global competitive advantages, and that in the future, not only should artificial intelligence be promoted as an important driver of economic growth, but it is even more essential to adhere to the fundamental stance of a people-oriented approach (以人为本, yi ren wei ben - "take, person, as, foundation"), so that technological progress better serves the comprehensive development of people and continuously enhances people's well-being. Zhang Xiaojie, Professor at the Department of Sociology Teaching and Research of the Shanghai Municipal Party School (School of Administration), proposed that the value evaluation mechanism should be used as a breakthrough, and through measures such as cost sharing and institutional safeguards, the construction of a regional public service community should be advanced from integration toward value co-creation.
During the roundtable forum session, four participating experts focused on the theme of "Advancing the Integrated Development of the Yangtze River Delta to a Higher Level," conducting in-depth exchanges on topics including breaking down institutional barriers, the construction of the unified national market, and the integration of public services. Ni Donghui, Professor at the Anhui Provincial Party School (School of Administration), interpreted the new arrangements in Anhui's 15th Five-Year Plan outline regarding strategic positioning and coordination mechanisms, providing new ideas for improving cross-regional benefit-sharing mechanisms. Wang Lijun, Deputy Director of the Zhejiang Development Strategy Research Institute of the Zhejiang Provincial Party School (School of Administration), reviewed the practical progress of the Yangtze River Delta in areas such as joint construction of market rules and innovation in circulation models, and proposed further strengthening cross-regional rule alignment and information connectivity, and continuing to remove administrative barriers that impede fair competition. Fang Changchun, Director of the Department of Sociology at Nanjing University, focused on the integration of public services and suggested exploring the establishment of common cross-regional public service matters along with corresponding mechanisms for financial burden sharing, responsibility allocation, and accountability. Pan Xin, Deputy Director of the Innovation Research Center of Shanghai Tongji Urban Planning and Design Research Institute, proposed promoting the alignment of the "six networks" of infrastructure with the spatial layout of metropolitan areas, further enhancing the level of interconnection and interoperability of infrastructure as well as its safety and resilience.
This symposium was hosted by the Shanghai Municipal Party School (School of Administration). In addition to the main forum, three parallel sub-forums were simultaneously held, conducting special discussions on topics including "Shanghai's 'Five Centers' Construction and Its Leading and Driving Role," "Modernization of Urban Governance in the Yangtze River Delta and the Construction of Resilient and Safe Cities," and "High-Quality Development of Social Work in the Yangtze River Delta."
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On October 15, the theoretical seminar "Shaping New Advantages in an Open Economy and Serving Well as a Gateway Hub for High-Level Opening Up" and the 7th Zhuo Jiong Forum were held at the Party School of the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the CPC (Guangdong Academy of Governance). Vice President Lin Shenggen, and Luo Mingzhong, Executive Vice President of the Guangdong Economic Association and Dean of the School of Economics and Management at South China Agricultural University, attended the meeting and delivered speeches.
The meeting noted that 2026 marks the opening year of the 15th Five-Year Plan, and advancing deeper reform and expanding high-level opening up are important strategic deployments for the 15th Five-Year Plan period. With opening up as its theme, this meeting is both an act of homage to the spirit of theoretical innovation of the renowned economist Zhuo Jiong and a pragmatic action to focus on the propositions of the times, respond to development concerns, serve the construction of the Greater Bay Area, and explore new paths for local opening up.
At the meeting, four experts delivered keynote reports on the meeting's theme. Fan Jida, Deputy Director of the Department of Economics Teaching and Research at the Party School of the CPC Central Committee (National Academy of Governance), argued that with the current international situation being a situation where changes and chaos are intertwined (变乱交织, bian luan jiao zhi - "change, chaos, interweave"), advancing institutional opening up, continuously optimizing the business environment, actively participating in the formulation of international rules, and enhancing China's competitiveness in global rule-making games are important pathways for propelling China from "following" toward "leading." Wang Caiping, Director of the Academic Affairs Department at Sun Yat-sen University, argued that the four major cooperation platforms of Hengqin, Qianhai, Nansha, and Hetao are important vehicles for Guangdong to realize the "five external linkages," and that the advantages of these platforms should be fully utilized to enhance the international competitiveness of industries and build a high ground for foreign economic cooperation. Liu Zhiming, Director of the Development Planning Office at South China Normal University, argued that current high-level international competition has shifted to underlying competition in science and technology rules, talent systems, and innovation ecosystems, and that scientific and technological opening up and institutional opening up of talent should be used as the starting points to build new advantages for Guangdong's high-level opening up. Zheng Hongjun, Editor-in-Chief of the Southern Think Tank Special Report, argued that the academic community should base itself on Guangdong's opening-up practice, strengthen theoretical distillation and scholarly expression, and research deeply and explain thoroughly the key and difficult issues of institutional opening up.
Nearly 100 people attended the meeting, including well-known experts from within and outside the province, representative authors of selected papers, and teaching and research personnel from relevant departments of the school (academy).
Return to TopThe Fujian Provincial Party School (School of Administration) has deeply studied and implemented General Secretary Xi Jinping's important discourses on Party school work, implemented the "Regulations on the Work of Party Schools (Schools of Administration) of the Communist Party of China," adhered to the "one chessboard" approach for Party schools (Schools of Administration) across the province, strengthened the coordination of resources, and taken numerous measures simultaneously (多措并举, duo cuo bing ju - "many, measures, together, act") to promote the orderly flow and intensive allocation of school-running resources among provincial, municipal, and county Party schools, continuously raising the level of integrated and coordinated development and consolidating the foundation for school operation.
First, adhere to high-level guidance. Closely following the work arrangements of the Provincial Party Committee, by convening provincial Party school (School of Administration) work conferences, principal (dean) meetings, and other such gatherings, we guide municipal and county Party schools to uphold the correct direction of school operation. We deepen research on high-quality development of the system, incorporate the construction and development of municipal and county Party schools into the overall layout of the provincial school, and integrate them into the "15th Five-Year Plan" and the "First-Class Party School" construction plan of the provincial Party school (School of Administration) system, guiding all localities to implement and carry out these plans based on their actual conditions, and guiding the province's Party school system to work in concert and synergy, ensuring that the direction of resource coordination remains correct and the intensity is not diminished.
Second, strengthen municipal-county coordination. Relying on the branch school listing management model to straighten out the rights and responsibilities system for municipal and county school operation, we promote the inclusion of teaching planning, team building, and curriculum development of county-level Party schools under unified coordination by municipal-level Party schools, integrate party spirit education bases, practical training venues, accommodation and catering support and other hardware resources for joint construction and shared use, regularly carry out collective lesson preparation, mentoring by renowned teachers, and order-based teaching delivery, jointly develop local characteristic courses, create realistic teaching models, and promote the standardized construction and characteristic development of weak Party schools in mountainous areas. The Party School of the Shouning County Party Committee has been additionally listed as the Xiada Branch School of the Party School of the Ningde Municipal Party Committee, implementing coordinated management between the city and county, innovatively launching the "Four Same" party spirit education and the "Five Ones" training model, and continuously enhancing the quality and efficiency of grassroots training supply.
Third, advance regional coordination. Using municipal Party schools as hubs to promote regional collaboration, we regularly organize joint lesson preparation, topic research, on-site teaching, and follow-up training, open up channels for sharing resources such as teaching staff, courses, scientific research, and platforms, and link points into chains to activate school-running resources within the city. The Party School of the Shaxian District Party Committee, on the basis of retaining the independent school-running function of the county-level Party school unchanged, in accordance with the working principle of "coordination without monopolizing, empowerment without substitution," has established with the Party School of the Sanming Municipal Party Committee a city-district two-level Party school linked school-running model with the main contents of "shared venues, jointly prepared courses, joint teaching and research, and shared teaching staff"; the Party School of the Zhangzhou Municipal Party Committee has connected with the Party School of the Dongshan County Party Committee, and the Party School of the Ningde Municipal Party Committee has linked with the Party School of the Jiaocheng District Party Committee, and based on the specific realities of island and urban district Party schools, has coordinated collective lesson preparation, joint topic research, and business exchanges, forming a sound situation of "municipal traction, city-county linkage, and regional clustering" for integrated development and improvement.
Fourth, carry out mountain-sea collaboration. We build a platform for joint construction between Party schools in coastal areas and those in mountainous and old revolutionary base areas, break down regional barriers, establish collaboration mechanisms such as mutual dispatch of teaching staff, joint curriculum research, and joint class operation, and promote the downward transfer of coastal teaching management advantages and the outward export of mountainous red resources. We solidly advance paired construction between county-level Party schools such as Fuzhou Fuqing—Ningde Zhouning and Xiamen Huli—Longyan Liancheng, precisely match grassroots school-running needs, carry out deep docking such as joint school operation, continuously narrow the regional gap in school operation, and promote more balanced and coordinated integrated construction.
Fifth, strengthen guarantee and supply. The Fujian Provincial Party School (School of Administration) directly links quality assessment and classified construction results with resource allocation and project support, guiding high-quality resources to tilt toward weak grassroots links. We focus on coordinating three types of resources: in terms of teaching staff cultivation, we actively select and send teaching and research backbone personnel and grassroots Party school teachers to participate in teacher training held by the Party School of the CPC Central Committee (National Academy of Governance) and the Fujian Provincial Party School (School of Administration), regularly carry out "sending teaching to the grassroots" activities, improve the mechanisms for cultivating, mentoring, and growing grassroots teachers, and provide solid talent guarantees for the balanced development of the system. In terms of external collaboration, we adhere to "introducing from outside and connecting externally," proactively go to the Party School of the CPC Central Committee (National Academy of Governance) and advanced provincial and municipal Party schools for docking and learning, and introduce cutting-edge concepts and advantageous resources; we promote collaboration between the Party School of State Grid Fujian Electric Power Co., Ltd. and municipal and county Party schools, effectively expanding grassroots training supply. In terms of existing assets, relying on the "public goods warehouse," we have transferred more than 3,900 items of assets worth more than 2.5 million yuan to 8 municipal and county Party schools, making up for shortcomings in grassroots hardware. We continue to strengthen the "provincial school system home," regularly go down to the grassroots to carry out business guidance, promptly coordinate and resolve practical difficulties in school operation, and provide all-round support for integrated development. (Chen Xuemei, Gao Shaoman, Deng Wen)
Return to TopThe Party School of the Hubei Provincial Party Committee (School of Administration) has thoroughly studied and implemented the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speech during his inspection tour of Hubei, practiced the original aspiration of the Party school of "cultivating talent for the Party and offering counsel for the Party," anchored its goals and tasks on building at a high level the Wuhan Regional Science and Technology Innovation Center and accelerating the construction of an important strategic fulcrum for the rise of the central region, and continuously optimized course supply, expanded training channels, and deepened research and interpretation, contributing the strength of the Party school to the province's fulcrum construction.
First, optimizing course supply. Adhering to the principle that wherever the strategic deployment for accelerating fulcrum construction advances, the teaching layout follows, we have built a course supply system that integrates learning and application. We have improved the course system construction, closely following the overall deployment for fulcrum construction at the Twelfth Plenary Session of the Twelfth Provincial Party Committee, and built a "1+3+6" course system featuring general introduction as the guide, special topics as support, and sub-topics as breakthroughs. That is, offering 1 "General Introduction to the Spirit of the Plenary Session" course, 3 special-topic courses on "Building a World-Class Optics Valley," "Building at a High Level the Wuhan Regional Science and Technology Innovation Center," and "Deeply Advancing the Construction of the Wuhan Metropolitan Area," as well as 6 sub-topic courses on scientific and technological innovation, industrial innovation, financial innovation, regional innovation, open innovation, and governance innovation. We have innovated teaching implementation methods, deepened the application of research-based, interactive, and immersive teaching methods, integrated the spirit of the plenary session into the entire process of special-topic lectures, practical interpretation, case-based teaching, and exchange and discussion, promoted the transformation of a batch of vivid materials into course teaching content, and formed a teaching pattern integrating learning, thinking, research, and application. We have extended practical training positions, adhered to moving the classroom to the forefront of development and the front line of industry, actively invited relevant leading comrades and experts and scholars from inside and outside the province to interpret the international and domestic situation and the major strategic decisions of the provincial party committee, organized trainees to enter the front line of fulcrum construction for on-site teaching, and arranged for young cadre class trainees to go to advanced regions such as Zhejiang and Shenzhen and to the front line of major projects for practical training and research, striving to enable trainees to broaden their horizons, update their concepts, and enhance their capabilities through practical training.
Second, broadening training channels. Adhering to tiered and categorized, targeted training, we have promoted the transmission of fulcrum construction deployment from the "key minority" to the "grassroots end." We have focused on running well the training class for principal Party and government leaders of counties (cities, districts) across the province, carefully provided service guarantees for special lectures by leaders of the Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government, organized trainees to conduct discussions around "establishing and practicing a correct view of political achievements and being a good principal Party and government leader of a county (city, district)," guided the "key minority" to accurately grasp the core essence of the plenary session, and enhanced their conscious action in contributing to fulcrum construction. We have run well the professional competence training classes by industry, and around the "six major innovations" fields proposed by the plenary session, undertaken 24 relevant special-topic classes, trained more than 1,970 trainees by category, and helped the fulcrum construction deployment take firm root and flourish (落地生根, luo di sheng gen - "land, fall; root, grow") in various fields, industries, and departments. We have continuously offered live courses for Party members and cadres across the province, and through the "main classroom + branch classroom + cloud classroom" method, relying on the "Fulcrum Construction Cadre Lecture Hall" platform, realized "attending the same class together" for leading bodies at the city, county, and township levels and relevant departments across the province.
Third, deepening publicity and interpretation. Giving full play to the advantages of the Party school in theoretical research and think tank work, we have adhered to the integrated advancement of teaching, research, and consultation. We have organized teacher research groups from provincial, municipal, and county Party schools to carry out squatting research, and 5 school-level special research topics integrating teaching, research, and consultation have been approved. We have done timely publicity and interpretation work, organized teachers to carry out 4 interpretation and explanation sessions of the plenary session deployment in provincial-level authoritative media, and published 13 theoretical articles in core journals and newspapers and periodicals at or above the provincial level. At the same time, we have made good use of the newspapers and periodicals and WeChat public accounts affiliated with the school (academy), opened special columns to expand the coverage of publicity and interpretation of the spirit of the plenary session. We have actively offered suggestions and proposals, taking the province's new think tank topics and major research topics as the guide, formed cross-departmental research teams, conducted field research in relevant high-tech zones, sci-tech innovation enterprises, innovation platforms, etc., planned 28 topics, and strived to provide intellectual support for the implementation of the goals and tasks of fulcrum construction.
(Zhong Jingyuan, Liu Wenlong)
Return to TopThe Party School (School of Administration) of the Shandong Provincial Party Committee has thoroughly implemented General Secretary Xi Jinping's important discourses on Party school work, innovatively promoted the "three categories, four dimensions" student classification management model for basic training programs, further enhanced the refined and standardized level of student management, and comprehensively improved training quality and effectiveness.
First, scientific planning. A implementation plan for classified management of students in basic training programs has been formulated. According to the length of student training, the programs are divided into three categories: long-term programs with a study period of more than 2 months, such as training classes for young and middle-aged cadres and teacher training classes; medium-term programs with a study period of about 1 month, such as advanced study classes for leading cadres at the municipal (department) level, advanced study classes for cadres at the county (division) level, and advanced study classes for secretaries of township (street) party (working) committees; and short-term programs with a study period of 1 to 2 weeks, such as special seminar classes and backbone research and training classes. Focusing on the four dimensions of "party spirit education, study management, organizational management, and life management," differentiated, scientific, and precise management is implemented for different categories of programs, effectively promoting party spirit education to strengthen one's political foundation and character (铸魂固本, zhu hun gu ben - "cast soul, consolidate root"), study management to be precise and efficient, organizational management to be serious and standardized, and life management to combine strict governance with care.
Second, precise measures. In terms of party spirit education, long-term programs implement whole-chain party spirit tempering, solidly advancing the "seven-in-one" political training model of theoretical education, on-site teaching, practical exercise, typical guidance, case warnings, cultural influence, and management evaluation; medium-term programs implement party spirit tempering at key links, advancing the self-exercise mechanism for students' organizational life, intensive reading of classics, comparative self-examination, and self-management; short-term programs implement targeted and precise party spirit exercise, guiding students to strictly abide by the Party's political discipline and political rules. In terms of study management, long-term programs focus on systematically promoting the integration of learning and application, optimizing the mechanisms of guided learning, facilitated learning, and supervised learning, building diverse exchange platforms, improving the evaluation of learning quality and effectiveness, and constructing a complete and systematic style-of-study building system; medium-term programs focus on professionalization to promote the combination of learning and application, advancing improving oneself through mutual learning and teaching (学学相长, xue xue xiang zhang - "learn, learn, mutually promote"), deepening supervision of the style of study, and cultivating a strong learning atmosphere; short-term programs focus on specialization to promote applying learning to practice, closely following practical needs, and deepening professional training, seminar exchanges, and learning from each other and drawing lessons from one another (互学互鉴, hu xue hu jian - "mutually learn, mutually refer"). In terms of organizational management, long-term programs highlight self-management, promoting a management operation model with guidance from organizers (class teachers) and primary responsibility of duty class monitors, cultivating class culture, and promoting students' self-education, self-management, self-supervision, and self-service; medium-term programs highlight guided management, organizing management work groups for organizers of the same-period and same-category programs, improving work lists, refining division of responsibilities, and building a management pattern of "work group coordination, organizer (class teacher) guidance, branch implementation, and full participation"; short-term programs highlight integrated management, consolidating the dual primary responsibility of the sponsoring unit and the school (academy), fully connecting, working in the same direction, and jointly managing and coordinating efforts (齐抓共管, qi zhua gong guan - "together grasp, jointly manage"). In terms of life management, long-term programs strengthen the cultivation of work style, promoting the internalization in the heart and externalization in action of the style of learning, the style of simplicity, and the style of clarity; medium-term programs strengthen institutional constraints, strictly enforce daily management, and provide timely reminders and corrections; short-term programs strengthen standardized management, with emphasis on matters requiring attention and disciplinary regulations.
Third, consolidating safeguards. Optimize the system of organizers following classes, continuously implement the action to improve the quality and capability of organizers (class teachers), regularly carry out experience exchange and discussion on student management work, conduct regular work reviews, and continuously improve the political quality, theoretical literacy, and professional capability of organizers (class teachers). Thoroughly implement the "Implementation Measures for Student Assessment in Basic Training Programs (Trial)", earnestly implement the evaluation and assessment of organizers (class teachers), and promote the implementation and implementation of various measures for classified management.
(Liu Yang, Meng Hongen)
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On October 19, the Party School of the Shaanxi Provincial Party Committee (School of Administration) held a joint meeting on teaching and research to specially discuss and deploy work on deepening and advancing the integration of teaching, research, and consultation. Standing Deputy Principal (Vice President) Fan Yongbin attended the meeting and delivered a speech. The principal responsible comrades of relevant departments attended the meeting.
The meeting pointed out that promoting the integration of teaching, research, and consultation is an inherent need for improving the quality of cadre education and training at the school (academy), and is an important support for giving play to the role of the Party school in ideological guidance, theoretical development, and decision-making consultation. It is necessary to coordinate and connect teaching and research work as a whole, promote theoretical research results to meet teaching needs, ensure scientific research results enter the classroom in a timely manner, and promptly transform practical problems in the classroom and in practice into research topics and consultation achievements, so as to truly realize the coordinated force of teaching, research, and consultation and mutual promotion and progress (互促共进, hu cu gong jin - "mutually promote, together advance").
The meeting emphasized that it is necessary to effectively strengthen overall planning, closely focus on the decision-making and deployment of the Party Central Committee and the central work of the Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government, focus on major theoretical and practical issues and hot and difficult social issues, and ensure that teaching and research work is planned ahead and acted upon first; it is necessary to focus on the main responsibilities and main business, firmly grasp the functional positioning and distinctive advantages of the school (academy), adhere to the correct teaching orientation and research direction, concentrate high-quality resources such as talent, disciplines, and platforms on key tasks, and better give play to the important functional role of cultivating talent and offering suggestions; it is necessary to solidly promote organized teaching and organized research, continuously deepen the construction of the curriculum system and teaching service guarantees, adhere to selecting research topics around teaching needs and exerting efforts in line with teaching needs, and effectively give play to the role of the integration of teaching, research, and consultation; it is necessary to firmly establish a quality-oriented approach, concentrate efforts on creating high-quality courses, high-level research topics, and high-quality consultation achievements, strengthen the exemplary and leading role of famous teachers, famous courses, and outstanding works, and drive the overall improvement of the level of teaching, research, and consultation with excellent works.
The meeting required that all departments should perform their duties and responsibilities (履职尽责, lü zhi jin ze - "fulfill duty, fulfill responsibility") and closely coordinate, implement all measures for the integration of teaching, research, and consultation in detail, and accelerate the construction of a "one chessboard" pattern for the work of the school (academy). It is necessary to improve the normalized communication and consultation mechanism, deepen information exchange and learning from each other's experiences (经验互鉴, jing yan hu jian - "experience, mutually, learn from each other"), promptly solve work bottlenecks and difficulties, and continuously promote the improvement of quality and efficiency in the teaching and research work of the school (academy).
(Chen Weiyu)
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On October 22, the special guidance activity "Strengthening Research Capabilities, Offering Good Policy Advisory Proposals" of the Harbin Municipal Grassroots Party School Regional Alliance (Third Area) was held at the Xiangfang District Party School. Zhang Xinning, Vice President (Vice Principal) of the Harbin Municipal Party School (School of Administration), led a delegation to attend, and relevant personnel from alliance member units participated in the guidance session. The activity simultaneously opened a live-streaming channel, with 114 teachers from 18 grassroots party schools across the city watching the proceedings in real time.
In the special guidance segment, Zhang Mingzhi, professor and doctoral supervisor at the Political Academy of the National Defense University and editor-in-chief of the journal Ideological and Theoretical Front, closely aligned with the actual work of grassroots party schools, analyzing the key points and common pitfalls in grassroots research topics. His presentation combined theoretical depth with close alignment to frontline teaching and research realities, offering strong guiding significance and reference value.
In the experience-sharing and policy-explanation segment, Wang Haitao, director of the Department of Social and Public Administration Teaching and Research at the Harbin Municipal Party School (School of Administration), shared his own research experience, imparting research methods to participating teachers from a practical operational level; Chang Bing, director of the Scientific Research Division, explained and clarified relevant research policies.
In the interactive Q&A segment, grassroots party school participants actively raised questions and exchanged views on difficult issues encountered in research practice. The keynote speakers responded one by one and provided precise guidance based on their experience and policy requirements, clarifying the path for grassroots institutions to break through research bottlenecks, and the on-site discussion atmosphere was lively.
In his concluding remarks, Zhang Xinning put forward requirements for the regional alliance's collaborative research work, encouraging teachers from member units to base themselves on regional practice, identify appropriate entry points for research, transform frontline grassroots practice into research topics, and produce more down-to-earth and practical (接地气, jie di qi - "touch the ground, receive energy") and valuable research and policy advisory outcomes.
This activity is an important practice of the Harbin Municipal Grassroots Party School Regional Alliance in deepening inter-school collaboration, coordinating high-quality resources, and promoting joint teaching and research development and sharing. In the next step, the Harbin Municipal Party School (School of Administration) will continue to take the lead in deepening the construction of the regional party school alliance, joining with grassroots party schools across the city to consolidate work synergy, continuously broadening the breadth of alliance collaboration and deepening the depth of cooperation. It will continue to build a normalized platform for exchange and discussion, coordinate the use of diverse vehicles such as online live-streaming and offline centralized seminars, promote mutual reinforcement and interconnection in teaching and research, faculty development, topic tackling, and resource sharing, and continuously enhance the overall effectiveness of grassroots party schools' research and policy advisory work.
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From October 12 to 16, the Party School (School of Administration) of the Ningbo Municipal Party Committee organized teachers to travel to Kuqa City, Xinjiang, to carry out teaching-delivery and research activities. Through forms such as on-site lectures, remote teaching delivery, and teaching-research exchanges, the activities promoted the extension of high-quality teaching resources to the counterpart region and deepened exchanges and cooperation between the Party schools of Ningbo and Kuqa.
Focusing on the cadre education and training needs of Kuqa, teachers from the Party School (School of Administration) of the Ningbo Municipal Party Committee delivered two special-topic lectures — "Developing New Quality Productive Forces to Promote High-Quality Development" and "Improving the Capacity for Investigation and Research" — respectively to the township-and-section-level cadre refresher class and the middle-aged and young cadre training class of Kuqa's 2026 autumn main session, while also carrying out 3 sessions of remote teaching delivery, further expanding the channels for supplying high-quality courses.
During the teaching-delivery period, the research group held a special symposium with the Party School of the Kuqa Municipal Party Committee. The relevant responsible comrade of the Party School of the Kuqa Municipal Party Committee gave a detailed introduction to the local economic and social development and the operation of the Party school, and the two sides conducted in-depth exchanges on teaching reform, scientific research and policy consultation, and faculty development, exploring effective paths for deepening joint course development, resource sharing, and teaching-research collaboration. The research group also went deep into multiple localities in Kuqa to conduct field research on ecological protection, cultural inheritance, forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation, and Party-building-led grassroots governance, accumulating practical material for deepening teaching and research cooperation between the two localities.
This activity is a concrete measure by the Party School (School of Administration) of the Ningbo Municipal Party Committee to deepen counterpart assistance to Xinjiang and strengthen collaboration between the Party schools of the two localities. In the next step, the Party School (School of Administration) of the Ningbo Municipal Party Committee will continue to deepen normalized cooperation with the Party School of the Kuqa Municipal Party Committee, promote the sharing of high-quality resources and learning from each other's experiences (经验互鉴, jing yan hu jian - "experience, mutual, see each other"), expand space for cooperation in joint course development, joint faculty cultivation, and scientific research and policy consultation, and provide strong support for improving the quality of Party school operation and the level of cadre education and training in the counterpart region. (Lu Teng)
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On October 15, the third research workshop of 2026 of the Shenzhen Municipal Party School (School of Administration) of the CPC Central Committee was held at the Luohu District Party School. Nearly 50 people, including experts and scholars from the Teaching and Research Department of Party Building of the Party School of the CPC Central Committee (National Academy of Governance), the Policy Research Office of the Shenzhen Municipal Party Committee, and the Municipal Federation of Social Sciences, as well as relevant responsible comrades and teaching and research personnel from municipal and district Party schools, participated in the study and discussion. Participants deeply studied Xi Jinping's thought on Party building, the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speeches and important instructions on Shenzhen's work, and the spirit of the municipal Party committee's deployment requirements. Centering on the theme of "Deeply studying and implementing Xi Jinping's thought on Party building, taking the lead in strengthening the Party's overall leadership and Party building with the spirit of reform and innovation," they exchanged learning experiences and insights and discussed the theory and practice of Party building.
Ten experts and scholars in attendance delivered exchange speeches in turn. Participants held that Xi Jinping's thought on Party building is rooted in the basic principles of Marxist Party-building theory and scientifically answers the epochal question of building a Marxist party in long-term governance. To study and implement Xi Jinping's thought on Party building, one must grasp its major significance from the perspective of the times, thoroughly understand the essence of its system to grasp its scientific connotation, deeply study its intellectual lineage to appreciate its theoretical character, grasp its generative foundation, and comprehend its practical basis and theoretical origins. One must study and use well volumes one and two of the Selected Works of Xi Jinping on Party Building, persist in reading the original works, studying the original texts, and comprehending the underlying principles, grasp the essential meaning and practical requirements, advance full and rigorous self-governance of the Party with higher standards and more concrete measures, and promote the steady progress of the Party and state's undertakings toward making steady progress toward long-term goals (行稳致远, xing xing zhi yuan - "walk steadily, reach far"). Participants also conducted in-depth research on Shenzhen's practical experience in political building, ideological building, organizational systems, cadres and talent, work style building, discipline building, institutional innovation, the fight against corruption, and the implementation of responsibilities, summarized patterns from vivid cases, and formed more replicable and promotable long-term solutions in Party building.
Participants expressed that tempering strong Party spirit is a foundational issue in governing and managing the Party in the new era. Governing and managing the Party can neither be simply entrusted to individual ideological self-awareness nor can all governance results be entrusted to institutional provisions; institutional construction and Party spirit tempering are two sides of the same coin and work in the same direction. They insisted on improving the organizational system that is connected from top to bottom and effective in execution, using "connection from top to bottom" to smooth vertical transmission and "effective execution" to achieve unified thinking, unified will, and unified action, taking political building as the guide, and promoting the shift from tangible coverage to effective coverage. To build new production relations compatible with new quality productive forces, it is necessary to advance the reform of the Party building system, persist in the integrated advancement of innovation in concepts, mechanisms, methods, and tools, highlight the pivotal platform role of training, explore mechanisms such as fault tolerance for reform, promotion and demotion based on competence, professional rotational training, burden reduction at the grassroots level, and dispatched supervision, and advocate empowering cadre work with digital and intelligent tools such as artificial intelligence.
In the next step, the entire Shenzhen municipal Party school (School of Administration) system will continue to deeply study and implement Xi Jinping's thought on Party building, continue to do well in all work concerning learning and publicity, education and training, research and interpretation, and implementation, iteratively optimize courses, fully incorporate them into the teaching arrangements of main training programs, launch series of "micro-courses" by topic, and promote the Party's innovative theories entering the classroom and the grassroots. It will lay out a number of research topics on major theoretical and practical issues, focus on conducting countermeasure research on "small-cut" issues, and contribute intellectual strength to Shenzhen's taking the lead in strengthening the Party's overall leadership and Party building with the spirit of reform and innovation, enriching and developing Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, and advancing the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity.
Return to TopThe Fujian Provincial Party School (School of Administration) has deeply studied and implemented General Secretary Xi Jinping's important discourses on Party school work, implemented the "Regulations on the Work of Party Schools (Schools of Administration) of the Communist Party of China," adhered to the "one chessboard" approach for Party schools (Schools of Administration) across the province, strengthened the coordination of resources, and taken numerous measures simultaneously (多措并举, duo cuo bing ju - "many, measures, together, act") to promote the orderly flow and intensive allocation of school-running resources among provincial, municipal, and county Party schools, continuously raising the level of integrated and coordinated development and consolidating the foundation for school operation.
First, adhere to high-level guidance. Closely following the work arrangements of the Provincial Party Committee, by convening provincial Party school (School of Administration) work conferences, principal (dean) meetings, and other such gatherings, we guide municipal and county Party schools to uphold the correct direction of school operation. We deepen research on high-quality development of the system, incorporate the construction and development of municipal and county Party schools into the overall layout of the provincial school, and integrate them into the "15th Five-Year Plan" and the "First-Class Party School" construction plan of the provincial Party school (School of Administration) system, guiding all localities to implement and carry out these plans based on their actual conditions, and guiding the province's Party school system to work in concert and synergy, ensuring that the direction of resource coordination remains correct and the intensity is not diminished.
Second, strengthen municipal-county coordination. Relying on the branch school listing management model to straighten out the rights and responsibilities system for municipal and county school operation, we promote the inclusion of teaching planning, team building, and curriculum development of county-level Party schools under unified coordination by municipal-level Party schools, integrate party spirit education bases, practical training venues, accommodation and catering support and other hardware resources for joint construction and shared use, regularly carry out collective lesson preparation, mentoring by renowned teachers, and order-based teaching delivery, jointly develop local characteristic courses, create realistic teaching models, and promote the standardized construction and characteristic development of weak Party schools in mountainous areas. The Party School of the Shouning County Party Committee has been additionally listed as the Xiada Branch School of the Party School of the Ningde Municipal Party Committee, implementing coordinated management between the city and county, innovatively launching the "Four Same" party spirit education and the "Five Ones" training model, and continuously enhancing the quality and efficiency of grassroots training supply.
Third, advance regional coordination. Using municipal Party schools as hubs to promote regional collaboration, we regularly organize joint lesson preparation, topic research, on-site teaching, and follow-up training, open up channels for sharing resources such as teaching staff, courses, scientific research, and platforms, and link points into chains to activate school-running resources within the city. The Party School of the Shaxian District Party Committee, on the basis of retaining the independent school-running function of the county-level Party school unchanged, in accordance with the working principle of "coordination without monopolizing, empowerment without substitution," has established with the Party School of the Sanming Municipal Party Committee a city-district two-level Party school linked school-running model with the main contents of "shared venues, jointly prepared courses, joint teaching and research, and shared teaching staff"; the Party School of the Zhangzhou Municipal Party Committee has connected with the Party School of the Dongshan County Party Committee, and the Party School of the Ningde Municipal Party Committee has linked with the Party School of the Jiaocheng District Party Committee, and based on the specific realities of island and urban district Party schools, has coordinated collective lesson preparation, joint topic research, and business exchanges, forming a sound situation of "municipal traction, city-county linkage, and regional clustering" for integrated development and improvement.
Fourth, carry out mountain-sea collaboration. We build a platform for joint construction between Party schools in coastal areas and those in mountainous and old revolutionary base areas, break down regional barriers, establish collaboration mechanisms such as mutual dispatch of teaching staff, joint curriculum research, and joint class operation, and promote the downward transfer of coastal teaching management advantages and the outward export of mountainous red resources. We solidly advance paired construction between county-level Party schools such as Fuzhou Fuqing—Ningde Zhouning and Xiamen Huli—Longyan Liancheng, precisely match grassroots school-running needs, carry out deep docking such as joint school operation, continuously narrow the regional gap in school operation, and promote more balanced and coordinated integrated construction.
Fifth, strengthen guarantee and supply. The Fujian Provincial Party School (School of Administration) directly links quality assessment and classified construction results with resource allocation and project support, guiding high-quality resources to tilt toward weak grassroots links. We focus on coordinating three types of resources: in terms of teaching staff cultivation, we actively select and send teaching and research backbone personnel and grassroots Party school teachers to participate in teacher training held by the Party School of the CPC Central Committee (National Academy of Governance) and the Fujian Provincial Party School (School of Administration), regularly carry out "sending teaching to the grassroots" activities, improve the mechanisms for cultivating, mentoring, and growing grassroots teachers, and provide solid talent guarantees for the balanced development of the system. In terms of external collaboration, we adhere to "introducing from outside and connecting externally," proactively go to the Party School of the CPC Central Committee (National Academy of Governance) and advanced provincial and municipal Party schools for docking and learning, and introduce cutting-edge concepts and advantageous resources; we promote collaboration between the Party School of State Grid Fujian Electric Power Co., Ltd. and municipal and county Party schools, effectively expanding grassroots training supply. In terms of existing assets, relying on the "public goods warehouse," we have transferred more than 3,900 items of assets worth more than 2.5 million yuan to 8 municipal and county Party schools, making up for shortcomings in grassroots hardware. We continue to strengthen the "provincial school system home," regularly go down to the grassroots to carry out business guidance, promptly coordinate and resolve practical difficulties in school operation, and provide all-round support for integrated development. (Chen Xuemei, Gao Shaoman, Deng Wen)
Return to TopBy: 王莹
How to both deliver high-quality theoretical resources directly to the grassroots and keep courses close to grassroots needs, using teaching feedback to drive continuous improvement, is a practical issue that must be addressed to open up the "last kilometer" of grassroots theoretical training. At present, county-level Party schools have limited teaching staff, and rural Party members and mobile Party members are scattered in distribution, so centralized training participation faces the contradiction between work and study. Although livestreaming has broadened course coverage, it cannot automatically resolve the problem of insufficient connection between theoretical teaching and grassroots practice. When courses are delivered but the learning content does not respond to Party members' concerns, and teaching feedback does not enter subsequent course improvement, training easily remains at the superficial level of "having listened and having finished learning." In recent years, relying on the integrated school-running system of the three-tier provincial, municipal, and county Party schools, Lujiang County in Anhui Province has made good use of "attending the same class together," starting from the three aspects of resource linkage, course transformation, and feedback improvement, to explore an effective path for enhancing the quality and effectiveness of grassroots theoretical training.
First, leveraging the downward flow of resources to build an accessible and linked learning scenario nearby. Insufficient high-quality teaching staff and course resources are a practical factor constraining the improving quality and efficiency (提质增效, ti zhi zeng xiao - "raise, quality, increase, efficiency") of grassroots theoretical training. Constrained by teaching staff conditions, county-level Party schools find it difficult to rely solely on their own strength to regularly offer high-level theoretical courses, while rural Party members and mobile Party members are scattered in distribution, and centralized training participation is easily constrained by the contradiction between work and study. The Organization Department of the Lujiang County Party Committee has made "attending the same class together" an important vehicle for advancing basic training for Party members and cadres, integrating the resources of county- and town-level Party schools, and through unifying teaching content, synchronizing teaching arrangements, and linking teaching implementation, promoting the extension of high-quality teaching staff and course resources to the grassroots. Since its launch in January this year, 6 sessions of county-level demonstration training have been held, driving towns (streets, parks) to simultaneously open branch classrooms, cumulatively covering 3,367 Party member person-times. At the same time, Lujiang County has built 20 standardized grassroots Party school branch classrooms and set up teaching network points simultaneously in villages, communities, enterprises, and other places, further expanding grassroots learning positions. In response to the learning needs of different groups, supporting activities such as centralized make-up study and small-group research have been carried out, taking into account the actual circumstances of migrant workers who are Party members, elderly Party members, and other groups. The key to this set of practices is not simply increasing course viewing points, but rather using county-level demonstration training to unify course content and teaching arrangements, using town and street branch classrooms to implement organization and implementation, so that county-level demonstration training drives grassroots simultaneous learning, both giving play to the resource advantages of county-level Party schools and mobilizing the organizational strength of grassroots Party organizations, promoting Party member education and training to be carried out more conveniently and on a regular basis.
Second, doing a good job of localization and transformation, promoting "one major class" to connect with grassroots practical needs. The simultaneous delivery of courses does not mean that learning content fully matches grassroots needs. The theoretical courses of higher-level Party schools have universality, while Party members in different regions and different positions face different practical problems. If localization and transformation are lacking, theoretical propaganda may become disconnected from grassroots practice; Party members may understand the theory but may not necessarily be able to connect it with local development and job responsibilities. Lujiang County adheres to "unified teaching + local expansion," and on the basis of unified theoretical teaching, collects learning demands around frontline topics such as rural revitalization, grassroots governance, and collective economic development, combining theoretical courses with local practical cases and group discussions. Before training, Party members' learning demands are regularly collected; since the beginning of this year, 15 training needs have been collected and 4 supporting courses have been dynamically updated. Theoretical lectures explain "big principles," while group discussions talk about "things around us," guiding Party members to participate in learning with problems from local development in mind. In the overall construction of county-level courses, Lujiang has formed more than 60 high-quality courses, compiled 10 categories of localized learning materials, and developed multiple courses with local characteristics, providing material for theoretical teaching to connect with local industrial development and rural revitalization practice. Rich course resources are only the foundation; the key lies in combining these resources with specific training needs, so that unified theoretical courses have grassroots cases as support and grassroots discussions have theoretical viewpoints as guidance.
Third, improving closed-loop management and continuously enhancing the quality and effectiveness of grassroots theoretical training. Training cannot stop at starting classes on time and completing sign-in; it must also consider whether courses are close to needs, whether teaching organization is effective, and whether grassroots feedback can be transformed into subsequent improvement. Lujiang County has established a quality management chain running through before, during, and after class. Before training, learning needs are regularly collected to provide a basis for course arrangements; during class, the method of "without prior notice, going directly to the scene" is adopted, going down to each teaching point to sit in and observe, promptly grasping classroom organization and trainees' learning status; after class, trainees are organized to evaluate course practicality and teaching effectiveness, and course content and teaching organization methods are optimized based on feedback. Since 2025, at the county level, 6 courses have been optimized and adjusted, 5 local high-quality courses have been cultivated, and town and street Party schools have iterated 17 courses. Courses with good response are further polished and incorporated into the local high-quality course library for promotion, while content with weak targeting is promptly optimized and improved. At the same time, attention is paid to feeding upward the frontline difficulties and vivid practical case studies collected in grassroots discussions, providing materials from the county-level frontline for the course iteration of higher-level Party schools, so that the grassroots are not only recipients of high-quality courses but also participants in the updating of teaching content, helping to promote the top-down transmission of resources and the bottom-up return flow of experience.
〔The author is a First-Level Principal Staff Member of the Office of the Anhui Provincial Party School (School of Administration), seconded to serve as Vice President of the Lujiang County Party School〕
Return to TopBy: 岳国峰
"Promoting the mutual reinforcement and coordinated development of teaching, scientific research, and decision-making consultation" is an important requirement put forward in the newly revised "Regulations on the Work of Party Schools (Academies of Governance) of the Communist Party of China." The Party School (Academy of Governance) of the Qingdao Municipal Party Committee adheres to the original aspiration of Party schools to "cultivate talents for the Party and offer counsel for the Party," upholds the correct orientation for running the school, consciously serves the overall work of the Party and the state, actively advances organized teaching, scientific research, and decision-making consultation work, strives to remove the difficulties and bottlenecks in the coordinated development of teaching, research, and consultation, and has gradually built a new pattern of integrated teaching, research, and consultation oriented by demand.
Uphold the principle that Party schools are run by the Party, and grasp the correct direction for the integrated development of teaching, research, and consultation. Centering on the overall work and serving the overall situation is the political positioning that the cause of Party schools must always uphold, and the integrated development of teaching, research, and consultation must also be carried out in full around practicing the original aspiration of Party schools.
Give play to the unique value of cultivating talents for the Party. Carry out scientific research and decision-making consultation activities around the teaching topics of basic training, so that the design of teaching topics, research focal points, and directions of investigation and research of teaching and research personnel are focused on the systematic and theoretical research and interpretation of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, and build a disciplinary development mainline of "basic principles—innovative theories—local practice." Since 2024, all projects at or above the provincial level approved by the school (academy) have focused on the research, dissemination, and interpretation of the Party's innovative theories and on local practice of Chinese modernization, providing a solid scientific research foundation for Party school teaching.
Undertake the important responsibility of offering counsel for the Party. Adhere to a demand-oriented and problem-oriented approach, and intensify efforts in theoretical research and research on major practical issues. Carry out organized selection of topics for scientific research and decision-making consultation, focus on major decisions and deployments of Party committees and governments, and regularly publish topic selection guides. Continue to build high-level exchange platforms, run the "Shanhai Guan" series of distinctive forums well, invite well-known domestic experts to conduct exchanges and discussions on hot and focal issues, and transform the results of discussions into papers and decision-making consultation outcomes on the basis of in-depth investigation and research. Since 2024, 100 decision-making consultation reports written by the school (academy) have received affirmative instructions from leaders at or above the deputy provincial level, providing timely and powerful intellectual support for the decision-making of Party committees and governments.
Deepen institutional innovation and improve the operational system for the integration of teaching, research, and consultation. Improve institutional mechanisms to provide strong guarantees for advancing the integration of teaching, research, and consultation.
Strengthen top-level design. Issue the "Implementation Opinions on Deeply Advancing the Integration of Teaching, Research, and Consultation (Trial)," clarify 11 key work tasks, build a cooperative platform for the coordination of teaching, research, and consultation work, establish a working mechanism for the integrated development of teaching, research, and consultation, remove the barriers to mutual transformation among teaching, research, and consultation, improve the corresponding incentive and constraint mechanisms, and form a series of institutional arrangements and a clear overall development path for advancing the integrated development of teaching, research, and consultation.
Improve supporting systems. In light of school-running practice, comprehensively investigate the institutional loopholes and management blind spots in the three major sectors of teaching, scientific research, and decision-making consultation, and promote the iterative upgrading of the institutional system. Revise the "Measures for the Management of Teaching Topics for Main Training Classes," strengthen the fundamental supporting role of scientific research in the development of teaching topics, set evaluation indicators for the scientific research content in the links of topic application, argumentation, and trial lectures, and promote the transformation of high-quality scientific research results into teaching topics; improve the "Scientific Research Management System," incorporating the awarding of municipal-level or above quality courses and outstanding decision-making consultation results into the conditions for the completion of school-level scientific research projects or joint topics; formulate the "Implementation Opinions on Strengthening and Improving Decision-Making Consultation Work," integrate decision-making consultation resources, classify and improve relevant information databases, and provide realistic materials and vivid cases for teaching and research personnel to write academic papers, conduct topic research, carry out field investigations, and develop teaching courses.
Highlight project traction and build a new pattern of organized teaching, research, and consultation work. Issue the "Implementation Measures for the Management of Teaching-Research-Consultation Integration Projects (Trial)," and use project-based reform to solve common problems such as the fragmentation of teaching, research, and consultation work and the disconnection between supply and demand.
Clarify the goal orientation of projects. Adhere to a teaching-centered approach, anchor goal orientation through projects, guide teaching and research personnel to step out of their "comfort zones," break the old model of "giving lectures based on inherent cognition, doing research based on personal expertise, and providing consultation based on familiar fields," change the previous situation in which teaching, research, and consultation work advanced separately and was divided by sectors, guide teachers to focus the direction of scientific research and decision-making consultation on the requirements of basic training and the central work of Party committees and governments, and form a virtuous cycle in which teaching raises topics, scientific research produces articles, consultation enters decision-making, and results enter the classroom.
Ensure projects are implemented and produce results. Approve 5 teaching-research-consultation integration projects each year, with topics covering multiple aspects such as research on the Party's innovative theories and local practice of Chinese modernization. Break down departmental barriers, remove disciplinary limitations, integrate teaching and research personnel across fields and disciplines to form research teams, enhance the depth of research, and expand the breadth of research. Set the project cycle at 2 to 3 years, encourage teaching and research personnel to settle down and conduct long-term research, and effectively improve the quality of outcomes in teaching, scientific research, and decision-making consultation.
Pool multi-party forces and stimulate the endogenous momentum of linkage in the integration of teaching, research, and consultation. Improve diversified coordination mechanisms, coordinate and pool forces from inside and outside the school, and inject strong momentum into the construction of the integration of teaching, research, and consultation.
Strengthen internal coordination and linkage. Integrate the expert pools for teaching, scientific research, and decision-making consultation to achieve resource sharing and complementary advantages; promote the model of forming teams for integrated projects across teaching, research, and consultation departments, with each project team including at least one young doctorate who has joined within 5 years, so that the experienced lead the new, forming a departmental coordination and joint tackling model.
Deepen two-way linkage between teachers and students. Adhere to the mutual improvement of teachers and students through teaching (教学相长, jiao xue xiang zhang - "teach, grow together; teach, mutual growth"), continuously improve the working mechanism for trainees' "two bringings," combine the leading role of teachers with the principal role of trainees, and turn the frontline demands of trainees into the "source of living water" for teaching, research, and consultation. At present, a number of common problems and urgent difficulties reflected by trainees have been effectively integrated into classroom teaching arrangements, scientific research topic tackling, and decision-making consultation outcomes.
Expand horizontal linkage between inside and outside. Strengthen cooperation with municipal departments directly under the city government, universities, research institutes, and key enterprises, innovate the joint tackling models of "department +," "university +," and "district + school," sign strategic cooperation agreements with Shandong University, Qingdao University of Technology, and others, and jointly carry out postdoctoral training; intensify research on horizontal topics, promote the sharing and exchange of research results, build cross-subject cooperation platforms, and enrich resources and broaden horizons for the integrated development of teaching, research, and consultation.
Adhere to quality leadership and forge high-quality outcomes of the integration of teaching, research, and consultation. Improve the whole-process management mechanism for teaching, research, and consultation, highlight the orientation toward excellence, and implement whole-process tracking, all-link polishing, and all-round quality improvement for the refinement of teaching topics, the tackling of scientific research topics, and the writing of consultation reports.
Deepen the cultivation of teaching outcomes. Continue to deepen classroom teaching reform, comprehensively promote interactive teaching methods, and since 2024 have cumulatively developed 13 types and 70 interactive teaching courses. Strictly implement the systems of open bidding for teaching topics, collective polishing, review of each draft, and evaluation of new course trial lectures, and promote teachers to deeply integrate the latest scientific research results and consultation accumulation into classroom teaching.
Ensure quality improvement of scientific research outcomes. Improve the "tutor system," with one policy for each person, team tackling, and collective polishing, and drive teaching and research personnel to comprehensively improve their overall scientific research literacy through the application for high-level topics. Since 2024, 76 projects at or above the provincial level have been approved, 7 papers have been published in CSSCI source journals, 34 papers have been published in the "five newspapers and one journal," and 13 books have been publicly published.
Focus on the refinement of consultation outcomes. Strengthen research on major practical issues, regularly organize topic selection planning, invite experts from inside and outside the school to strictly control the polishing of manuscripts, establish an external review system for consultation outcomes, and continuously improve the quality of consultation reports. Over the past two years, among the decision-making consultation reports of the school (academy) that received affirmative instructions from leaders, 25% have been adopted by relevant departments and entered decision-making.
Consolidate factor guarantees and build a solid foundation for the integrated development of teaching, research, and consultation. Deepen reform and innovation in the talent team and management services to better serve the integrated development of teaching, research, and consultation.
Strengthen talent guarantees. Issue the "Implementation Opinions on Further Strengthening the Construction of the Talent Team," comprehensively improve the whole-chain mechanism for talent cultivation, assessment and evaluation, innovation incentives, and growth empowerment, build an all-round growth platform for teaching, research, and consultation talents, and strive to forge a composite team of teaching, research, and consultation talents who are politically sound, skilled in teaching, good at research, and adept at consultation.
Improve assessment mechanisms. Highlight the goal orientation and performance orientation of talent cultivation and assessment incentives, and establish and improve a composite talent evaluation system centered on "teaching ability, scientific research level, and decision-making consultation contribution"; revise the "Implementation Measures for the Quantitative Assessment of Annual Business Objectives for Professional and Technical Personnel in Teaching and Research," improve the arrangements related to teaching, research, and consultation in the systems of professional title evaluation and appointment and employment period assessment, and strengthen incentives and constraints.
Strengthen financial support. Make special overall arrangements for the funds of teaching-research-consultation integration projects, improve the whole-process management of fund coordination, allocation, use, and supervision, improve the efficiency of fund use and management, and invest more limited funds in key areas and key links of teaching, scientific research, and decision-making consultation.
[The author is the vice president (vice dean) in charge of daily work of the Party School (Academy of Governance) of the Qingdao Municipal Party Committee]
Return to TopBy: 韦海坚 郑永丰
Party school teachers are a key force in the development of the Party school cause. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out at the 2015 National Party School Work Conference that "among all the wealth of the Party school, teachers and other talents of all kinds are the most precious wealth; among all the resources of the Party school, outstanding teachers and outstanding talents are the most urgently needed resources." The Party School (School of Administration) of the Party Committee of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region has conscientiously implemented General Secretary Xi Jinping's important expositions and important instructions and directives on Party school work, treating the reform of the post appointment system as the "key move" for stimulating the potential of the teaching faculty, promoting competitive appointment of teachers to posts, and providing solid guarantees for the high-quality development of the Party school cause.
Adhere to overall coordination and joint efforts to advance the reform of the post appointment system. Post appointment is a key link in the construction of the teaching faculty. We adhere to coordinated efforts, targeted efforts, and aligned efforts to solidly advance the reform of the post appointment system. First, adhere to coordinated efforts. Post appointment concerns the vital interests of the teaching faculty, involves a wide scope, and requires the active cooperation of multiple important functional departments. To strengthen overall coordination and pool reform forces, the school (academy) specially established a leading group for post setting management of public institutions, with an office under it responsible for advancing the reform of the post appointment system. Second, adhere to targeted efforts. In response to the problems existing in the original post appointment measures, opinions were solicited in three rounds, the reform priorities were clarified, and a new reform plan for the post appointment system was formed. Third, adhere to aligned efforts. Through multiple channels, we explained the reform plan, provided feedback and communication, clarified the reform orientation and the logic of indicator setting, strengthened publicity and interpretation, and consolidated consensus on the reform.
Adhere to highlighting the three combinations and establish an orientation toward practical work and actual results. We uphold the original aspiration of the Party school of "cultivating talents for the Party and offering counsel for the Party," and establish a clear orientation that values practical work and actual results. First, adhere to combining rigid standards with work performance. Academic qualifications, professional and technical post qualifications, and years of work are taken as hard requirements for post appointment, with key review of the quality of completion of target tasks and the degree of contribution to core business during the appointment period, so as to truly carry the orientation of "valuing actual performance and actual results" through the entire process of qualification review. Second, adhere to combining goal guidance with appointment period assessment. After teachers are competitively appointed to posts, the appointment conditions of the posts they hold are directly transformed into performance assessment goals for that appointment period, making the assessment goals a "compass" for teacher growth. Third, adhere to combining performance priority with quantitative evaluation. After the appointment period expires, with the actual work performance of the past three years of the appointment period as the fundamental basis, focusing on the three core dimensions of the degree of attainment of duty performance capability, the degree of completion of core tasks, and the effectiveness of work results, quantitative assessment and scoring are conducted on the three items of professional and technical post performance, business work, and administrative post performance, so as to accurately assess the actual contribution to the post. Among them, the weight of the professional and technical post performance item is 20%, the weight of the business work item is 76%, and the weight of the administrative post performance item is 4%. Grades are determined by performance, and promotion is determined by contribution.
Adhere to classification, stratification, and segmentation, and scientifically set differentiated assessment indicators. We focus on differentiated research and formulation of the assessment indicator system, build a multi-adaptive assessment yardstick, enhance the pertinence, precision, and fairness of assessment, and fully mobilize the enthusiasm, initiative, and creativity of the teaching faculty in undertaking work and starting businesses. First, adhere to classified assessment. According to post categories and post responsibilities, the teaching faculty is divided into teaching-oriented, research-oriented, and teaching-research-balanced types. For teaching-oriented teachers, the main assessment is of teaching evaluation scores in main training classes; for research-oriented teachers, the main assessment is of the publication of academic papers; for teaching-research-balanced teachers, the assessment focuses on achieving a balance between the two, setting reasonable dual goals for teaching and research, and changing the original measure's requirement that "the annual teaching and research workload must meet the basic standard" to "the annual teaching or research workload must meet the basic standard." Second, adhere to stratified assessment. According to the four levels of post professional titles, tiered assessment indicators are set: for senior-level posts, the assessment focuses on academic leadership and team cultivation; for associate senior-level posts, the assessment focuses on the creation of quality courses and the publication of academic papers in journals of Category C and above; for intermediate-level posts, the assessment focuses on course development and polishing and project application and cultivation; for junior-level posts, the assessment focuses on participation in teaching and research tasks. Third, adhere to segmented assessment. According to the development and growth trends of teachers, differentiated assessment indicators are set. For example, the fourth-level post requires that "for more than 25% of the courses taught, the teaching evaluation ranking must enter the top 50% of the class in which the course is taught," while the fifth-level post requires that "for more than 35% of the courses taught, the teaching evaluation ranking must enter the top 50% of the class in which the course is taught," using the conditions for appointment to higher posts as a lever to guide teachers to continuously improve their teaching level at key stages.
Adhere to promoting the ability to move up and down and stimulate the vitality of the teaching faculty. By formulating post appointment policies that allow "moving up and down," the "leveraging effect" of post appointment is fully brought into play. First, enrich the motivation for "moving up." On the one hand, raise the conditions for appointment to posts and the requirements of post responsibilities, especially raising the "quality" requirements for academic papers for third- and fourth-level posts; on the other hand, teachers with particularly outstanding moral character and ability and work performance may, after research by the school (academy) committee and reporting to the autonomous region human resources and social security department for filing and approval, participate in competitive appointment to posts on an exceptional basis. Second, strengthen the pressure for "moving down." The appointment of personnel to posts at the third level (inclusive) and below is determined according to the ranking of appointment period assessment and quantitative assessment results. Those whose ranking falls behind the quota of the corresponding post are appointed to the next lower-level post. Those whose annual assessment is determined to be at the basically qualified level may not be promoted in post level within the next assessment year; those determined to be at the unqualified level are adjusted to a lower post level; those determined to be at the unqualified level who do not agree to adjust their work post, or who are determined to be at the unqualified level for two consecutive years, may have their employment (appointment) contract terminated according to regulations. By enriching the motivation for "moving up" and strengthening the pressure for "moving down," the vitality for "doing" is further stimulated, forming a healthy atmosphere of competing and striving for excellence (比学赶超, bi xue gan chao - "compare, learn, rush, surpass"). In 2025, the school (academy) won 2 awards each for outstanding teaching achievement and outstanding scientific research achievement in the national Party school (school of administration) system, and the quality of teaching and scientific research work has greatly improved.
〔Author affiliation: Party School (School of Administration) of the Party Committee of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region〕
Return to TopBy: 李程
The Party School of the Henan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China earnestly studied and comprehended the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speech at the conference commemorating the 90th anniversary of the victory of the Long March of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army of China, deeply grasped the clear requirements of the "five musts" put forward by General Secretary Xi Jinping on carrying forward the great spirit of the Long March and taking the new Long March road well, based on Henan's endowment of red resources, integrated the carrying forward of the great spirit of the Long March into the entire process of running the school and governance, educated and guided the majority of Party members and cadres to adhere to the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, carry forward the great spirit of the Long March, bear history in mind, continue the struggle, and striving forward with perseverance (砥砺前行, di li qian xing - "grind and polish, move forward"), striving to create new brilliance on the new Long March road.
Use the great spirit of the Long March to forge souls and educate people. Henan is the starting point and an important place of fighting and marching of the Long March of the Red 25th Army, which set out northward from Hejiachong, Luoshan County, leaving behind on this hot land a profound historical record and spiritual wealth of the Long March. Relying on the "seven ones" working model of Party spirit education promoted throughout Henan Province, the education of the spiritual pedigree of Chinese Communists is carried through the entire process of Party spirit education, achieving a deep integration of spiritual inheritance and Party spirit tempering. Organize students of main training classes to enter the Dabie Mountains Red Education Base for on-site teaching, visit revolutionary relics such as the Memorial Hall of the First Capital of the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Soviet Area and the former site of the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Branch of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, connect the historical scenes of the Long March with the revolutionary course of the Dabie Mountains' "twenty-eight years of the red flag never falling," and through methods such as intensive classroom lectures, on-site research and study, scenario experiences, and video review, enable students to appreciate the lofty revolutionary spirit and firm revolutionary will of the Red Army soldiers and commanders in the process of treading on the red land. Relying on the characteristic courses of the Henan Dabie Mountains Cadre Academy, organize students of main training classes to participate in immersive courses such as the "Dabie Mountains in Song" music Party lecture and the "Red Dabie Mountains Spirit Passed Down Forever" interactive teaching, using forms such as ballad performances and cross-time-space scenario dialogues to improve teaching quality and effectiveness, so that the great spirit of the Long March reaches directly into the depths of students' thoughts.
Use the great spirit of the Long March to empower advisory and research work. Relying on the Henan Red Culture Research Center located at the Party School of the Henan Provincial Committee, focus on systematic research on the inheritance of Henan's red culture, publish monographs such as Passing on the Torch — Henan Practice of Inheriting Red Genes (薪火相传——传承红色基因的河南实践), and publish theoretical research articles in mainstream media such as "Exploring the Contemporary Connotation and Contemporary Value of the Long March Spirit" and "Drawing Strength from Red Culture." Relying on the internal publication platform Research and Suggestions, organize teaching and research personnel to conduct in-depth investigations around themes such as the revitalization of the old revolutionary base areas in the Dabie Mountains and the integrated development of red culture and tourism, clarify the internal connections among the protection and development of Long March historical resources, rural revitalization of old revolutionary base areas, and the construction of Party cadre Party spirit education bases, and form countermeasure suggestions that combine theoretical depth with practical pertinence.
Use the great spirit of the Long March to temper excellent work style. Incorporate the great spirit of the Long March into the ideological and political education content for faculty and staff, organize faculty and staff to go to the Dabie Mountains Red Education Base for study and training, make good use of carriers such as themed Party days, recitation of red classics, and special organizational life meetings, and effectively play the role of campus red cultural positions such as the school history museum, the red book bar, the red culture corridor, and the "Lianquan" (Honest Spring). Promote young teaching and research personnel to go down to the grassroots frontline for temporary posts, participate in practical work such as rural revitalization and grassroots governance, dig out red stories of old revolutionary base areas and grassroots governance cases, and transform frontline research results into classroom teaching cases. Strictly grasp the construction of academic style and school spirit, organize students to sign letters of commitment to strictly abide by discipline, integrate requirements such as firm conviction, seeking truth from facts, strict discipline, and hard struggle into the entire process of student management, and promote students to transform the carrying forward of the great spirit of the Long March into the ideological consciousness and action consciousness of improving work style.
(Author's affiliation: Party School of the Henan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China)
Return to TopBy: 李洁宇
The "Regulations on Cadre Education and Training Work" stipulate that cadre education and training institutions should take teaching as the center, deepen teaching reform, optimize the disciplinary structure, improve training content, scientifically set up training class categories and durations, refine curriculum design, innovate teaching methods, standardize the management of on-site teaching sites, and raise the level of teaching. In recent years, the Party School of the Hainan Provincial Committee of the CPC has implemented the requirements of the Regulations, strengthened teaching design, and carried out exploratory practice in such areas as improving teaching content, optimizing the allocation of teaching staff, innovating teaching methods, enriching teaching activities, and strengthening overall advancement, achieving notable results.
Improving teaching content. First, in accordance with the basic curriculum requirements issued by the Party School of the CPC Central Committee (National Academy of Governance), standardize the curriculum design for basic training class categories. Adhere to Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as the main theme and main line of teaching, improve the system of basic courses, with specific courses including "Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era Opens a New Realm of Sinicization and Modernization of Marxism," "Xi Jinping's Thought on Party Building," and "the holistic approach to national security." Through strengthening theoretical armament, temper the students' firm Party spirit. Second, centering on the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's series of important speeches and important instructions on Hainan's work, closely follow the practice of Chinese modernization in Hainan to offer courses, specifically including "Thoroughly Implementing the Party Central Committee's Decisions and Arrangements for Building the Hainan Free Trade Port and Advancing the High-Level Opening Up of the Hainan Free Trade Port" and "Exploring the Construction of a First-Class Customs Smart Supervision System Adapted to the Operation of Independent Customs Clearance," helping students consciously integrate the systems and policies related to the Free Trade Port with the actual work of their own fields and posts. Third, set up teaching units based on course arrangements, establishing regular units such as Party theory, Party spirit education, and improvement of performance capability, and creating characteristic units for the construction of the Hainan Free Trade Port.
Optimizing the allocation of teaching staff. Adhere to "inviting in," inviting teachers from the Party School of the CPC Central Committee (National Academy of Governance) to give lectures, broadening students' horizons and inspiring students' thinking. Launch the "Cultivating Talents for the Party" forum, inviting leaders from central ministries and commissions, leaders of the provincial Party committee and provincial government, principal responsible comrades of municipal and county Party committees and governments, and principal responsible comrades of provincial-level directly affiliated organs to lecture on the vivid practice of the Party's innovative theory, enhancing students' ability to use theory to guide practice. Invite leading cadres from departments related to Free Trade Port construction to interpret the latest progress and relevant policies of Free Trade Port construction, enhancing students' performance capability. Adhere to the integration of teaching and practice, smooth the channels connecting teaching with economic and social development practice, give play to the respective advantages of leading cadres and full-time teachers, let those familiar with policies interpret policies, let those who master theory explain theory, and enhance the practical effectiveness of Party school cadre education and training.
Innovating teaching methods. Comprehensively apply interactive teaching methods such as lecture-based, seminar-based, case-based, and experiential methods. Centering on themes such as the "45432" development framework proposed by the Hainan Provincial Party Committee, develop 22 interactive teaching courses, further improving the course structure and optimizing course resources. Develop on-site teaching sites, create high-quality on-site teaching routes, and incorporate key parks of the Hainan Free Trade Port and Party spirit education bases into the on-site teaching system. On-site teaching adopts the "one lesson, two lectures" method, arranging for staff at the teaching site to give exhibition introductions and for Party school teachers to provide theoretical summaries. Encourage "one lesson, multiple lectures," using different teaching methods for the same topic, promoting the case-ification of on-site teaching and the on-site-ification of case teaching. Open student classrooms, where students lead the courses, and instructors undertake the tasks of pre-class tutoring, in-class listening, and post-class commentary. Launch the forum on the mutual benefit of teaching and learning (教学相长, jiao xue xiang zhang - "teach, learn, mutually, grow"), organizing teachers and students to exchange ideas on the same stage and conduct in-depth exchanges of thoughts and viewpoints. Jointly with the Haikou Intermediate People's Court, carry out the practical teaching activity of "court sessions entering the Party school," effectively enhancing students' ability to solve problems using legal thinking and legal methods.
Enriching teaching activities. Enhance the appeal and influence of Party theory education, hold reading sharing sessions, guide students to study Marxist classic works, and improve theoretical literacy. Incorporate the special course on Xi Jinping's Thought on Party Building into the compulsory courses of all main class categories in the autumn semester of 2026. In the young and middle-aged cadre class, open student classrooms, student forums, and warning education, and organize students to go to Sansha to carry out study and research activities. To consolidate and expand the achievements of the study and education on establishing and practicing a correct view of political achievements, arrange a series of teaching activities in main class categories such as special topic teaching, report meetings by advanced model figures, and knowledge tests. In view of the characteristics of special seminar classes, which are highly professional and practical, implement a closed-loop teaching activity design, combining centralized lectures, on-site research, and experience sharing to comprehensively enhance students' performance capability. Arrange main class categories with a duration of three weeks or more to carry out off-site teaching, going to developed regions to learn from and draw on experience, and to exchange and discuss specific measures for promoting the province's high-quality development.
Strengthening overall advancement. The Provincial Party School adheres to the concept of "one chessboard for the whole province's Party schools, joint development of municipal and county Party schools," comprehensively improving the teaching design capability and level of the whole province's Party schools. Taking the "six overall coordinations" as the starting point, integrate the province's basic training tasks and school-running resources, coordinate functional layout, hardware construction, training tasks, scientific research and political consultation, teaching staff construction, and school-running support, and build an integrated school-running system. For provincial-level coordinated class categories, the Provincial Party School uniformly reviews and controls training arrangements and teaching design, ensuring the standardization of teaching design and the optimization of teaching effectiveness. The Provincial Party School guides municipal and county Party schools to set up special topic courses based on local characteristics, strengthen the construction of the teaching staff database and course database, and through optimizing teaching design, ensure that teaching links are closely connected, the teaching chain is complete and smooth, and teaching arrangements are standardized and orderly. The Provincial Party School coordinates the upgrading of on-site teaching sites of the whole province's Party schools, and on-site teaching sites of municipal and county Party schools that have passed the acceptance inspection of the Provincial Party School are incorporated into the main class categories and provincial-level coordinated class categories of the Provincial Party School, thereby forming an on-site teaching site system with unified dispatch and efficient use. (The author is the Director of the Academic Affairs Division of the Party School of the Hainan Provincial Committee of the CPC)
Return to TopBy: 黄鹂
In the middle section of Bayi Avenue in Nanchang City, Jiangxi Province, stands an important revolutionary site — the former site of Zhu De's Officer Training Corps. This site is one of five revolutionary sites affiliated with the Nanchang August 1 Uprising Memorial Hall, and is a national demonstration base for patriotic education and a national demonstration base for national defense education. As an important base where our Party carried out revolutionary activities in Nanchang in 1927, the Zhu De Officer Training Corps trained more than 1,000 military and political backbone cadres, most of whom participated in revolutionary struggles under the Party's leadership and played an important role in the Nanchang Uprising.
In the later period of the Northern Expedition, as the reactionary nature of the right wing of the Kuomintang was gradually exposed, Chinese Communists came to deeply realize the importance and urgency of rapidly training large numbers of military personnel. In January 1927, Zhu De, who had recently returned from studying abroad, was sent by the Central Military Commission of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China to work in Nanchang. At that time, the troops stationed in Jiangxi were those of Zhu Peide, a former classmate of Zhu De's from his days studying at the Yunnan Military Academy, who then served as Chairman of the Jiangxi Provincial Government of the Kuomintang and Commander-in-Chief of the Fifth Front Army. Zhu De seized on Zhu Peide's eagerness to expand his army and improve combat effectiveness, and suggested to him that an officer training corps be established — a suggestion that was adopted.
With strong support from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Zhu De used the former campus of the Jiangxi Military Academy as the school site, founded the Officer Training Corps of the Third Army of the National Revolutionary Army, and served as its commander. Although the Officer Training Corps was nominally subordinate to Zhu Peide's Third Army, it in fact accepted the leadership of the Military Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, becoming an important position for our Party to train military and political personnel.
In his early years, Zhu De participated in the Revolution of 1911 and engaged in revolutionary activities against imperialism and feudalism. In 1915, he participated in the National Protection War in Yunnan against Yuan Shikai's attempt to restore the monarchy, repeatedly distinguishing himself in battle and gaining high prestige in the Yunnan Army. After the Training Corps was founded, progressive young officers from various units of the Yunnan Army were in high spirits and full of enthusiasm (欢欣鼓舞, huan xin gu wu - "joyful, encourage, dance, cheer"), spreading the news to one another and rushing to apply to study at the school. Many progressive young people from all over Jiangxi also actively came to take the entrance examinations. In early 1927, the school formally began accepting trainees. In February of the same year, the Officer Training Corps, which had been founded only a little over a month, had already accepted more than 1,100 trainees. The entire corps was organized into 3 battalions. The First and Second Battalions had a total of more than 700 men, most of whose trainees came from officers at the platoon level and above in the Yunnan Army, and most of whom were children of workers and peasants who had risen through the ranks; the Third Battalion was a soldier-trainee battalion of more than 400 men, most of whom were determined young people selected from various localities who were resolved to devote themselves to the revolution. The mid- and lower-level officers and instructors in the Officer Training Corps, apart from those transferred from the Third Army, also included members of the original Twentieth Army inspection group who had come to Nanchang with Zhu De, as well as graduates of the Third Army Military and Political Training Class originally in Guangzhou. Before taking up their posts, they first underwent examinations, then were individually assessed on their ability to command troops in the field, and were then assigned company- or platoon-level positions according to their assessment results.
At that time, although the Communist Party organization in the Officer Training Corps was open, the Party members and their activities were of a secret nature. During the period of running the school, under the leadership of Chen Qihan (who was awarded the rank of full general after the founding of New China), the Party branch secretary, and others, Party organizations were rapidly and secretly established in each battalion and company of the Officer Training Corps, and progressive trainees were actively developed for Party membership. Initially, each company had only a few Communist Party members, but after several months of effort, by the end of the term, each company had grown to more than ten members, and in some companies the number of Communist Party members even reached one-third of the trainees. Trainees such as Zhao Rong (who was awarded the rank of lieutenant general after the founding of New China) joined the Communist Party of China during this period.
The Officer Training Corps placed great emphasis on the political education and military training of its trainees. At the beginning of the school's operation, Zhu De clearly stated: "Our school must be run for the revolution; we cannot follow old conventions. We must pay attention to the trainees' political progress and ideological transformation, so that the military knowledge they learn can serve the revolution." The initial teaching plan of the Officer Training Corps was based on old-style teaching concepts, being merely a cramming-style "three drills and two lectures," emphasizing "obedience." Zhu De believed that following old conventions in this way could not train talent for the revolution, and that only by raising the trainees' political quality could they put the military knowledge they learned at the service of the revolution. Therefore, he changed the "three drills and two lectures" to "three drills and four lectures," increasing the content of political courses. The political courses mainly taught the Chinese revolution question, the peasant question, the social question, and so on. In his teaching, Zhu De often cited Marxist viewpoints to analyze the stage the Chinese revolution was in and the situation it faced, educating trainees to both uphold the idea of a long-term revolution and maintain a strong will to devote their lives to the revolution. Zhu De not only emphasized political education, but also attached importance to practical education. During the period of running the school, Zhu De sent trainees to nearby counties to do mass work, carry out the workers' and peasants' movement, and help localities establish trade unions and peasant associations. In April 1927, in order to deter the right-wing forces of the Kuomintang, Zhu De also led some officers and men of the Officer Training Corps to the Linchuan area of Fuzhou to suppress bandits. These measures not only allowed the trainees to accumulate experience in revolutionary struggle, but also brought the officers and men closer to the peasants, laying a good mass foundation for the future development of the workers' and peasants' movement. At the same time, he also invited Guo Moruo, then Deputy Director of the General Political Department of the National Revolutionary Army, and the Communists Fang Zhimin, Shao Shiping, Zeng Tianyu, and others to give lectures. In military training, the Officer Training Corps used the "Infantry Drill Regulations" as its textbook, conducting strict training of the trainees, with particular emphasis on improving the trainees' physical fitness and the troops' combat effectiveness, and frequently conducting field exercises. During the teaching process, Zhu De was very concerned about the trainees, eating together with everyone in the big cafeteria. The Officer Training Corps implemented persuasion-based education, strictly prohibiting beatings and scolding, and officers and trainees were all equal. According to the recollection of Yang Xianpei, a trainee of the Training Corps, in his article "Commander-in-Chief Zhu and the Officer Training Corps": "He often explained current domestic and international events to us, enabling us to understand many questions and revolutionary principles. He was always giving earnest and patient instruction (谆谆教导, zhun zhun jiao dao - "earnest, earnest, teach, guide") to us to establish the idea of serving the people wholeheartedly and the determination to struggle for the revolution to the end, educating us not to care only about personal interests or personal promotion and wealth. Under the commander's enlightening education, the comrades' consciousness was greatly raised."
With the breakdown of the first Kuomintang-Communist cooperation, the Kuomintang reactionaries began a large-scale "Party Purification" movement. In June 1927, the situation after the April 12 counter-revolutionary coup became even more severe. When Zhu De learned the news that Zhu Peide was preparing to "politely see off Communist Party members from the territory, prohibit the workers' and peasants' movement, and declare martial law in Nanchang," he quickly had the trainees of the First and Second Battalions of the Officer Training Corps graduate early, leaving only the Third Battalion to remain in the corps to continue their studies. Apart from a small number who returned to their original units, the vast majority of the trainees of the First and Second Battalions were dispersed by Zhu De in a planned manner. They were assigned to counties along the Gan River basin, around Poyang Lake, and along the Nanxun Railway line to engage in trade union and peasant association work, and some trainees even served as leaders of workers' picket corps and peasant self-defense forces. Zhao Rong rushed to the front after the outbreak of the Nanchang Uprising, was incorporated into the Ninth Army led by Zhu De, and later fought with the army at Sanheba, participated in the Southern Hunan Uprising, and went up to Jinggangshan. Zhou Jianping, who transferred into the Officer Training Corps in the spring of 1927, during the Nanchang Uprising followed the Training Corps' orders to serve as a reserve force, responsible for monitoring and annihilating enemies near the garrison; in 1929 he was ordered to go to northeastern Jiangxi, where he built the Fujian-Zhejiang-Jiangxi revolutionary base together with Fang Zhimin, successively serving as commander of the Tenth Red Army and the Eleventh Red Army.
On August 1, 1927, the Nanchang Uprising broke out. Under Zhu De's leadership, approximately one battalion's worth of trainees from the Officer Training Corps, totaling more than 400 men, participated in the uprising. Because the Officer Training Corps had weak troop strength, poor weapons, and a shortage of ammunition, the trainees who participated in the uprising were arranged to serve as a reserve force, responsible for monitoring enemy forces in the directions of Jinxian Gate, Xiaohuayuan, and elsewhere, undertaking sentry and control-defense tasks, and coordinating with the main force in combat. Zhou Enlai once highly evaluated Zhu De's important contribution to the Nanchang Uprising, praising him as "a very good staff officer and guide," saying that "he found quarters for the uprising troops, associated with upper-level figures in the enemy army, grasped the enemy situation, and did a great deal of work for the smooth conduct of the uprising battle."
Although the Zhu De Officer Training Corps operated for only a short time, in the later period of the Great Revolution it trained a group of military and political personnel for the revolutionary struggle in Jiangxi and made important contributions to the Nanchang Uprising. Its practice in running the school also accumulated valuable experience for the Party's subsequent development of military education and training of revolutionary military and political backbone cadres.
Return to TopBy: 刘志刚
I came to Beijing upon graduating from university in 1985. My workplace stood across the road from the Summer Palace, and from the roof of the main building one could see the Tower of Buddhist Incense in the Summer Palace. At that time, when people asked where I worked, I would habitually say "in the western suburbs"; if asked further, I would say I was near the Summer Palace.
Back then, the Summer Palace was, to me, more of a geographical landmark than a beautiful garden. I truly stepped inside it on an afternoon in late autumn. That afternoon, an alumna of my colleague's visited, and the three of us accompanied her to the Summer Palace. We entered through the East Palace Gate, passed in front of the Hall of Benevolence and Longevity, and walked toward Kunming Lake. In late autumn, the waters of Kunming Lake were clear and blue-green; a gentle breeze brushed the surface, stirring layer upon layer of fine ripples. The three of us rented a small boat and slowly paddled toward the Seventeen-Arch Bridge. The oar rose and fell in my hands, and the sound of water and laughter softly interwove on the lake. That was my first time rowing a boat, and also my first time rowing on Kunming Lake; that feeling remains unforgettable to this day. When the boat reached the middle of the lake, I stopped rowing and looked back at Longevity Hill. The Tower of Buddhist Incense was gilded with a layer of gold in the slanting autumn sunlight, its glazed tiles gleaming. Its grand bearing and elegant antique charm left me feeling refreshed and joyful (心旷神怡, xin kuang shen yi - "heart, wide; spirit, joyful") and utterly immersed. Since that boating trip on the lake, the Summer Palace became my fixed destination for entertaining relatives and friends visiting Beijing. Thus, my acquaintance with the Summer Palace gradually deepened through these repeated "accompanying tours." Yet at different stages of my life, the way I spent time with the Summer Palace also quietly changed.
In my twenties, when I accompanied classmates and friends on tours of the Summer Palace, my steps were hurried, and it was a case of making a superficial scan of something (走马观花, zou ma guan hua - "walk, horse, observe, flower"); what I saw were sights, and what I remembered were fragments. At that time, the Summer Palace was, to me, more like a huge park than a garden bearing history and culture. We walked the Long Corridor, climbed Longevity Hill, looked at the Bronze Ox, and took souvenir photos in front of the Marble Boat. Along the way, what we looked at were the landscapes, and what we chatted about were old stories. After finishing the tour of the Summer Palace, we considered our duty as hosts fulfilled. Back then, my knowledge of the Summer Palace was limited to the route from the East Palace Gate to the Marble Boat, with the occasional climb up Longevity Hill, as if I were a hurried passerby. As for such scenic areas as the Rear Hill, the West Dike, and Suzhou Street, I had almost never set foot in them.
After I turned thirty, the Summer Palace became the back garden where I took my child for walks. On weekends, I would often push a stroller in through the East Palace Gate and walk along the Long Corridor to the front of the Hall of Dispelling Clouds, telling my child stories from the painted beams of the Long Corridor as we went—the Oath of the Peach Garden, Daiyu Burying Flowers, Nezha Conquering the Sea. Whether the child could understand or not, my wife and I would tell the stories to our hearts' content, and when we grew tired of walking we would sit down in the Long Corridor, gazing at the lake and mountain scenery and watching the crowds of tourists flocking to a place (游人如织, you ren ru zhi - "traveler, like, weaving"). In those days there was little snack food sold at the Summer Palace, so before every outing my wife would stuff a few snacks into the bag—a few biscuits or a few candies—to serve as emergency provisions in case the child grew impatient. When the child was a bit older, we would take her boating in summer and ice skating in winter. At that time, the Summer Palace was, to me, no longer merely a pleasing work of art, but also a paradise full of the flavor of life, and moreover a warm home accompanying our child's growth.
After I turned forty, with our child busy with schoolwork and ourselves busy with our careers, the Summer Palace gradually faded from our daily life. Especially after cars entered our household, our radius of travel suddenly expanded greatly, and naturally our weekend options multiplied. As a thousand-year-old capital, Beijing has simply too many places to go in its surroundings—the mountains of Huairou, the waters of Pinggu, the ice lanterns of Yanqing, the ski resorts of Miyun, and the country guesthouses scattered thickly like stars or chess pieces (星罗棋布, xing luo qi bu - "star, spread, chess, cloth") across the suburban countryside. Thus, the Summer Palace became an old neighbor both familiar and unfamiliar to us. When it occasionally came to mind, it was only for viewing the splendid magnolias in spring, admiring the delicate lotuses in summer, smelling the fragrant osmanthus in autumn, or seeking the cold-defying wintersweet in winter. In those years, the Summer Palace was, to me, more like an old friend long unseen—I knew it was always there, yet I rarely had the inclination to pay it a visit.
After I turned fifty, our child grew to adulthood and went far away to study in another place. The Summer Palace returned to the lives of my wife and me, and we often strolled through every corner of it. But at this time, the Summer Palace took on a new appearance in my eyes. When I was young, I saw it as a work of art, as scenery; in middle age, I saw it as the backdrop of life, a good companion in raising our child; and now, looking at it again, it had gained an added layer of the sedimentation of the years and the flavor of life itself. Entering through the North Ruyi Gate allows one to avoid the crowding of the crowds, and amid the mountains and waters, at a winding path leading to a secluded spot (曲径通幽, qu jing tong you - "winding, path, connect, secluded"), one can seek a corner where one's thoughts may be set down. Although I often paused to rest, there was still a hint of haste in my steps. At that time, my mind still carried many thoughts about work matters; though my feet had stepped into the garden, my heart remained outside it.
The rapid passage of time (时光荏苒, shi guang ren ran - "time, light, run, run")—in the blink of an eye, I had reached the age of sixty. After retirement, there was no longer the busy routine of nine-to-five, and time became abundant. When I went to the Summer Palace again, I often went alone, wandering wherever my heart led and stopping wherever something pleased my eye. Since my residence was closest to the North Palace Gate, I would enter through the North Palace Gate and walk slowly along the path behind the hill. Beneath my feet was a path paved with bluestone slabs, flanked by ancient trees towering to the sky, their dense shade blocking out the sun. Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the branches and leaves, falling in dappled patches on the bluestone slabs, as if someone had casually scattered a handful of crushed gold. I often slowed my steps and carefully observed the changes in the Summer Palace. There were more tourists than before—people of different skin colors, speaking various languages and accents, crowded with people brushing shoulders and stepping on heels (摩肩接踵, mo jian jie zhong - "rub, shoulder, connect, heel"), coming and going, adding a touch of international atmosphere to this ancient imperial garden. I noticed that the clamor of mixed dialects, the bustling with crowds and noise (熙熙攘攘, xi xi rang rang - "noisy, noisy") figures, the faces posing for photos in every posture, and especially those elderly tourists from other parts of the country, with their expressions as they listened to tour guides through earphones, all seemed to have become an indispensable human landscape of the Summer Palace. Seeing this, I could not help but feel a surge of reverie and emotion in my heart. The Summer Palace was first built in 1750, originally named the Garden of Clear Ripples, constructed for the Qianlong Emperor; it was later burned down by the Anglo-French allied forces in 1860, and during the Guangxu reign it was rebuilt and renamed the Summer Palace. Counting from its renaming as the Summer Palace in 1888, it has been 138 years to this day. One hundred and thirty-eight years of time, for this garden, amount to no more than trees adding ring upon ring to their growth and corridor pillars gaining a few more cracks. The mountains, waters, and pavilions, having weathered a hundred years of wind and rain and witnessed the rise and fall of eras, still largely maintain their original appearance, and this imperial garden has at last opened to ordinary people—this is the progress of the times, and also the inevitability of history.
Today, the Summer Palace has transformed from the back garden of Beijingers into the reception hall of the whole nation, and has even become a window through which visitors from all countries come to know China—and moreover an important stage for us to tell China's story well. In the past I looked at things; now I look at people. Watching the faces from all corners of the country (天南海北, tian nan di bei - "sky, south, earth, north"), watching people in clothing of every color, watching the great variety of postures and forms (千姿百态, qian zi bai tai - "thousand, posture, hundred, form") they leave behind in the ancient garden—this, too, has its own special charm.
On Kunming Lake in autumn, the lake surface shimmers with rippling light, and the willow strands on the West Dike sway gently in the autumn breeze. I walked slowly along the West Dike, letting the autumn sunlight fall across my shoulders, savoring this rare time and warmth to the fullest. Gazing at Longevity Hill across the lake, I saw the Tower of Buddhist Incense standing tall and majestic. The Seventeen-Arch Bridge lay across the blue waves like a long dragon resting on the water, and the bridge arches and their reflections in the water changed in a thousand ways, forming a series of flowing ink-wash paintings. A few pleasure boats glided slowly across the lake surface, and only the wild ducks by the shore before my eyes seemed to be greeting me. The philosophy and artistic conception contained in the saying "See a mountain as a mountain, see a mountain as not a mountain, see a mountain as a mountain again" unexpectedly took on new meaning in my heart at this moment.
Return to TopBy: 邱诗越
"All-under-Heaven" (tianxia) is an important concept in Chinese culture. It not only carries geographical and territorial connotations, but also bears a cultural system embodying order, values, and identity, constituting a unique spiritual horizon of the Chinese people. The Book of Songs (Shijing), the earliest collection of poetry in China, records the early form of this concept, providing an important textual basis for our exploration of the view of All-under-Heaven in traditional Chinese culture.
"Under the vast heaven, there is no land that is not the king's; along the shores of all the land, there are none who are not the king's subjects." This timeless lament from "Xiaoya · Beishan" depicts the picture of All-under-Heaven in the conception of the Zhou people approximately 3,000 years ago. The view of All-under-Heaven presented in the Book of Songs is not a purely geographical understanding, but rather an overall perspective concerning territory, politics, ethics, and culture. This concept profoundly influenced the political ideas, social ideals, and spiritual temperament of traditional Chinese society for several thousand years thereafter.
The "Shang Song · Xuanniao" states, "The royal domain extends a thousand li, where the people dwell. The borders reach to the four seas, and from the four seas they come, they come in great numbers." The verses both proclaim the royal domain and bear a spatial imagination and cultural identity: the royal capital sits at the center, ritual order extends outward layer by layer, reaching to the four extremities and the eight wilds. In the conception of the Zhou people, "All-under-Heaven" was not a simple coexistence of many states, but rather a holistic space with a center to rely upon, boundaries to follow, order to uphold, and belonging to which one is tied. Though the territory is vast, it ultimately returns to unity; though the people are many, they all belong to one domain.
The Book of Songs repeatedly features images such as "the four directions," "the four states," and "the ten thousand states," which together constitute the Zhou people's imagination of All-under-Heaven. The "Daya · Minlao" states: "Be gracious to this central state, to bring peace to the four directions." In the poem, "central state" and "four directions" are set in parallel, both marking spatial boundaries and reflecting their intrinsic connection. Maintaining the tranquility of the four directions through the stability of the central region reflects a spatial consciousness that regards All-under-Heaven as one body, bearing the political ideal of cultivating oneself to bring peace to others and returning All-under-Heaven to benevolence. With vivid and resolute language, the Book of Songs condenses scattered spatial imaginings into a shared recognition of All-under-Heaven as one: within heaven and earth, though there are distinctions of near and far, of noble and base, and though many differences coexist, all things and all people belong to a single order and dwell together within one complete All-under-Heaven. This holistic spatial consciousness constitutes an important intellectual source of the later concept of "great unity" (dayitong).
Relying on concrete political practice, the Zhou people transformed the abstract concept of All-under-Heaven into a real political order. The "Daya · Jianghan" records: "Open up the four directions, delimit our territories." The "Daya · Songgao" records: "The king commanded the Earl of Shao to settle the residence of the Earl of Shen." Expanding territory and consolidating borders (开疆拓土, kai jiang tuo tu - "open, frontier, expand, territory"), enfeoffing feudal lords to secure the foundations, and building capitals to fix the boundaries of the fiefs. The Book of Songs preserves history through poetry, recording the grand vision of the Zhou people in constructing All-under-Heaven. The evolution of terms such as "four directions" and "All-under-Heaven" is not merely a change in the connotation of words, but also a conceptual witness and historical memory of early Huaxia moving from a multiplicity of states toward unified order.
The view of All-under-Heaven in the Book of Songs reflects the ancient Chinese idea that virtue is the source of the legitimacy of royal power. The "Daya · Wenwang" records: "The lords served Zhou, but the Mandate of Heaven is not constant." The poem takes the succession of Shang by Zhou as an example, explaining that the Mandate of Heaven is inconstant and may shift, admonishing rulers to respect heaven and follow the customs of ancestors (敬天法祖, jing tian fa zu - "respect, heaven, follow, ancestor") and to be using the Yin dynasty as a warning or example (以殷为鉴, yi yin wei jian - "use, Yin, as, mirror"). The "Daya · Huangyi" states: "Great is God on high, looking down with awe, surveying the four directions, seeking the peace of the people." Heaven looks down upon the four directions, perceives all the people, and judges the wisdom or folly of rulers and the order or chaos of All-under-Heaven not by the strength of power, but by whether one can bring stability to the people and cultivate virtue and self-discipline. In the conception of the Zhou people, only by esteeming virtue, upholding ritual, and showing compassion for the people could a ruler receive the Mandate of Heaven and bring peace to All-under-Heaven. The Book of Songs repeatedly praises King Wen and King Wu, citing "cultivating one's virtue diligently," and proposes that one who governs All-under-Heaven must first cultivate himself, and one who brings peace to All-under-Heaven must first show compassion for the people. The stability of All-under-Heaven lies not in strong military preparedness, but in deep virtue; the legitimacy of royal power does not rely on formidable force, but is rooted in the upholding of virtue and the direction of the people's hearts. Cultivate virtue, and the Mandate of Heaven attaches itself and All-under-Heaven is at peace; lose virtue, and the Mandate of Heaven shifts and All-under-Heaven falls into disorder. This understanding established virtue as the core of maintaining the order of All-under-Heaven, thereby forming the thought of matching virtue with Heaven and revering virtue to protect the people, which exerted a profound influence on later generations.
In the intellectual horizon of the Book of Songs, "All-under-Heaven" is also a unity of human ethical order and natural law. The "Daya · Zhengmin" states: "Heaven gave birth to the multitudes, and all things have their principles." Heaven nurtures and gives life to all the people, and all things in the world have their intrinsic laws. The mission of the ruler lies in following the Way of Heaven, responding to the hearts of the people, and observing the laws and measures, so that all the people of All-under-Heaven are settled in their proper places and each obtains what is due to them.
Ritual and music, poetry and education, are the civilizational foundations upon which the order of All-under-Heaven depends for its maintenance. The Western Zhou relied on poetry education and the cultivation of ritual and music to dissolve cultural barriers among the various states and tribes, to consolidate consensus, and to shape cultural identity. The "Lu Song · Bigong" uses "none did not follow in submission" to refer to surrounding ethnic groups, and further uses the four characters "Huaiyi lai tong" (the Huai peoples came to unite) to make the essential point clear. "Lai tong" (coming to unite) means voluntary submission and acceptance of a common order and civilization, not subjugation under military coercion. The "Daya · Shengmin" uses the achievements of Houji, the ancestor of the Zhou people, to consolidate the bloodline memory of the clan; the "Xiaoya · Luming" uses the refined music of "strumming the zither and blowing the sheng" to foster friendship in interstate relations. The various pieces of the Airs, the Odes, and the Hymns, some originating from the royal capital, some collected from distant places, differ in form and vary in tone, yet together they bear a shared spirit of ritual and music and a common set of values and ideals.
The imagination of All-under-Heaven presented in the Book of Songs reflects the self-understanding and view of All-under-Heaven of the early Huaxia ancestors approximately 3,000 years ago. The concepts of All-under-Heaven contained therein — returning All-under-Heaven to benevolence, matching virtue with Heaven, and revering virtue to protect the people — hold important enlightening significance for later generations.
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