Decision of the CPC Central Committee on Several Major Issues Concerning Persevering in Advancing Full and Rigorous Party Self-Governance

CCTV.com News (Xinwen Lianbo):

Decision of the CPC Central Committee on Several Major Issues Concerning Persevering in Advancing Full and Rigorous Party Self-Governance

(Adopted at the Fifth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on October 29, 2026)

The Fifth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China summarized the great achievements and valuable experience of full and rigorous Party self-governance in the new era, analyzed the circumstances and tasks facing the management and governance of the Party and its strengthening in the current and coming period, and makes the following decision on several major issues concerning persevering in advancing full and rigorous Party self-governance.

I. The importance and urgency of persevering in advancing full and rigorous Party self-governance and the overall requirements

(1) The Communist Party of China was born for the people and has prospered because of the people. It was founded when the Chinese nation faced peril and grew and strengthened in the historical struggle to achieve the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. It united and led the people of all ethnic groups throughout the country in creating the great achievements of the New Democratic Revolution, the socialist revolution and construction, reform and opening up and socialist modernization, and socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era. It has written the most magnificent epic in the several-thousand-year history of the Chinese nation and shown the world the image of a Marxist party that is firmly confident and strong and powerful.

The Communist Party of China has been able to go from victory to victory because it has embraced the lofty ideal of communism, resolved to pursue the enduring cause of the Chinese nation, and persisted in seeking happiness for the Chinese people and rejuvenation for the Chinese nation. In every historical period it has attached great importance to managing and governing the Party, had the courage to uphold truth and correct errors, and continually grown stronger by relying on its own strength and the people’s support to solve its own problems, becoming the strong leadership core of the cause of the Party and the people. During revolution, construction, and reform, Party building was successively called a great project and a great new project. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the Party has advanced in depth the great new project of Party building in the new era and found the two answers to escaping the historical cycle of rise and fall: “Let the people supervise the government” and “self-reform.” This is a unique creation of the Communist Party of China and will be recorded forever in the history of building Marxist parties.

(2) After the 18th CPC National Congress, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core faced with immense political courage and a strong sense of responsibility the grave reality that, for a time, Party leadership had been weakened, hollowed out, and diluted; Party management and governance had not been strict, substantive, or forceful; and some problems within the Party were shocking. It resolutely pursued full and rigorous Party self-governance, turned the blade inward, used powerful measures to restore order, and continuously addressed prominent problems. It fundamentally reversed the lax, loose, and soft state of Party management and governance, halted some unhealthy practices that had long gone unchecked, corrected stubborn ailments that had persisted for years, eliminated serious hidden dangers within the Party, the state, and the military, and made the Party stronger and more powerful through revolutionary tempering. The Party’s overall leadership and the CPC Central Committee’s centralized, unified leadership have been significantly strengthened, the Party’s unity has been further consolidated, and the hearts of the Party, the military, and the people have been closely united; the adaptation of Marxism to the Chinese context and the needs of the times has achieved a new leap, theoretical education throughout the Party has continued to deepen, and the whole Party’s grasp of Marxism has further improved; the Party’s organizational line for the new era has been forcefully implemented, the functions of Party organizations at all levels and the overall caliber of Party members and officials have improved, and the Party’s organizational strengths have been fully demonstrated; the Central Committee’s Eight-Point Regulations have demonstrated their iron discipline, the correction of the “four forms of misconduct” and cultivation of new practices have advanced step by step, and Party and government conduct and social morals have taken on a new look; discipline building has advanced solidly, discipline and rules have become stricter, and their educational and constraining as well as safeguarding and incentivizing roles have grown stronger; the anti-corruption struggle has been unprecedented in intensity and its results are there for all to see, and a path of anti-corruption with Chinese characteristics has been successfully developed; the system of intra-Party regulations has become more complete, the authority of institutions and their implementation have been tangibly strengthened, and Party management and governance have become markedly more scientific, institutionalized, and standardized; and Party organizations at all levels have grown more conscious of their responsibility to manage and govern the Party, effectively fulfilled their responsibilities, and built a joint effort linking top and bottom. Full and rigorous Party self-governance in the new era has opened up a new realm in the self-reform of a century-old party, driven historic achievements and changes in the cause of the Party and the country, and enabled the Party and the people to gain the historical initiative in building a strong Party and a strong country.

The great achievements in managing and governing the Party and strengthening it in the new era, and the creation of a new situation in the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics, are fundamentally due to the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core steering the course and to the scientific guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. Establishing Comrade Xi Jinping as the core of the CPC Central Committee and of the whole Party, and establishing the guiding position of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, are major political achievements made by the Party in the new era. They are of decisive significance for the development of the cause of the Party and the country in the new era and for advancing the historical process of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

In the great practice of managing and governing the Party and strengthening it in the new era, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has, in response to the major question of our times—what kind of Marxist ruling party that governs for the long term should be built, and how it should be built—put forward a series of new concepts, ideas, and strategies, forming Xi Jinping’s Party-building thought. This thought enriches and develops the Marxist theory of Party building. It is a major achievement in advancing theoretical innovation within the Party by combining the basic tenets of Marxism with China’s specific realities and with China’s fine traditional culture. It is a crystallization of the practical experience and collective wisdom of the Party and the people, and an important component of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. It provides a fundamental guide and action guide for advancing in depth the great new project of Party building in the new era.

(3) Full and rigorous Party self-governance is always underway. Through long-term efforts, particularly the tenacious struggle in the new era, China’s economic, scientific and technological, national defense, and overall national strength and international influence have risen significantly; modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity has markedly improved; people of all ethnic groups throughout the country have become more confident, self-reliant, and strong; building a great modern socialist country has a more solid material foundation, more complete institutional safeguards, and more proactive spiritual strength; and managing and governing the Party and strengthening it have gathered powerful positive energy. Full and rigorous Party self-governance also has many favorable conditions. At the same time, we must clearly recognize that, as the international, national, and Party situations undergo profound changes, full and rigorous Party self-governance also faces many new circumstances and problems.

Internationally, the great changes unseen in a century are accelerating, a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation is making rapid breakthroughs, the Global South is rising as a group, and the balance of international power is undergoing profound adjustments. Unilateralism and protectionism are intensifying, threats from hegemonism and power politics are rising, geopolitical conflicts and local wars continue, the world economy lacks growth momentum, and global challenges are arriving one after another. The world has entered a new period of turbulence and change, and uncertain and unpredictable factors in the external environment are increasing. The Party faces more arduous tasks in uniting and leading the people to safeguard national sovereignty, security, and development interests.

Domestically, China’s development has entered a crucial period for laying a solid foundation and making an all-out effort to basically realize socialist modernization. Problems of imbalanced and inadequate development remain prominent; population structures, social groups, and patterns of interests continue to change; and digital, networked, and intelligent development is advancing rapidly. Social production and lifestyles and forms of organization have become more diverse, while various ideas and values intermingle and collide. We face many new issues in further deepening reform across the board, promoting high-quality development, strengthening social development and governance, coordinating development and security, and stimulating and enhancing social vitality. The Party faces more arduous tasks in uniting and leading the people to advance reform and development and safeguard social harmony and stability.

Within the Party, its membership has changed structurally. The proportion of Party members and officials born after reform and opening up has continued to rise, bringing new requirements for education and management. The mainstream of the Party is good, but problems of impure thinking, organization, and conduct have not yet been fundamentally resolved. Some Party members and officials lack the quality and capabilities required by the times. A small number, including senior officials, have weak Party spirit; their ideals and convictions have wavered or even disappeared; their ties with the people are weak; their views of performance are skewed; formalism, bureaucratism, hedonism, and extravagance are serious; they lack a fighting spirit, fail to take responsibility or act, disregard discipline and rules, and even abuse power for personal gain and become corrupt and degenerate. Some primary-level Party organizations have weak political and organizational functions or are even weak and lax. In some fields, especially emerging fields, the Party’s organizational and work coverage is not comprehensive or effective enough. Some Party organizations and leading officials do not adequately understand their responsibility to manage and govern the Party, fail to fulfill their responsibilities, do not do their work effectively, or do not strictly implement institutions; they cannot promptly identify and effectively solve prominent problems and even allow unhealthy practices to grow and spread. The task of maintaining the Party’s advanced nature and purity has become more arduous.

These new circumstances and problems pose major challenges to the Party’s governing capacity, leadership, the quality of its ranks, and its ability to resist corruption and prevent degeneration under new conditions. The tests of governance, reform and opening up, the market economy, and the external environment, as well as the dangers of slackening morale, insufficient ability, becoming detached from the people, and negative corruption, are long-term, complex, and grave. Solving the unique challenges faced by a large party requires even more arduous effort. The longer the Party governs, the longer peace and stability endure, and the more complex the environment becomes, the more it must strengthen its sense of hardship and remain vigilant in times of peace, and build itself well and strong.

The whole Party must, from the strategic perspective of consolidating the Party’s long-term governing position and achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, deeply understand the major significance of persevering in advancing full and rigorous Party self-governance, remain confident and steadfast, and uphold and apply the valuable experience of full and rigorous Party self-governance in the new era with higher standards and more practical measures. It must address and solve the prominent problems facing Party building and consolidate and develop the favorable political situation created by managing and governing the Party.

(4) The guiding thought for persevering in advancing full and rigorous Party self-governance is as follows: uphold Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, the important thought of the “Three Represents,” and the Scientific Outlook on Development; fully implement Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era; study and implement Xi Jinping’s Party-building thought in depth; focus on fulfilling the Party’s mission and tasks; implement the general requirements for Party building in the new era; take the Party Constitution as the fundamental standard; uphold the Party’s vanguard nature; uphold the Party’s overall leadership and the centralized, unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee; focus on improving the Party’s capacity to govern for the long term, maintaining its advanced nature and purity, and maintaining its close ties with the people; remain unwavering in a strict tone; improve the system of full and rigorous Party self-governance; take political building as the overall lead; advance all aspects of Party building in every respect; fully stimulate the whole Party’s enthusiasm, initiative, and creativity; continually achieve the Party’s self-purification, self-improvement, self-renewal, and self-enhancement; continually strengthen its political leadership, ideological guidance, organization of the masses, and social appeal; and ensure that the Party remains a Marxist ruling party that always moves at the forefront of the times, enjoys the people’s wholehearted support, withstands all kinds of tests and storms, and is full of vitality, and remains the strong leadership core of the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

(5) Persevering in advancing full and rigorous Party self-governance must follow these principles.

— Uphold service to the mission and tasks. Remain true to the original aspiration and keep the mission firmly in mind. Plan and advance Party building from the perspective of upholding and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics as a whole, closely integrate Party building with the cause of the Party and the country, and ensure that it always revolves around the central task and serves the overall interests.

— Uphold political building as the overall lead. Uphold and strengthen the centralized, unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee; ensure that all aspects of Party building maintain the correct political direction and implement political requirements; improve the political capabilities of Party organizations at all levels and of Party members and officials; ensure that the whole Party maintains a high degree of unity with the CPC Central Committee; and consolidate the Party’s unity.

— Uphold full rigor. Strengthen systems thinking and reflect a strict tone, strict measures, and a strict atmosphere in all aspects and throughout the entire process of Party building, ensuring genuine, courageous, and long-term strict management.

— Uphold a problem-oriented approach. Make solving prominent problems within the Party a focus, do not avoid conflicts or conceal shortcomings, and improve work in the course of correcting deviations, restoring order, and promoting what is healthy.

— Uphold fundamentals while innovating. Uphold the Party’s basic theory, line, and strategy; follow the laws governing the building of a Marxist ruling party; draw on the Party’s historical experience in Party building; and continually put forward new measures and methods as circumstances and tasks develop and change.

— Uphold leading by example from the top down. Start with the CPC Central Committee and apply strict standards to leading organs and officials. Each level should set an example for the level below and lead it in action, with the “key minority” setting an example for the “overwhelming majority.”

— Uphold governance of the Party in accordance with regulations. Integrate institutional development throughout the process, emphasize managing power, affairs, and people through institutions, and strictly implement the Party Constitution and Party regulations and discipline. Use a complete, scientific, standardized, and effective system of intra-Party regulations to enhance work effectiveness.

These principles are a scientific summary of the experience of full and rigorous Party self-governance in the new era. They must be upheld over the long term and continually enriched and developed.

II. Strengthening Communists’ Party spirit

Strengthening Party spirit is a fundamental task of full and rigorous Party self-governance. We must guide all Party members and officials to uphold the Party’s nature and purpose, strengthen their awareness of the Party, of their membership, and of its vanguard nature, and treat the cultivation of Party spirit as a lifelong task. They should make efforts to strengthen their ideals and convictions, forge loyalty to the Party, deepen their feelings for the people, uphold seeking truth from facts, maintain moral integrity, and remain honest and clean, so that they are loyal, clean, and responsible and always preserve the political character of Communists.

(1) Strengthen education in loyalty to the Party. Give loyalty to the Party a prominent place in the cultivation of Party spirit. Educate and guide Party members and officials to deeply understand the decisive significance of the “Two Establishes,” strengthen their political awareness, overall-picture awareness, core awareness, and alignment awareness, strengthen confidence in the path, theory, system, and culture, firmly safeguard Comrade Xi Jinping’s status as the core of the CPC Central Committee and the whole Party, firmly safeguard the authority of the CPC Central Committee and its centralized, unified leadership, and always maintain a high degree of unity with the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core in thought, politics, and action. Educate and guide Party members and officials to strengthen their faith in Marxism, their conviction in communism, and their confidence in socialism with Chinese characteristics, with devotion and perseverance and deep, unwavering belief. Educate and guide them to improve their political judgment, political comprehension, and political implementation; consciously align their thinking with the CPC Central Committee’s analysis and judgment of circumstances and tasks; implement its decisions and arrangements without deviation; and resolutely struggle against all words and actions that deny Party leadership or the socialist system with Chinese characteristics, violate the Party’s theory, line, principles, or policies, or endanger national unity and ethnic solidarity. Educate and guide them to love the Party, speak for the Party, worry about the Party, and work for the Party; trust, rely on, and obey the organization; consciously accept organizational management and supervision; speak honestly, act honestly, and be honest people; and be open, upright, and consistent in word and deed. Educate and guide them to put the people first and the cause first, work actively for the Party and the people, love their posts, and be willing to make sacrifices.

Enforce the Party’s political discipline and political rules and purify its political environment. It is absolutely impermissible to engage in any of the “seven instances”: appointing people on the basis of personal ties and excluding those outside one’s circle; forming cliques and factions; making anonymous false accusations and spreading rumors; buying people’s favor and soliciting votes; promising official posts and celebrating one another’s promotions; acting arbitrarily and paying lip service while acting otherwise; or allowing entrenched power to become uncontrollable and wantonly criticizing the central authorities. Firmly oppose liberalism in thought, political opportunism, factionalism in organization, departmentalism in work, and the “good person” mentality in fulfilling responsibilities. Accurately identify and resolutely eliminate two-faced people.

(2) Uphold the use of the Party’s innovative theory to unite minds and forge the soul. Strengthen the building of a Marxist learning-oriented party, make studying, understanding, and applying the Party’s innovative theory the fundamental way to cultivate Party spirit, and guide the whole Party to unify its thinking, will, and action through Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. Study and implement Xi Jinping’s Party-building thought in depth. Enrich methods of theoretical study and education, give the Party’s innovative theory a prominent place as a core subject in the education and training of Party members and officials, and guide them to read original works, study original texts, and grasp original principles; understand the positions, viewpoints, and methods running through them and the outlook and sentiments they contain; and transform their subjective world while transforming the objective world, thereby consolidating their ideals, tempering their political character, and resolving the fundamental questions of their worldview, outlook on life, and values. Promote a Marxist style of study, encourage Party members and officials to connect theory with the realities of their region, department, and organization and with their own thinking and work, deepen their study of theory, and use the Party’s innovative theory to analyze and solve practical problems, achieving integration of study, thought, and application and unity of knowledge, belief, and action. Senior Party officials must hold themselves to the standards of Marxist statesmen, believe in the Party’s innovative theory throughout their lives, master it skillfully, and be good at applying it. Uphold and improve the “first agenda item” system. Improve the quality of study by theoretical study groups of Party committees (leading Party members groups) and by primary-level Party organizations. Innovate in implementing the Marxist theory research and development project and deepen systematic and academic research and interpretation of the Party’s innovative theory. Strengthen the disciplines of Party history and Party building.

(3) Nurture Party spirit with the Party’s fine traditions and fine traditional Chinese culture. Deepen education in Party history, the history of New China, the history of reform and opening up, and the history of socialist development. Carry forward the spiritual lineage of Chinese Communists, whose source is the great founding spirit of the Party, and guide Party members and officials to deeply appreciate the major achievements and historical experience of the Party’s century of struggle, develop its fine conduct, pass on the red gene, continue the spiritual lifeblood of Communists, and uphold Communist values. Explore and make good use of moral concepts in fine traditional Chinese culture, including loyalty and trustworthiness, valuing integrity, understanding shame, maintaining caution, and self-reflection. Deepen education in officials’ moral conduct and guide Party members and officials to uphold the great virtues, public virtues, and private morality; cultivate a sense of family and country; and nurture noble integrity, so they can withstand tests of power, money, and beauty. Guide Party members and officials to take the lead in reading and learning. Strengthen and improve ideological and political work under new conditions and enhance its relevance and effectiveness. Strengthen education and publicity on Party spirit. Give Party schools (administrative colleges) and cadre colleges an important role in education on Party spirit and improve their curricula.

(4) Temper Party spirit through practice. Encourage Party members and officials to temper their Party spirit while implementing the CPC Central Committee’s decisions and arrangements, completing urgent, difficult, dangerous, and important tasks, and responding to major storms and tests; and to hone it while handling relationships between right and wrong, public and private, gain and loss, and other matters. Give full play to intra-Party political life as a “great furnace” for tempering Party spirit, implement the norms for intra-Party political life, make good use of criticism and self-criticism, and strengthen the political character, relevance to the times, principled nature, and combative character of intra-Party political life. Enrich the content and form of Party organizational life and improve the quality of democratic meetings and organizational meetings, Party branch member meetings, Party branch committee meetings, Party group meetings, Party lectures, thematic Party days, and other activities. Strictly implement the rules requiring leading Party members and officials to take part in organizational life in both their Party branch and leadership roles. Have the courage to expose and correct shortcomings and errors, stand up to all unhealthy phenomena, and oppose protecting oneself and acting as a “good person.” Uphold unity on the basis of Party principles and guard against harmony without principle. Bring the exemplary role of advanced models into play and guide Party members and officials to emulate the best and strive for excellence. Encourage them to strengthen analysis of their Party spirit and regularly reflect on themselves against the Party Constitution, Party regulations, discipline, and the oath of membership, continually removing dust, impurities, and viruses and strengthening immunity. Combine centralized education with regular education and focus on resolving prominent problems related to Party spirit.

(5) Strengthen assessment of Party spirit. Make Party spirit an important part of assessing officials and conducting democratic evaluations of Party members, with a focus on understanding and evaluating their vision, integrity, and loyalty. Improve communication mechanisms between organizational departments and discipline inspection and supervision organs, inspection and patrol bodies, auditing departments, petition departments, and other units, and conduct comprehensive assessments of the Party spirit of leading body members, officials proposed for promotion, young officials, and others. Identify Party spirit through conduct in responding to challenges, resisting risks, overcoming difficulties, and resolving conflicts; assess it through everyday work, personal words and actions, social interactions, and family education and conduct; and understand it through assessments by superiors, mutual evaluations by colleagues, feedback from subordinates, and their reputation among the people. Make good use of Party-spirit assessment results in selecting and appointing officials and in evaluating and commending excellence.

III. Strictly implementing democratic centralism

Democratic centralism is the Party’s fundamental organizational principle and leadership system, and implementing it is an inherent requirement of full and rigorous Party self-governance. We must improve and implement all systems of democratic centralism, fully promote intra-Party democracy, effectively practice correct centralization, and make better use of democratic centralism’s political, organizational, institutional, and work-related strengths.

(1) Uphold and strengthen the centralized, unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee. Uphold the principles that individual Party members obey the Party organization, the minority obeys the majority, lower-level organizations obey higher-level organizations, and all Party organizations and members obey the Party’s National Congress and the Central Committee. Improve the systems and mechanisms for the CPC Central Committee’s centralized, unified leadership and ensure that the whole Party follows orders and observes prohibitions. Improve the mechanisms for implementing major decisions and arrangements of the CPC Central Committee and strengthen follow-up oversight and assessments of quality and effectiveness. Strictly implement the system for requesting instructions from and reporting to the CPC Central Committee. Make political supervision more concrete, precise, and regular, focus supervision on implementation of the CPC Central Committee’s major decisions and arrangements, promptly identify and resolve problems of ineffective or distorted implementation, and prevent and correct “low-level red” and “high-level black” conduct.

(2) Improve the quality of intra-Party democracy. Uphold and improve the intra-Party democratic system, respect Party members’ principal role, and protect their democratic rights. Implement systems for representatives to Party congresses at all levels to play an effective role. Improve the quality of meetings of Party committees, their standing committees, and leading Party members groups. Conduct Party work in accordance with the democratic principles and procedures established by the Party Constitution and regulations. Leading officials may not treat their portfolios, fields of responsibility, or localities as “private territory,” and individuals may not place themselves above the organization. Open channels for Party members to participate in discussion of intra-Party affairs and broaden channels for expressing opinions. Improve systems for reporting information within the Party and conveying information to higher levels. Uphold equal relations among comrades within the Party, foster a positive atmosphere for democratic discussion, and encourage and support speaking the truth, speaking honestly, and speaking from the heart. Do not suppress, exclude, or attack comrades who express different opinions.

(3) Strictly implement decision-making and deliberation rules for leading bodies. Combine collective leadership with individual responsibility for assigned work, and uphold scientific, democratic, and law-based decision-making. All major issues must be decided through collective discussion in accordance with the principles of collective leadership, democratic centralism, individual consultation, and meeting decisions. Improve the deliberation rules and decision-making procedures of Party committees (leading Party members groups), and strengthen research, scientific analysis, and risk assessments for major decisions. Do not force a decision when major differences of opinion arise on an important agenda item. Strengthen reviews of compliance and legality for major decisions, and improve oversight mechanisms for major decisions, important personnel appointments and removals, major project arrangements, and the use of large sums of money. Leading officials must obey organizational decisions and work assignments, perform their duties within their areas of responsibility in accordance with the spirit of the CPC Central Committee and collective decisions, fully express their views when work is discussed, and carry decisions through to the end once they are made. Firmly oppose and prevent arbitrary decision-making or each person going their own way; indecision after discussion, failure to act after a decision, or ineffective implementation; and collective violations or evasion of responsibility in the name of collective decisions by a Party committee (leading Party members group). When a higher-level Party organization makes an important decision concerning a lower-level Party organization, it should generally seek the lower-level organization’s views in advance. Improve the system holding leading officials lifelong accountable for major decisions.

(4) Standardize the duties and exercise of power by the “top leader.” Implement institutional rules for strengthening supervision of “top leaders” and leading bodies. In selecting and appointing a “top leader,” pay attention to assessing their understanding and ability to implement democratic centralism. Improve mechanisms constraining the exercise of power by leading bodies, standardize the duties and authority of the “top leader,” and implement the system requiring the “top leader” to speak last. A secretary’s special meeting may not replace a meeting of the Party committee’s standing committee in making decisions. A Party committee (leading Party members group) secretary must promote democracy, seriously listen to differing opinions, and correctly consider minority views. The secretary must not run a “one-person show” or act as a “family patriarch,” independently state a position on matters requiring collective study, substitute a personal view for a collective decision of the leading body, alter collective decisions without authorization, or demand that people at every level uphold the personal authority of the “top leader.” Implement the system under which a “top leader” reports on special work in supervising and managing lower-level “top leaders.” Implement the system for Party committees (leading Party members groups) to hold supervisory conversations with lower-level Party organizations’ “top leaders.” Improve the mechanisms for supervision among peers. Members of a leading body must fulfill their political responsibility to uphold democratic centralism and strengthen mutual supervision. They should frankly raise problems they find with a “top leader,” and report major problems to the higher-level Party organization.

IV. Forging a high-caliber contingent of officials capable of shouldering the major responsibility of national rejuvenation

Strict Party self-governance hinges on strict management of officials. We must implement the Party’s organizational line for the new era, strictly educate and train, select and appoint, manage, and supervise officials, and build a high-caliber contingent with firm political convictions, strong capabilities, fine conduct, and strict discipline.

(1) Uphold the correct orientation in selecting and appointing officials. Uphold the principle that the Party manages officials; appoint people with both ability and integrity, with integrity taking priority; recruit from all quarters and appoint people on the basis of merit; and put the cause first while upholding fairness and integrity. Implement the standards for good officials in the new era, vigorously select and appoint officials who are loyal to the Party, consistent in public and private, responsible in taking on duties, outstanding in their performance, honest, and clean. Resolutely do not use people who shrink from difficulties and avoid responsibilities, are mediocre and inactive, or have a floating style of work; resolutely remove those who are disloyal to the Party, pay lip service while acting otherwise, or abuse power for personal gain.

(2) Select and appoint officials accurately and scientifically. Strictly implement the principles and procedures for selecting and appointing officials. Have organizations select people, appoint people fairly, and select people according to the work to be done, while bringing the leadership and gatekeeping role of Party organizations into play. Improve the quality of official assessments and strengthen regular evaluations. Conduct thorough and substantive assessments of officials’ political integrity; evaluate them based on their consistent conduct; assess them at major junctures and critical moments; identify them through their responses to tests of struggle, conflicts and difficulties, unhealthy practices, temptations of personal interest, and changes in their posts; and observe them in how they shoulder burdens and take on work. Extend assessments, including to officials’ former workplaces and organizations; pay attention to their social and personal circles; and make good use of results from inspections, audits, and oversight. Select and appoint officials in strict accordance with job requirements and improve their suitability. Strengthen individuals while improving the whole and make structure serve function; select and appoint strong leading bodies at every level, especially their “top leaders.” Maintain a progression of older, middle-aged, and younger officials and make coordinated use of officials of every age group. Train and use women officials, officials from ethnic minorities, and non-Party officials. Do not use age, education, or seniority as the sole criteria. Prevent giving priority to the structure of a leading body while neglecting individual quality, or to educational credentials and seniority while neglecting actual ability; prevent rigid quota-filling and lowering standards. Pay attention to discovering and selecting outstanding officials from primary-level work. Improve systems for recusal, regular rotation, and exchange of posts. Improve and implement the tenure system for leading officials and strictly implement policies to maintain stable terms, preventing frequent changes in officials in the same post or frequent changes of post for the same official. Strengthen analysis and assessment of leading bodies and officials, normalize the ability of officials to move up or down, and step up the reassignment of officials who are not competent in their current posts.

Before any promotion, review officials’ personnel files; verify their reports on personal matters; seek the opinions of discipline inspection and supervision organs; and investigate petitions reporting specific, verifiable clues about violations of rules or discipline. Implement the requirement that integrity opinions be jointly signed and confirmed by the Party committee (leading Party members group) secretary and the secretary of the discipline inspection commission (or head of the dispatched discipline inspection and supervision team). Improve and implement the systems for reporting pre-appointment matters, keeping a full record of the selection and appointment process, and conducting “one report and two evaluations.” Deepen special inspections of official selection and appointment and improve the accountability mechanism for “promoting an official with known problems.” Firmly address unhealthy practices in personnel selection, strictly prohibit private deals and appointments based on personal ties, resolutely break up “small circles,” and seriously investigate and deal with soliciting official posts, buying and selling posts, canvassing for votes, and electoral bribery.

(3) Encourage officials to establish and practice a correct view of performance. Deepen education on views of performance and guide officials to uphold dedication to the Party and the public, bring benefits to the people, make scientific decisions, and work diligently and pragmatically, producing achievements that stand the test of practice, the people, and history. Implement the new development philosophy fully, accurately, and comprehensively; improve performance assessments for promoting high-quality development; combine the assessment of people and work and the use of existing assessment results with pre-appointment assessments; and thoroughly understand and analyze efforts to advance reform and development, improve people’s wellbeing and security, handle current work and historical problems, and achieve visible and less visible results. Dynamically update the list of major problems involving deviations in views of performance and improve effective mechanisms to prevent and correct them. Thoroughly address problems such as new officials refusing to deal with old problems, seeking quick results, falsifying information, acting recklessly without adequate study, making unrealistic decisions against the people’s wishes, pursuing “image projects” and “performance projects,” repeatedly reversing policy plans, illegally adding hidden local government debt, and discussing development without security. Deepen efforts to address failure to act and disorderly action. Improve systems for transferring responsibilities when the principal official of a leading body changes.

(4) Strengthen officials’ ability to work and start undertakings. Strengthen ideological tempering, political experience, practical training, and professional instruction for officials; enhance their ability to promote high-quality development, serve the people, prevent and defuse risks, and work using the rule of law and legal methods; and strengthen the development of their fighting spirit and ability. Encourage officials, especially leading officials, to conduct in-depth research, plan approaches, solve problems, and improve work in light of actual conditions. Encourage officials to update their knowledge, improve professional competence, fill gaps in their abilities, and become experts in their own work. Encourage officials to sum up experience and grasp patterns through practice, strengthening the principled, systematic, forward-looking, and creative character of their work.

(5) Improve the quality of training and selecting outstanding young officials. Improve the regular working mechanism for training and selecting outstanding young officials. Strengthen their political education and experience and guide them to consolidate the foundation of their beliefs, replenish their spiritual calcium, and steady their rudder of thought. Make the front lines of primary-level work a basic training ground for young officials and encourage them to undergo initial training in difficult areas, complex environments, and demanding posts, tempering their character, improving their conduct, and growing their abilities. Give equal attention to training and management and guide young officials onto a healthy path of development: obey organizational arrangements, be willing to work hard and practically, do not become restless or overambitious, and do not plan one’s own advancement or seek shortcuts. Follow their theoretical study, participation in intra-Party political life, initiative and responsibility, ability to withstand pressure, and compliance with rules and discipline, and provide guidance for their development. Prevent and correct practices such as “pulling up seedlings to help them grow.”

(6) Strengthen officials’ management and supervision. Start with senior officials and strengthen comprehensive management and regular supervision of officials. Apply strict requirements throughout their development and throughout education, management, and supervision, preventing emphasis on selection while neglecting management. Improve the system for officials to report personal matters, and investigate and verify cases where family assets and expenditures clearly exceed normal income. Strengthen regular management of the business activities of leading officials’ spouses, children, and children’s spouses. Deepen special efforts to address “nepotistic recruitment.” Strengthen management and supervision of personnel recruitment. Standardize officials’ part-time work, temporary assignments, and employment after leaving office, and prevent and address “resigning to evade restrictions.” Strengthen management and supervision of retired officials. Party organizations and leading officials at all levels must dare to manage and strictly govern; they must not ignore officials’ mistaken words and actions or cover up for them. Formulate regulations on officials’ management and supervision.

Combine strict management with care and support and balance incentives with constraints. Improve mechanisms that encourage and protect officials who take responsibility and act, backing those who take responsibility, those who are accountable, and those who get things done. Implement systems for conversations and exchanges to promptly understand officials’ thoughts, work, physical and mental health, family circumstances, and other matters, and provide targeted education and guidance. Strengthen and improve the civil service, bring the incentive effects of systems such as parallel ranks and positions into play, and improve recognition and reward mechanisms. Implement policies to care for and support primary-level officials.

Uphold the principle that the Party manages talent. Strengthen political guidance and inclusion for talent, deepen reform of the systems and mechanisms for talent development, advance the development of education, science and technology, and talent in an integrated way, train, recruit, and make full use of talent in every respect, strengthen support and service guarantees, and encourage talent to love the Party, serve the country, dedicate themselves to their work, and serve the people, bringing outstanding talent from all fields into the cause of the Party and the people. Implement the system for Party committees to maintain contact with and serve experts and improve mechanisms for leading officials to maintain direct contact with and serve experts. Guide Party members among talent to play an exemplary role in scientific research, mentoring younger scholars, cooperation, academic integrity, and scientific and technological ethics; oppose academic fraud, plagiarism, and other academic misconduct; and resist the unhealthy practices of seeking quick results, restlessness, and exaggeration. Address the problem of talent “labels” and break down seniority-based exclusion, circle culture, and the conduct of academic overlords.

V. Building a closely knit organizational system that is integrated from top to bottom and effective in implementation

Party organizations at all levels are the main actors in full and rigorous Party self-governance. We must advance the development of Party organizations at every level and in every field in a systematic way, strengthen their political and organizational functions, and ensure that the Party’s lines, principles, policies, and the CPC Central Committee’s decisions and arrangements are implemented in a coordinated, precise, and effective manner from top to bottom.

(1) Give a leading example through Party organizations in central and state organs. Deepen the development of political organs and encourage Party organizations and members and officials at every level in central and state organs to lead the way: set an example in thoroughly studying and implementing Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era; in always maintaining a high degree of unity with the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core; and in resolutely implementing all decisions and arrangements of the CPC Central Committee. Build central and state organs into model organs that uphold politics, discipline, responsibility, and efficiency. Uphold the approach of improving Party building in organs and thereby leading the wider system, and of managing Party building in each industry. Improve mechanisms for advancing Party building simultaneously in organs, directly affiliated enterprises and public institutions, and dispatched bodies. Deepen Party branch development so branches have strong political functions, strong leading bodies, strong ranks of Party members, and strong performance of their roles. Promote deep integration of Party building and professional work and continually solve the problem of “two skins.” Vigorously address “organ disease” and bureaucratic habits and prevent “blackness under the lamp.”

(2) Strengthen the functions of local Party committees. Uphold the leadership role of local Party committees in exercising overall leadership and coordinating all sides in their regions. Fulfill their responsibilities to set direction, manage the overall picture, make decisions, and ensure implementation, and build them into strong organizations that resolutely follow the CPC Central Committee’s direction, implement decisions effectively, manage strictly, have united leading bodies, and maintain a healthy atmosphere. Encourage and support local Party committees in implementing the spirit of the CPC Central Committee in light of local conditions and carrying out their work creatively. Strengthen the leading bodies and strictly manage the ranks of standing committees of local Party committees; conduct political checkups regularly and improve their ability to identify and solve their own problems. Revise the regulations on the work of local Party committees. Standardize deliberation and coordination bodies of local Party committees.

(3) Coordinate the development of primary-level Party organizations across all fields. Strengthen the clear orientation toward focusing heavily on primary-level work, simultaneously addressing weak links and gaps and improving quality and functions, and build primary-level Party organizations into strong fighting fortresses that effectively realize Party leadership. Deepen Party-building efforts to promote comprehensive rural revitalization; strengthen township Party committees and village Party organizations; improve the education and management of village officials; and optimize the selection and management of first secretaries and work teams stationed in villages. Make Party-building work in “hollow villages” substantive. Strengthen Party building in urban subdistricts and communities, build strong Party organizations in residential compounds, and explore new coordinated operating models for residents’ committees, owners’ committees, and property service companies under the leadership of community Party organizations. Strengthen Party organizations in “ultra-large communities.” Advance Party building in development zones and industrial parks. Strengthen primary-level Party building in border areas. Deepen primary-level governance and development of primary-level state power under the leadership of Party building, uphold and develop the “Fengqiao experience” of the new era, and improve urban and rural primary-level governance systems that combine self-governance, rule of law, and rule of virtue under Party organization leadership. Integrate and optimize grid-based governance services, make good use of Party-masses service centers, and broaden channels for primary-level organizations and the public to participate lawfully and orderly in primary-level governance. Improve the quality of Party building in organs across the board and focus on Party building in affiliated units and industries. Improve systems and mechanisms for Party leadership in public institutions and advance Party building in schools, hospitals, research institutes, and other institutions. Strengthen Party leadership in state-owned enterprises and state-owned financial enterprises, ensure substantive review by Party committees (leading Party members groups) before major business and management matters are discussed, improve corporate governance, and enhance the quality and effectiveness of Party building. Combine concentrated efforts with regular work to rectify weak and lax primary-level Party organizations. Strengthen the training, selection, and education of heads of primary-level Party organizations. Direct resources, services, and management downward and make policies favor primary-level units, improving their working conditions. Uphold Party building as a driver of the development of mass organizations and bring their role as bridges and bonds into play.

(4) Focus on Party building in emerging fields. Improve Party-building management systems and responsibility frameworks in emerging fields according to their categories; ensure that industry management and business regulatory departments, departments in charge of business, and localities fulfill their responsibilities; and strengthen the Party’s appeal, cohesion, and influence in emerging fields. Deepen and expand Party organizational and work coverage in new economic organizations, new social organizations, and new employment groups. Select strong Party organization secretaries, improve the selection of Party-building instructors, and integrate Party building with production and operations, innovation and entrepreneurship, social services, primary-level governance, and other work. Consolidate and improve Party building in non-public enterprises, advance Party building in mixed-ownership enterprises by category, strengthen Party building in platform companies, technology-innovation companies, and others, establish a dynamic adjustment mechanism for upgrading management of Party organizations in internet companies, and advance implementation of Party-building responsibilities. Provide category-based guidance for Party building in new social organizations, improve management systems and operating mechanisms for industry associations, societies, and chambers of commerce, fully implement the requirement to include Party-building work in their charters, and strengthen industry self-regulation led by Party building. Carry out Party building in private schools, private hospitals, and other institutions. Strengthen Party building among new employment groups, strengthen ideological and political guidance, improve services and management, protect legitimate rights and interests, and guide new employment groups to listen to the Party and follow the Party.

(5) Strengthen the ranks of Party members. Put political standards first, strictly follow procedures, rigorously vet candidates, enforce discipline, improve the quality of Party membership recruitment, and prevent people with impure motives from joining the Party. Pay attention to recruiting Party members among young people and industrial workers, farmers, and intellectuals; do a good job of recruiting Party members in emerging fields; and improve the composition of the Party’s ranks. Strengthen education and management of Party members and provide regular training, especially basic training. Fulfill Party branches’ responsibility to directly educate, manage, and supervise Party members. Strengthen management of Party members’ conduct online. Regularize the registration and acceptance of mobile Party members and improve systems for organizations in areas of origin and destination to cooperate in joint management, combining online and offline work. Promote practices such as assigning posts and responsibilities, making and fulfilling commitments, forming task forces, and displaying Party-member identity and taking the lead. Improve and implement mechanisms for Party members to play their role online and offline, on and off the job, and in ordinary and emergency situations. Improve intra-Party mechanisms for incentives, care, and assistance. Handle the removal of unqualified Party members in a serious and prudent manner.

(6) Improve mechanisms linking Party organizations at all levels. Improve working mechanisms for communicating and implementing arrangements from higher levels, reporting primary-level conditions to higher levels, and jointly resolving conflicts and problems. Improve Party-building systems for local and vertical management and promote coordination between functional and local lines, with each fulfilling its responsibilities and maintaining close links. Strengthen higher-level organizations’ guidance on the Party-building work of lower-level organizations and summarize and promote experience. Make substantive the performance reviews and appraisals of Party committee (leading Party members group) secretaries responsible for primary-level Party building. Strengthen the ranks of Party affairs workers, ensure sufficient and capable staff, and provide necessary support. Focus on the work at one’s own level while leading lower levels, implement responsibilities at every level, promote all-round progress and strength among Party organizations at all levels, and prevent responsibilities from being left hanging or pushed upward or downward.

VI. Persevering in improving conduct and enforcing discipline

Improving conduct and enforcing discipline are effective measures for full and rigorous Party self-governance. We must address Party spirit, Party conduct, and Party discipline together; link the correction of conduct, enforcement of discipline, and anti-corruption; draw on the experience of advancing full and rigorous Party self-governance by starting with conduct; continually improve conduct; govern the Party through strict discipline; and unite people through a positive image.

(1) Follow the Party’s mass line in the new era. Deepen education in the Marxist mass viewpoint and the Party’s mass line, and guide Party members and officials to strengthen their awareness of the Party’s purpose and their role as public servants, firmly adopt the people’s standpoint, deepen their ties with the people, and avoid acting superior or becoming detached from them. Guide them to grasp the features and patterns of the Party’s mass work in the new era, regularly go among the people, listen humbly to their views, earnestly resolve their urgent difficulties and concerns, rely skillfully on the people’s strength to do their work and resolve conflicts, educate and guide the people and lead them forward while serving them, and prevent and overcome commandism and “tailism.” Implement the system of soliciting public opinions on major decisions affecting people’s wellbeing. Implement systems requiring leading officials to take the Party’s lines, principles, and policies to the grassroots; conduct research there; receive petitions there; and hold on-site office there. Implement the system for Party members and officials to maintain direct contact with and serve the people. Encourage Party members and officials to take the lead in volunteering and carrying out paired assistance. Continue resolving petitions involving people’s livelihoods. Follow the mass line online, strengthen Party organizations’ ability to organize, publicize to, unite, and serve the people through the internet, and improve Party members’ and officials’ ability to do mass work online.

(2) Unswervingly implement the spirit of the Central Committee’s Eight-Point Regulations. Treat the Central Committee’s Eight-Point Regulations as iron rules and firm standards that must be upheld over the long term. Consolidate and expand the achievements of education on thoroughly implementing their spirit, improve and implement their detailed rules, deepen efforts to address the chronic problems of formalism and bureaucratism, firmly prevent the resurgence of hedonism and extravagance, and resolutely eliminate privilege-based thinking and behavior. Reduce meetings, documents, and reporting materials; implement the requirement to be “brief, substantive, and fresh”; and improve meeting and writing styles. Without organizational approval, Party and government leading officials may not publish personal works publicly. Strictly implement regulations on visits abroad by leading officials and do not arrange courtesy visits. Advance efforts to reduce burdens on primary-level units caused by formalism; coordinate and standardize inspections, checks, and assessments; standardize the creation of model programs, compliance programs, evaluation activities, and commendations; clean up and standardize festivals, exhibitions, and forums; address “formalism at one’s fingertips”; implement lists of responsibilities for townships and subdistricts; and improve systems governing which work items may be assigned to villages and communities. Continue addressing prominent problems such as unauthorized banquets, unauthorized giving and receiving of gifts and money, and infringement of the people’s interests. Practice economy and oppose waste, require Party and government organs to live on tight budgets, strictly control spending on overseas trips, official vehicles, and official hospitality, and strictly control construction of new office buildings and guesthouses. Pay close attention to new trends and manifestations of misconduct and prevent and correct concealed or disguised forms.

(3) Make conduct building regular and enduring. Integrate conduct building into everyday work and carry it out regularly; prevent passive responses and battle fatigue; and correct claims that conduct problems are “minor details” or that they are “special cases.” Improve mechanisms for regularly identifying and resolving conduct problems, strengthen analysis and assessment of prominent “four forms of misconduct,” and carry out targeted corrections. Take account of regional, industry, and time-specific characteristics and address conduct problems that occur widely and recur. Focus on important junctures, strengthen supervision and inspection, strictly investigate violations committed despite warnings, and publicly report typical cases. Fulfill the responsibility of industry regulators to manage professional conduct, strengthen dynamic analysis and effective supervision of it, improve teacher ethics, medical ethics, and artistic ethics, and step up efforts to address “four forms of misconduct” in state-owned enterprises, state-owned financial enterprises, and local branches of vertically managed organizations. Standardize law enforcement and judicial conduct involving enterprises. Deepen the joint investigation and correction of misconduct and corruption, probe deeply into cliques, requests for favors, and the transfer of benefits behind the “four forms of misconduct,” and identify conduct problems in corruption cases. Correct the “four forms of misconduct” and foster new practices together, using good Party and government conduct to guide society toward what is positive and good.

(4) Strictly enforce discipline. Apply strict requirements throughout the formulation of Party regulations, education on Party discipline, and supervision of discipline enforcement. Uphold the principle that discipline must be followed, enforced strictly, and applied to every violation; investigate and deal with every disciplinary violation discovered, without tolerance or leniency. Strictly implement the Party’s political discipline and rules, and thereby apply strict standards across organizational, integrity, mass-related, work, and life discipline. Focus on key areas, weak links, and gray areas and improve discipline standards. Uphold the principle that Party discipline is stricter than the law and comes before the law, and link discipline enforcement and law enforcement effectively with judicial proceedings. Address problems early and in their initial stages, give timely reminders and corrections when tendencies or warning signs emerge, and prevent small problems from turning into major ones. Strengthen supervision and inspection of discipline enforcement and encourage Party organizations at all levels to strictly enforce and uphold discipline. Seriously hold accountable those who enforce discipline laxly or allow violations to go unchecked.

(5) Bring the educational, constraining, safeguarding, and incentivizing roles of discipline into play in an integrated way. Establish and improve regular, long-term mechanisms for education on discipline, make the Party Constitution and Party regulations and discipline required courses in Party-member and official training, and guide them to study, understand, and observe discipline and develop the habit of working and living in an environment of supervision and constraint. Strengthen discipline education throughout the whole cycle and give reminders at important junctures, including joining the Party or starting a job, changes of position, family changes, and leaving or retiring from a post. Clarify the discipline rules and regulations that Party members and officials need to know and apply according to the requirements of different positions, ranks, and industries. Focus discipline training on newly promoted officials, officials in key posts, young officials, and other key groups. Uphold the principle of learning from past mistakes to avoid future ones and treating the illness to save the patient. Deepen use of the “four forms” of supervision and discipline enforcement, make good use of the “first form,” set up successive safeguards, and educate and save as many Party members and officials as possible. Uphold seeking truth from facts and acting in accordance with rules, discipline, and law; maintain ideological and political work throughout; improve the standardization and accuracy of accountability and discipline enforcement; and achieve an integrated political, legal, and social effect. Unify serious discipline with care and support, and encourage Party members and officials to innovate, reform, and work while observing rules and discipline. Seriously investigate false accusations and frame-ups and promptly clarify and restore the names of those wrongly accused. Follow up with Party members and officials who have received disciplinary measures or sanctions and provide education and management.

VII. Unswervingly advancing in an integrated manner the principles of not daring to be corrupt, being unable to be corrupt, and not wanting to be corrupt

Integrating the effort to ensure that officials do not dare, cannot, and do not want to be corrupt is an important strategy for full and rigorous Party self-governance and a fundamental principle of the anti-corruption struggle. We must bear in mind that the Party has no special interests of its own apart from those of the working class and the broadest masses of the people, and that the Party and corruption are as irreconcilable as fire and water. We must resolutely follow the path of anti-corruption with Chinese characteristics, strengthen the CPC Central Committee’s centralized, unified leadership of anti-corruption work, pay greater attention to addressing both symptoms and root causes and to systematic governance, and uphold strict punishment, precise treatment, effective prevention, and integrated action, carrying the anti-corruption struggle through to the end.

(1) Maintain high pressure in punishing corruption. Deeply recognize that the anti-corruption struggle remains grave and complex and that the task of eliminating the soil and conditions that breed corruption remains arduous and heavy. Uphold the principle of opposing all corruption, punishing all greed, and leaving no evil unpunished. Resolutely “hunt tigers,” “swat flies,” and “hunt foxes”; maintain strategic resolve and fighting tenacity; never stop or retreat; more forcefully curb new corruption and more effectively clear up existing corruption; leave corrupt elements nowhere to hide; and never allow “iron-hat princes” or “red-letter pardons.” Focus on key fields, problems, and targets; deepen efforts to address corruption in areas where power is concentrated and funds and resources are abundant; and focus on political and economic problems that are intertwined, collusion between officials and business, and the penetration of capital into the political sphere. Pay attention to investigating corruption behind various risks, focus on corruption by the “key minority,” especially “top leaders,” and by young officials, seriously investigate family-based corruption by leading officials and corruption involving people around them, and resolutely remove corrupt elements who refuse to restrain themselves, refuse to stop, and act recklessly. Thoroughly investigate new and concealed forms of corruption, such as expected returns, agreed proxy holdings, “white gloves,” and the “revolving door” between government and business. Resolutely crack down on corruption carried out using the internet, virtual currencies, cross-border funds, blockchain, and other means. Regularly address misconduct and corruption affecting people around them; deepen governance of problems in employment, elderly care, social security, housing, education, medical care, and “agriculture, rural areas, and farmers”; seriously investigate embezzlement, misappropriation, false claims, and exploiting people through fees and favors; severely punish “fly corruption and ant corruption”; and continue to break the link between organized crime and its protective umbrellas. Deepen international anti-corruption cooperation, strengthen efforts to pursue fugitives, prevent escapes, and recover assets, and step up investigation of cross-border corruption cases. Deepen the joint investigation of both those who accept bribes and those who offer them; investigate bribery in accordance with rules, discipline, and law; strengthen coordinated punishment of key bribers; and prevent and crack down on “hunting” officials. Dynamically monitor hidden integrity risks and establish a coordinated mechanism for corruption early warning and punishment. Ensure that localities, departments, and organizations where major corruption cases occur thoroughly purge lingering harmful influence and restore their political environment.

(2) Strengthen constraints and supervision over the exercise of power. Uphold impartial, law-based, clean, and people-serving use of power, and prevent and correct arbitrary power, abuse of power, dereliction of duty, and other conduct. Improve a unified and transparent system for authorizing, exercising, and constraining power that allows actions to be traced. Standardize and supervise the allocation and operation of power, promptly identify problems and correct deviations, and place power in the institutional cage in a more scientific and effective way. Focus on key steps including policy formulation, deliberation and decision-making, approval and regulation, and law enforcement and judicial work; standardize responsibilities and authority, boundaries for exercising power, and work procedures; standardize discretionary power; and prevent the renting and trading of power. Accelerate the development of standards and mechanisms to constrain the exercise of power in key and new fields. Establish lists of powers in key industries and lists of minor powers at the primary level. Implement the system for recording and reporting leading officials’ interference in judicial activities and intervention in the handling of specific cases.

(3) Consolidate the ideological foundation for honoring integrity and rejecting corruption. Strengthen the development of integrity culture in the new era, enrich its content and forms, and educate and guide Party members and officials to respect themselves, reflect on themselves, exercise caution in private and in small matters, and consciously resist corruption and prevent degeneration. Develop a positive and healthy intra-Party political culture and use the ideals and convictions, values, moral concepts, and awareness of law and discipline contained in the Party’s innovative theory to nurture integrity among Party members and officials. Integrate integrity culture into the development of core socialist values and integrity education into the national education system, creating a social atmosphere that honors integrity and regards corruption as shameful. Innovate mechanisms for publicity and education on integrity, link online and offline efforts, set content and methods by level and category, and improve relevance and effectiveness. Bring into play the demonstration and guiding role of models of diligence and integrity and the warning and deterrent role of cases involving violations of discipline and law. Urge leading officials to take the lead in building close and clean relations between government and business, strengthen family education and conduct, and strictly educate and manage their relatives and staff around them.

(4) Enhance the overall effectiveness of the integrated effort to ensure that officials do not dare, cannot, and do not want to be corrupt. Conduct in-depth research into the patterns of anti-corruption under the conditions of a socialist market economy, improve anti-corruption laws and regulations, and ensure that the three efforts—ensuring that officials do not dare, cannot, and do not want to be corrupt—are advanced simultaneously, in the same direction, and in an integrated way, working to eliminate the soil and conditions that breed corruption. Improve mechanisms for coordination between discipline inspection and supervision organs and relevant departments under the unified leadership of Party committees, and promote integrated governance through full-chain coordination. Make substantive efforts to use cases to promote reform and governance; carry out special governance of industry-wide and systemic corruption identified in major cases; improve institutions and mechanisms through case investigations; eliminate loopholes in the exercise of power, blind spots in supervision, and gaps in institutions; and establish a closed loop of supervision, investigation, rectification, and governance. Grasp new trends and characteristics of corruption, deepen development of the digital discipline inspection and supervision system, advance big-data supervision platforms for the exercise of public power, and improve the penetrating force of anti-corruption work.

VIII. Upholding governance of the Party through institutions and in accordance with regulations

Strengthening the system of intra-Party regulations is a long-term and fundamental strategy for full and rigorous Party self-governance. We must uphold the Party Constitution as the fundamental code of conduct for the whole Party, deepen reform of Party-building institutions, promote the organic unity of law-based governance of the country and governance of the Party in accordance with regulations, and provide strong institutional safeguards for persevering in advancing full and rigorous Party self-governance.

(1) Improve the system of intra-Party regulations. Scientifically formulate plans and programs for drafting intra-Party regulations. Coordinate their revision, repeal, interpretation, and new drafting; emphasize systematic integration; and strengthen supporting provisions and alignment. Draft and improve intra-Party regulations as needed to persevere in advancing full and rigorous Party self-governance, promptly filling gaps in the system. When establishing regulations, address prominent problems and ensure they are convenient and practical. Improve the mechanism for interpreting intra-Party regulations. Improve mechanisms to align and coordinate intra-Party regulations with national laws and regulations.

(2) Enhance the system’s implementation. Strengthen the binding force of institutions and uphold equality before institutions: no one is exempt from observing them, and there are no exceptions in implementing them. Encourage Party members and officials to consciously study, observe, implement, and uphold the Party Constitution. Increase public access to intra-Party regulations. Strengthen study and training on the system of intra-Party regulations. Ensure implementation and supervision of institutions throughout the work of Party organizations and Party members and officials, and in every aspect of regional, departmental, industry, primary-level, and organizational governance, so that institutions have authority at all times and are effective everywhere. Firmly correct failure to implement orders or obey prohibitions; prevent selective implementation, discounting, and evasive modifications; and avoid institutions being left in name only.

(3) Vigorously eliminate unwritten rules. Uphold clear and explicit rules and promote transparency in Party and government affairs. Educate and guide Party members and officials to uphold principles, observe the law and discipline, and follow the right path; and to consciously oppose and resist unwritten rules in exercising power, implementing policies, seeking projects, selecting and appointing officials, and evaluating and recognizing excellence. Firmly correct such chaos as “making connections with those at the top and paying respects to local power brokers,” “relationships matter more than principles,” “a note matters more than a seal,” refusing to act without benefits, and behind-the-scenes operations. Firmly resist the erosion of intra-Party life by the principle of commodity exchange and personal dependency. Improve reporting mechanisms and seriously investigate the making of connections with, or serving as, political brokers and political fraudsters. Establish systems for reviewing similar cases, tracing their causes, and reporting rectification, and improve mechanisms for dynamic monitoring, assessment, and governance of the political environment.

Persevering in advancing full and rigorous Party self-governance requires further improving the Party and state oversight system. Make the full oversight of Party committees (leading Party members groups) substantive and strengthen their leadership over all oversight bodies. Revise the regulations on intra-Party supervision. Improve the dual-leadership system for discipline inspection and supervision work; ensure that supervision and inspection and the investigation of corruption cases are substantively led by higher-level discipline inspection commissions and supervision commissions; emphasize coordination and optimization of resources; and coordinate the links among discipline supervision, supervisory oversight, dispatched supervision, and inspection supervision. Make good use of county, township, and village oversight resources and personnel; improve the primary-level oversight system and mechanisms such as upgraded and cross-check supervision; open channels for public oversight; and integrate primary-level oversight with primary-level governance. Deeply integrate intra-Party supervision with oversight by people’s congresses, democratic oversight, administrative oversight, judicial oversight, auditing oversight, financial and accounting oversight, statistical oversight, public oversight, and media oversight, and build a coordinated force for oversight. Fully implement the Party’s inspection work policy and the regulations on inspection work; use regular, special, mobile, and upgraded inspections; innovate inspection methods; step up “look-back” inspections; strengthen rectification and use of inspection results; deepen coordination between inspections and patrols at higher and lower levels; improve the quality and effectiveness of inspections of villages; and make inspections a comprehensive supervisory sword.

Persevering in advancing full and rigorous Party self-governance is a shared political responsibility of the whole Party. We must grasp the “key to the whole matter” of the responsibility system for managing and governing the Party, tighten and fully implement the principal responsibility of Party committees (leading Party members groups), the supervisory responsibility of discipline inspection commissions, the primary responsibility of Party committee (leading Party members group) secretaries, the “dual responsibilities for one position” of other leading body members, and the specific responsibilities of Party members and officials, improving a responsibility system in which all fulfill their duties and coordination is unified. Party committees (leading Party members groups) at all levels must take the initiative to grasp the work and manage it conscientiously, tighten the links in the responsibility chain, and transmit pressure level by level. Party committees (leading Party members groups) at or above the county level must hear at least once each year a report on how leading body members fulfill their responsibility for managing and governing the Party and strengthen guidance and oversight. Discipline inspection commissions at all levels (dispatched discipline inspection and supervision teams) must fulfill their supervisory responsibilities. At least once every six months, lower-level discipline inspection commissions (dispatched teams) must report to higher-level commissions (dispatching organs) on how members of Party committees’ (leading Party members groups’) leading bodies, especially “top leaders,” fulfill their duties and exercise power, as well as on how the lower-level bodies fulfill their own supervisory responsibilities. Party committee departments must fulfill their duties and work together. Leading officials, especially senior officials, must be strict with themselves, take responsibility strictly, and strictly manage those under their authority, setting an example in fulfilling responsibility for managing and governing the Party. Party-building work at every level and in every field must proceed from actual conditions and seek practical results, and must guard against formalism. Improve assessment mechanisms for fulfilling responsibilities and seriously pursue accountability when Party management and governance are ineffective and serious problems occur.

History points to the future, and struggle brings great achievements. In its magnificent journey, the Communist Party of China has forged fine qualities: resolutely pursuing truth and always keeping the right direction; taking deep roots among the people and always having a solid foundation; shouldering historical missions and always holding the strategic initiative; following the tide of development and always moving at the forefront of the times; daring and able to struggle and always retaining confidence in victory; and focusing on strengthening itself and always remaining full of vitality. The tremendous changes that have taken place across China over more than 100 years fully prove that the Party has lived up to history and the people. It deserves to be called the vanguard of the Chinese working class and the vanguard of the Chinese people and the Chinese nation. The great, glorious, and correct Communist Party of China has weathered storms without changing its original aspiration, remains steadfast in its goals and resolutely presses forward, will bear in mind the “three imperatives,” retain the clear-headed resolve required to meet the test, have the courage to undertake a great struggle with many new historical features, resolutely overcome every difficulty and obstacle on the road ahead, and continually create a better future!

The whole Party must unite more closely around the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, fully implement Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, govern diligently and strive for strength, persevere in advancing full and rigorous Party self-governance, continually open a new chapter in managing and governing the Party and strengthening it in the new era, and unite and lead the people of all ethnic groups throughout the country in unremitting struggle to build a great modern socialist country in every respect and advance the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation in every respect through Chinese modernization!