Why and How the CPC Works in China

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"The key is to do a good job inside our Communist Party"

The drastic changes that took place in the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries served as warnings for the CPC. In his talks in South China, Deng Xiaoping clearly pointed out from his broad and long-term view as a statesman and strategist: "If China runs into trouble, something must have gone wrong inside the Communist Party. We should be clear-headed on this issue. We need to pay attention to the cultivation of personnel, selecting people of ability and virtue for the leadership according to the standard of 'making the ranks of cadres more revolutionary, younger in average age, better educated and professionally more competent.' We say that the basic line of our party must be followed unswervingly for a very long time to come, and we need long-term stability for this. This issue has a vital bearing on the overall situation." He added, "Ultimately, the key is to do a good job inside our Communist Party."

In view of the problems with high-level authorities of the Soviet Communist Party, Deng Xiaoping made it clear that the CPC should have a truly stable and mature central leadership. He said, "The key to China's problem is that the CPC should have a good political bureau, and especially a good standing committee of the political bureau. As long as there is no problem in this link, China will become unassailable."

The third generation of the CPC's central collective leadership, with Jiang Zemin at the core, came up to the expectations of the people, carrying forward the cause of the people, forging ahead into the future, and making socialism full of new life. However, the historical lessons are close at hand and the alarm bell should keep ringing.

Jiang Zemin pointed out soberly: "In the circumstances of implementing the reform and opening up, and developing a socialist market economy, a major practical problem is what kind of party to build and how to build it. This problem is directly related to the future and destiny of our party and country."

In April 2000 Jiang Zemin pointed out again in a speech: "What have caused the development and changes in world socialism? How can the CPC and China's socialist cause continue to open up a bright future on the basis of past achievements? If we can consider these issues well and clearly, our party will consolidate and strengthen itself further, and it will better lead the people to write a new chapter in the development of Chinese history in the new century. As the ruling party, this is the responsible attitude that the CPC should take toward the country, the people and history."

Entering the new century, the CPC conducted various types of exploration with regard to maintaining the advanced nature of the Party and strengthening its governing ability. Kenneth Lieberthal, a leading American "China Hand," pointed out in his book Governing China: From Revolution Through Reform that the CPC is actively thinking about how to effectively improve its ties with the masses, including the promotion of democracy within the party; for example, by allowing some Party congresses to elect the Party leadership at their own level instead of just letting it approve the nomination and appointment list decided by its superior congress.

China's top Communist Party leaders and people of insight saw that the existence and spread of corruption and privilege within the parties of the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries were also an important internal factor that led to destruction of those parties and states. They realized that the greatest threat to the rule of the CPC came from internal corruption, which could help destroy the Party and the state.

In the process of the reform and opening up, Deng Xiaoping always kept a close eye on anti-corruption issues. In April 1982 he pointed out solemnly: "If this is not seriously noted, seriously treated and effectively resolved, the question of whether our party and country will change their nature may arise. This is not alarmist talk."

In June 1989, talking with the new central leadership of the CPC, Deng Xiaoping said, "In the course of rectifying our party and achieving our strategic goals, if we do not wipe out corruption, especially high-level corruption within the party, there will be a real danger of failure." He pointed out, "We should promote the reform and opening up on the one hand and punish corruption on the other. With these two things combined, we can make our policies clearer and better gain the support of the people."

Since then, all the leadership of the CPC Central Committee have attached great importance to the threat posed by corruption. Jiang Zemin pointed out, "Corruption is a virus that invades the healthy body of our party and state organs. If we regard it lightly, and allow it to spread unchecked, it will ruin our party, ruin our people's power, and put an end to our great cause of socialist modernization."

Hu Jintao stressed, "If there is something that can cause a mortal wound to our party in times of peaceful construction, corruption is such a glaring thing."

In 2007 the Seventeenth National Congress of the CPC identified as the basic task of party building the fight against corruption and the upholding of integrity, together with the party's ideological, organizational, work style and institution construction. Since then, the construction of work style and clean governance, and the work of fighting corruption have developed in tandem. Significant progress has been made in investigating and handling major cases, ferreting out corrupt elements, enhancing system construction, strengthening the supervision of leading cadres, preventing and controlling bribery in business, and correcting the unhealthy trend of damaging the interests of the masses.

In view of the lessons that the communist parties of the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries were too dogmatic and lost the spirit of theoretical innovation that Marxist-Leninist parties should have had, the CPC, in the process of the reform and opening up, constantly adapted to the requirements of the times, kept pace with the times, created the theory of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and enriched and developed Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought.

Regarding this, a German political scientist in the field of East Asian affairs said that the deepest impression that the CPC gave her was that the Party was not a "static" and "abstract" symbol, as described by some Western politicians and media, but a progressive force that had an impressive ability to learn the best from others, including some of the merits of capitalism.

David Shambaugh, professor and director of the China Policy Program at George Washington University, commented that to adapt to the situation and to remain flexible were the (CPC's) rule of survival.

When interviewed by a reporter from China's Global Times, Daniel Van Lerberghe, secretary-general of the European Institute of International Relations, said that he considered that the CPC was a political party intact with regard to its name, but able to quickly and fully adapt itself to modern challenges.

In March 2008, at a press conference, Premier Wen Jiabao talked about the new breakthrough in economic and political reform; he quoted the "idea of the three not-enoughs" of Wang Anshi, a reformer of the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), namely "fate is not enough to fear, ancestors' rules are not enough to keep, and rumors are not enough to cherish," indicating his firm attitude toward adhering to emancipation of the mind and implementation of the reform and innovation.

On July 1, 2010, on the 89th anniversary of the founding of the CPC it was announced that the number of CPC members had reached 78 million. This is close to the size of the whole German population, and the CPC faces many challenges with regard to the task of strengthening the building of such a huge party.