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Read in Chinese

Speakers:

Mr. Xiao Pei, deputy secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and vice chairman of the National Supervisory Commission

Mr. Xu Qifang, deputy director of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee

Mr. Tian Peiyan, deputy director of the Policy Research Office of the CPC Central Committee

Chairperson:

Mr. Chen Wenjun, head of the International Press Bureau of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee

Date:

Oct. 17, 2022

Chen Wenjun:

Ladies and gentlemen, friends from the media, good afternoon. Welcome to the press conference held by the Press Center for the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

Today, we have invited three delegates to the 20th CPC National Congress to brief you on exercising full and rigorous Party self-governance and advancing the great new project of Party building in the new era. They are Mr. Xiao Pei, deputy secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) of the CPC and vice chairman of the National Supervisory Commission; Mr. Xu Qifang, deputy director of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee; and Mr. Tian Peiyan, deputy director of the Policy Research Office of the CPC Central Committee.

Now, let's give the floor to Mr. Xiao Pei for his introduction.

Xiao Pei:

Ladies and gentlemen, friends, good afternoon. The 20th CPC National Congress opened yesterday, drawing widespread attention both at home and abroad. General Secretary Xi Jinping's report laying out the strategic arrangements for advancing Party building is a reminder of the remarkable journey the Party has been on in exercising full and rigorous self-governance in the new era. Hearing General Secretary Xi's report, we deeply felt the inspiring convictions and a powerful source of strength.

Ten years ago, when General Secretary Xi Jinping met domestic and international journalists upon the conclusion of the 18th CPC National Congress, he stressed that the Party's goal corresponded to the people's aspirations for a better life, and that under the new circumstances, there were many pressing problems within the Party that needed to be resolved, such as corruption, disengagement from the people, pointless formalities and bureaucratism. He urged all Party members to stay on full alert and keep firmly in mind the old adage that it takes a good blacksmith to forge good steel.

Over the past decade, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core exercised full and rigorous Party self-governance as part of its overall strategy, and conducted an unprecedentedly tough fight against corruption with the resolve to "offend a few thousand rather than fail 1.4 billion." With a decade of unswerving efforts, great progress has been made in the full and rigorous self-governance of the Party in the new era. We have transformed lax and weak governance over the Party; prevented the Party from betraying its essence or changing its color due to sprawling corruption, the Four Malfeasances (pointless formalities, bureaucratism, hedonism and extravagance) and pursuit of privilege; and kept the infiltration and interference from interest groups and establishment groups at bay. We have seized the historical initiative by maintaining close ties with the people and winning their heartfelt support, as well as ensuring the Party's great solidarity and unity, its position at the forefront of the times, and its role in leading the people toward great national rejuvenation.

Exercising full and rigorous Party self-governance is a distinct theme of Party building in the new era. Giving top priority to its political work and upholding the centralized, unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee as its foremost political principle, the Party has made great efforts to regulate political activities and conduct within the Party and enhance political oversight to ensure that the Party's theories, guidelines, principles and policies as well as the decisions and arrangements of the CPC Central Committee achieve the desired results. The Party has started from formulating and implementing the central Party leadership's eight-point decisions on improving conduct, and continued efforts to tackle the Four Malfeasances, thus reversing unhealthy tendencies that had long gone unchecked, remedying deep-seated problems that had plagued the Party for years, and further consolidating the political foundation for the Party's long-term governance.

The CPC has strengthened discipline in the whole Party. Remaining committed to the principle of rigorous self-governance, the Party has enforced rigorous political discipline and rules through genuine, brave and constant efforts. The Party has maintained zero tolerance of corruption and taken coordinated action to ensure that officials do not have the audacity, opportunity or desire to become corrupt. We have resolutely investigated corruption cases in which political and economic issues are intertwined and punished corruption that affects people's lives. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the discipline inspection and supervisory organs nationwide have placed 4.648 million cases on file for investigation and prosecution, among which 553 officials registered at and supervised by the CPC Central Committee were investigated and over 25,000 officials at the department or bureau level and over 182,000 officials at the county and director level were punished. An overwhelming victory has been won in the anti-corruption campaign and the success has been consolidated.

A hundred years on from its founding, the CPC, which has undergone revolutionary tempering through full and rigorous Party self-governance in the new era, is still in its prime. It has found self-reform as the second answer to the question of how to escape the historical cycle of rise and fall.

The 20th CPC National Congress has made strategic arrangements on exercising full and rigorous Party self-governance and advancing the great new project of Party building in the new era. We will acquire a deeper understanding of the decisive significance of the Two Affirmations (the affirmation of both Comrade Xi Jinping's core position on the Party Central Committee and in the Party as a whole and the guiding role of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era), and strengthen the Four Consciousnesses (consciousness of the need to maintain political integrity, think in big-picture terms, follow the leadership core, and keep in alignment with the central Party leadership). We will adhere to the Four-sphere Confidence (confident in the path, the theory, the system, and the culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics), and firmly adhere to the Two Upholds (uphold Comrade Xi Jinping's core position on the CPC Central Committee and in the Party as a whole and uphold the Central Committee's authority and its centralized, unified leadership). We will consciously arm ourselves with Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. We will uphold and strengthen the centralized, unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee, improve the institutions for carrying out self-reform of the Party, improve Party conduct and enforce rigorous Party discipline, and resolutely make decisive efforts to win the protracted war against corruption. The Party will better steer social transformation by engaging in self-transformation. These are firm guarantees for China's endeavor in building a modern socialist country in all respects. Thank you.

Chen Wenjun:

Thank you, Mr. Xiao Pei. Now, let's give the floor to Mr. Xu Qifang for his introduction.

Xu Qifang:

Friends from the media, ladies and gentlemen, I'm very glad to meet you. Yesterday, the 20th CPC National Congress opened and we heard the report delivered by General Secretary Xi Jinping. The report with a distinct theme is profound in thoughts and rich in connotations. It is a political declaration and a guide inspiring the whole Party and all the Chinese people to write a new chapter in building a modern socialist country in all respects. I will brief you on implementing the guiding principles for the Party's organizational work in the new era.

At the national conference on organizational work in July 2018, General Secretary Xi Jinping for the first time elaborated on the full content and connotations of the guiding principles for the Party's organizational work, pointing out a clear direction and offering sound guidance for strengthening the Party's organizational building in the new era. The Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee as well as local authorities and various departments across the country have studied and implemented the guiding principles of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speeches as a major political task to ensure the implementation of the guiding principles for the Party's organizational work in the new era.

First, we have upheld and strengthened the Party's overall leadership. With reinforcing the Party's political foundations as the priority, we have strengthened the Four Consciousnesses, bolstered the Four-sphere Confidence, and ensured the Two Upholds with greater initiative, thus remarkably consolidating the Party's core leadership role.

Second, we have armed ourselves with the Party's new theories. We have studied and implemented Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as the primary political task, and carried out the campaign to raise the awareness of staying true to the original aspiration and upholding the founding mission of the Party and activities to study the history of the CPC, thus achieving more solid progress in arming ourselves with the Party's new theories.

Third, we have improved the organizational system featuring unimpeded communication and effective policy implementation at all levels. We have focused on building strong primary-level Party organizations, which have performed a decisive role in poverty alleviation, rural revitalization and the COVID-19 response. Party members also played an exemplary and vanguard role in these endeavors.

Fourth, we have cultivated a workforce of high-quality professional officials. We fully implemented the standards of competent officials in the new era, who are expected to be loyal, honest and responsible. We built and improved five systems related to officials, namely, training professional skills, putting people in suitable posts, selection and appointment of officials, rigorous management and positive incentives. We also pushed forward the reform of the categorized management of civil servants. We have thus cultivated officials who are politically committed, meet the requirements of the new era, and are qualified to lead the country's modernization drive.

Fifth, we have implemented the strategy of building a high-quality workforce in the new era. A central conference on talent-related work was held, and more efforts were made to build talent centers and innovation hubs of global importance. We deepened institutional reforms for talent development, carried out key talent projects, and worked to break new ground in talent work in the new era.

Sixth, we have remained committed to institutional, rules-based governance over the Party. We have continuously deepened the institutional reform of Party building, which has contributed to creating sounder, more systematic and standardized Party building.

The report to the 20th CPC National Congress has laid out clear requirements for Party building and organizational work. We must make great efforts to understand and implement them, and focus on the following aspects.

First, we will continuously arm ourselves with the Party's new theories, and motivate Party organizations at all levels and Party members and officials to step up their efforts to study Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. We will work to ensure that they acquire a deep understanding of the decisive significance of the Two Affirmations, and are resolutely committed to the Two Upholds.

Second, we will coordinate learning and collective training on the guiding principles of the 20th CPC National Congress to ensure that Party members and officials follow the guidance of the 20th CPC National Congress through unified thought and action.

Third, we must bear in mind China's fundamental interests, make unremitting efforts to select officials, pool talent and improve work at the primary level, as well as push forward high-quality development of the Party's organizational work in the new era, in order to provide strong organizational support for building a modern socialist country in all respects and advancing the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. That is all from me. Thank you.

Chen Wenjun:

Thank you, Mr. Xu Qifang. Now, let's give the floor to Mr. Tian Peiyan for his introduction.

Tian Peiyan:

Friends from the press, good afternoon. Here, I'd like to brief you on the achievements in theoretical innovations in Party building.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping has, in light of the new requirements for Party leadership and building based on the development of conditions and tasks, and concentrating on answering the fundamental questions of what kind of long-term governing Marxist party the Party should build itself into and how to build such a party, thoroughly explored the laws on governance by a communist party and its self-building, put forward a series of new concepts, ideas and strategies for governance over the Party, and made significant theoretical achievements and ground-breaking contributions to enriching and developing Marxist party building theory. 

The theoretical achievements are rich in content, and can be summarized as follows. The overall requirements for Party building in the new era have been proposed, clarifying the policies, main tasks, focus, as well as overall plans and goals. The strategy for exercising full and rigorous governance over the Party has been put forward, emphasizing full governance as the foundation, rigorous governance as the pivot and governance itself as the crux to ensure such governance is conducted in a genuine, brave and constant manner. It has been pointed out that self-reform is the second answer to the question of how can the Party escape the historical cycle of rise and fall, and that the Party must boost its ability to purify, improve, renew, and excel itself.

It has been put forth that the Party's leadership is the defining feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics and constitutes the greatest strength of this system, and that the Party is the highest force for political leadership. It has been proposed that the Party's political building is of fundamental importance to the Party as it determines the direction and efficacy of Party building. It has been set out that the great founding spirit of the Party is the Party's source of strength, and that ideals and convictions are the source of strength, political soul and "spiritual calcium" of Chinese Communists.

Moreover, the guiding principles for Party's organizational work in the new era has been put forward and criteria for judging competent officials have been specified, stressing that the organizational system featuring unimpeded communication and effective policy implementation at all levels should be improved and primary-level Party organizations should be strengthened both politically and organizationally. It has also been set out that the Party's conduct amounts to its image, and, like a barometer, indicates the relationship between the Party, officials and the public, and tells us how the support of the public will shift. As such, unremitting efforts must be made to improve conduct, while the practices of pointless formalities, bureaucratism, hedonism and extravagance must be resolutely fought against. The fight against corruption is a major political struggle that the Party cannot afford to lose and must never lose. Punishments, deterrents, institutional restraint and efforts to raise political awareness should all be put in place to ensure that officials do not have the audacity, opportunity or desire to become corrupt.

Public power, entrusted by the people, is and will always be exercised for public good; Party and state oversight systems should be improved, and checks and scrutiny over the exercise of power should be strengthened. Institutional building and rule-based governance over the Party should be employed as essential tools in its full and rigorous self-governance. A set of institutions that are well conceived, fully built, procedure-based, and functioning efficiently must also be developed. Sound Party building is the highest career accomplishment, and the assumption of responsibilities for exercising full and rigorous Party self-governance must be ensured.

These theoretical achievements have provided the fundamental guidance for exercising full and rigorous Party self-governance, demonstrated strong power of truth and great practical significance when guiding the great new project of Party building, strengthened the overall leadership by the Party, significantly enhanced the Party's ability to provide political leadership, give theoretical guidance, organize the people, and inspire society, addressed the problem of lax and weak self-governance in Party organizations at the root, and made the Party stronger through revolutionary tempering, offering a strong political underpinning to the historic achievements and changes in the cause of the Party and the country. Thank you.