How Does Communist Party of China Solve the Critical Issue of Self-Management?

Opinions 11:00 AM - 2024-08-01

Liu Jun, Chinese Consul General in the Kurdistan Region.

Written by Liu Jun, Consul General of the People's Republic of China in the Kurdistan Region

Recently, I have had dialogues with many political party leaders in the Kurdish region of Iraq, exchanging views on the current situation in the region and the upcoming parliamentary elections. During the conversations, some of them showed interest in China's stable and rapid development, and they asked me: As the ruling party, how does the Communist Party of China (CPC) manage a huge country with a population of 1.4 billion? As the big political party, how does the CPC solve the problem of self-management? Although I have tried to explain, due to time constraints, I may not have answered them in a comprehensive and in-depth manner. Therefore, I would like to take this opportunity to offer a more systematic and comprehensive explanation of this important topic, hoping to better answer their questions.

As of the end of 2022, the CPC has more than 98 million members and more than 5 million grassroots party organizations. It can be said that it is truly the world's largest political party in terms of size. For such a big party, which has been in power for a long time in the world's most populous country, the difficulty of managing intraparty affairs should not be underestimated.

If we look at the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolshevick as it was called), it is not hard to conclude that the party once had tens of millions of members, definitely a big party in the world. A brief review of its history shows that when the party had 200,000 members, they successfully overthrowed Tsarism and seized power; when they had 2 million members, they defended against ferocious attack of Hitler's army and eventually won the victory of World War II; but when they had nearly 20 million members, a failed coup occurred in August 1991, and the party collapsed overnight. The lesson is by all means profound!

What problems are likely to arise when a large political party with nearly 100 million members has been ruling for long time? In other words, what are the unique problems being such a big party like the CPC?

In face of temptations of all kinds, how can all party members be consistently remaining true to party’s original aspiration and keep it mission firmly in mind? For a person, it is easy to do a good thing, but it is difficult to do good things all his life. For a political party, especially a large party with such big membership, it is also extremely hard to make so many people maintain firm ideals and beliefs, and to make all party members and cadres believe that any policy or decision should be proceeded from interest of the people and nothing else.

In face of various opinions and views, how can we unify all party members in their words and actions? This is a test of a political party's ability to manage itself. As a huge party, it is extremely difficult to deal with this challenge. As a political party grows in size, along with the deepening of reform and opening up, social interests become diversified, and party members and cadres are inevitably affected by them. Some political sections or small groups might emerge within the party accordingly, acting on their own and thus create trouble later on.

In face of endless issues and challenges, how can we always maintain strong governing ability and leading skill? As a Chinese proverb goes, “In absence of right tools, you can't do the job.” The legitimacy of the ruling party comes from its governing ability and strong leadership in solving problems and getting things done. Importance of it cannot be overemphasized. The world is undergoing profound and complex changes. If the ruling party is complacent, clings to its old ways, it will be extremely dangerous and could be eliminated by history.

As some members and cadres indulge in a life of pleasure and comfort, how can we keep up spirit of hardworking and entrepreneurship? General Secretary Xi Jinping once points out: “After decades of peace in power, many party members and cadres have not experienced the test of life and death, nor have they been honed by severe fights in an harsh environment. So they are prone to purse a life of comfort with a sagging spirit and low morale, and are easily panicked and confused in face of some great struggles.”

In face of good economic and social development situation, how can we always find and solve our own problems in a timely manner? Chinese sages once said, “Be prepared for danger in times of peace” and “He who conquers others is strong, and he who conquers himself is powerful”. These aphorisms mean that we must adopt worst-case scenario approach so as to be invincible. To be truly powerful, we are supposed not to defeat others, but defeat and go beyond ourselves.

In face of corruption and other unhealthy social trends, how can we keep up political integrity within the Party? “Corruption is a cancer of society. If we allow corruption to get undeterred or even get worse, the survival of the party and the country would be threatened. For party to build up a principle of integrity along with a fight against corruption, we believe it has a lot to do with the survival of the party and the country. Also it comes from many historical lessons of ancient and modern times both at home and abroad.” said General Secretary Xi Jinping.

In face of the above problems, how does the CPC solve them?

Looking back at the centennial history of the CPC, why can our party stand out in the intense competition of various political forces? Why can we always stay at the forefront of the times and become the backbone of the Chinese people and the nation? One important reason for this is that our party always adheres to the truth, constantly corrects mistakes, bravely confronts challenges, dares to self revolution, and has extremely strong self repair ability. The CPC has adopted some effective methods in practice.

We must always uphold the interests of the people as the first and foremost. To seek happiness for the Chinese people and rejuvenation for the nation is the original intention and mission of the CPC, which does not have its exclusive interest for itself. Marx and Engels once said in The Communist Manifesto: “ All previous historical movements were movements of minorities, or in the interest of minorities. The proletarian movement is the self-conscious ,independent movement of the immense majority, in the interest of the immense majority.” Our party is a party armed with Marxism. It has always represented fundamental interests of the vast majority of the Chinese people and has never had any special interests of its own. Everything is for the people. As General Secretary Xi Jinping said, “the people's aspiration for a better life is what we are striving for.”

To maintain a high degree of unity and ideological solidarity within the party is critical. Unity is power, and it’s the key to victory. The strength of the party also comes from strong organizational capacity. With efforts to improve intraparty disciplined political activities, effective ideological education, constantly-polished system of the Party Chart and rules, full democratization within the Party, we can make the Party  “as united as a harmonious family, as powerful as a solid steel”. All members must resolutely uphold the authority of the Party’s Central Committee, firmly implement the instructions of the  Committee, and strive for common goals. Within the party, it is absolutely not allowed to have a faction, form small circles or gangs, and there must be no room for behaviors that would undermines the unity, rallying power and combat capability.

We must continuously strengthen the Party's capacity building, enhance the Party's governing and leadership skills. The CPC has always adhered to the concept of building a learning-inclined party.

This puts forward high requirements for party leaders at all levels. Though busy on job, they have to allocate time to study and learn new knowledge so as to promote   theoretical analysis, and apply what they have learned to workplace. At the same time, there must be no room for those  who are useless or seemingly on the run but good for nothing.

We always keep up a good mental state to undertake any act with strong sense of responsibility. To start up a business is challenging, but sustaining it is even harder. It’s not easy to fight and conquer the country, it’s even harder to defend and keep it. Throughout the history, every nation and country has grown and thrived through hard work, self-improvement, and earnest efforts, while decay and decline invariably stem from extravagance, complacency, and debauchery. Pragmatic work brings prosperity to the nation, while empty talk endangers it. Communist Party of China (CPC) adheres to a systemic approach in managing a variety of complex relationships including those between economy and society, government and market, efficiency and fairness, dynamism and order, and development and security. It also needs to handle well relations between the central and regional governments, between developed coastal provinces and underdeveloped ones, and between the strategic layout of industries and coordinated regional development.

With a strong mission of self-revolution, the high-ranking leaders should be role models for rest of the Party. At the end of 2012 the famous “8 rules” was adopted by the Political Bureau of CPC with an aim to promote work style and tackle tough issues like formalism and bureaucracy. Since then, it’s become an important and long-term task for the party leadership to demonstrate strong determination by taking the lead in setting up examples. Knowing it be a long-lasting and tough battle, the Party focuses not only on promoting ideological guidance, but also on behavioral norms and disciplinary accountability. Some high-profile corruption cases have been prosecuted and exposed. After a decade of efforts, we have put an end to some tenacious issues that have not been eradicated for many years, and enabled people to fell more satisfied, happy and secure.

We will never be lenient in fighting corruption and other illegal activities within the party. Anyone who violates party disciplines and national laws, regardless of their position, will be duly investigated and punished. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, over 500 cadres at or above the ministerial level have been prosecuted, with more than 15% of them being central committee members. The disciplinary inspection committees at central and local levels not only investigate high-profile cases, but also tackle corruption at the grassroots. Meanwhile all departments and institutions would be undergoing political inspections every five years in which issues could be detected and rectification followed accordingly.

Our party holds concentrated educational activities every year in order to unify each member’s ideological understanding, and improve the party's internal rules and regulations, restraining power into institutional cage. This year, we focus on party discipline learning and educating program, which last for 4 months. All party members are required to study the newly-revised CPC Regulations on Disciplinary Actions. The purpose is to enhance the awareness of all party members to abide by rules and disciplines.

Solutions to the unique challenges faced by a big party cannot be found and achieved overnight, and it requires a long-term and arduous exploration. In July 1945 China Democratic League founder Mr. Huang Yanpei visited Mao Zedong at his cave in Yan’an. Huang expressed the hope that the new government to be founded by the CPC would break the historical cycle of old regimes that “fell as abruptly and rapidly as they rose”．Mao replied，“We have found a new path to break free of the cycle.

As long as the people can supervise the government we dare not slacken in our efforts．” Now our party has found second answer to that question, which is self-revolution.

The world has entered the 3rd decade of 21st century, as globalization continues to grow, each country are confronted with challenges of many kinds. Now in pursuit of national rejuvenation with its unique path to modernization through peaceful development, China always upholds principle of global multi-polarization and democratization of international relations. The CPC is willing to engage in friendly dialogues with other political parties in the world, including Iraq, so as to promote exchange and cooperation, share experience in governance of the party and the country, learn from each other in terms of civilizations, improve leadership and governance capabilities, work together to promote mutual respect, mutual support and help each other to succeed. By doing these all together, we hope to build up a global community of shared future for mankind.