The fifth plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has adopted the Decision of the CCP Central Committee on Several Major Issues Concerning Sustained Efforts to Advance Full and Rigorous Party Self-Governance. The decision sets out a systematic plan for governing the party in the new phase, covering party-building, oversight of officials and the fight against corruption.
The CCP Central Committee held a press conference on Friday (30 October), at which senior officials from the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), the Organisation Department, the Publicity Department, the Central Policy Research Office and the Central Party School explained the plenum’s key messages. Taken together, their remarks outlined a central theme: guided by Xi Jinping’s thought on party-building, the plan makes strengthening party spirit a fundamental task, prioritises strict oversight of officials, and useeffort to improve conduct, enforce discipline and combat corruption as key levers. It also seeks to strengthen accountability for party governance through better rules and oversight systems.
Academics interviewed said that since the CCP’s 18th National Congress, standards of conduct for party members and officials, oversight mechanisms and procedures for handling disciplinary violations have become increasingly institutionalised. The fifth plenum’s emphasis on full and rigorous party self-governance is intended to pave the way for the 21st National Congress, to be held in the second half of next year.
Tang Fangyu, director of the Central Policy Research Office, told the press conference that the drafting of the decision was guided by Xi Jinping’s thought on party-building, which informed all its provisions. Xi headed the drafting group, personally did the planning, guided it throughout and set its direction. He “devoted immense effort and played a decisive role” in drafting the document, Tang said.
This is also the first time since the CCP’s 18th National Congress that a Central Committee plenum has deliberated on and adopted a decision focused on sustained efforts to advance full and rigorous party self-governance.
Hu Heping, executive deputy head of the CCP Central Committee’s Publicity Department, said strengthening party spirit was a fundamental task in full and rigorous party self-governance. The decision requires party spirit to be an important component of assessments of officials and democratic appraisals of party members. The findings are to be used in selecting and appointing officials, as well as in awarding honours and recognising exemplary performance.
He stressed the need to strictly implement democratic centralism, as well as strengthen oversight of major decisions, important personnel appointments and removals, major project arrangements and the use of large sums of money. At the same time, it is also integral to regulate how top leaders perform their duties and exercise power, and strengthen oversight of leadership teams at the same level.
Huang Jianfa, executive deputy head of the CCP Central Committee’s Organisation Department, stressed that strict oversight of officials was the key to full and rigorous party self-governance. The decision calls for sound criteria in personnel selection, favouring officials who are loyal to the party, consistent in word and deed, responsible, outstanding and honest. Those who shirk difficulties and responsibilities, are mediocre and idle, or work superficially must not be appointed. Those who are disloyal to the party, feign compliance while acting otherwise, or abuse power for personal gain must be removed.
Responding to a question from Lianhe Zaobao (LHZB) about officials “fearing accountability and not daring to act”, Huang identified three forms of inaction: unwillingness to act because of a lack of drive; fear of acting because something might go wrong; and inability to act effectively because of insufficient competence. He stressed that “strictness does not mean stifling everyone”. Strict management imposes restraints but also protects good officials, he said. Severely punishing corrupt officials also encourages and protects those who serve with integrity.
To this end, the decision calls for personnel selection to value and reward those willing to take responsibility, improvements to performance appraisals, and the correction of misguided views of what constitutes achievement. It seeks to address the problem of officials being treated alike regardless of how much work they do or how well they do it, and to improve mechanisms that encourage and protect those who take responsibility and act. Huang said: “When officials take responsibility for the cause, the organisation must take responsibility for them.”
He also stressed the need to investigate and deal firmly with malicious false accusations, and to clear the names of officials subjected to unfounded reports. This would mean standing by those who take responsibility and backing those who get things done. This year’s education campaign on establishing and practising a correct view of performance and achievement provides strong support for leadership transitions at all local levels and the start of the 15th Five-Year Plan.
Zhang Fuhai, deputy secretary of the CCDI and vice-chairman of the National Commission of Supervision, said that since the CCP’s 18th National Congress, discipline inspection and supervisory bodies nationwide had investigated 1.644 million cases involving the “four undesirable work styles”, with 2.257 million people criticised, educated or otherwise dealt with. They had opened 8.105 million cases and imposed disciplinary sanctions on 7.922 million people, including 963 officials under central management.
He said the fight against corruption remained grave and complex, and sustained pressure was needed to punish corruption. Priority is given to cases in which political and economic problems are intertwined, collusions between officials and businesses, and the penetration of capital into the political sphere, alongside thorough investigations into new and hidden forms of corruption.
He summarised China’s distinctive approach to fighting corruption in three principles: upholding the centralised, unified leadership of the CCP Central Committee; addressing both symptoms and root causes; and advancing together efforts to ensure officials dare not, cannot and do not want to be corrupt. On oversight, the decision requires party committees and leading party members’ groups to exercise comprehensive oversight, coordinate disciplinary, supervisory, stationed and inspection-based oversight, improve grassroots oversight systems, and more closely integrate internal party oversight with other forms of oversight.
Xie Chuntao, executive vice-president of the Central Party School (National Academy of Governance), said the decision set out measures in three areas: improving the system of internal party regulations, strengthening enforcement and eliminating unwritten rules. It calls for unwritten rules to be dismantled through measures including greater transparency in party and government affairs, and stronger education and guidance.
To strengthen accountability for party governance, the decision specifies the primary responsibility of party committees and leading party members’ groups, the oversight responsibility of discipline inspection commissions, party secretaries’ responsibility as the persons principally accountable, other leadership team members’ dual responsibility for their portfolios and party governance, and the specific responsibilities of party members and officials. Party committees and leading party members’ groups at county level and above must hear reports from leadership team members on the discharge of their responsibilities at least once a year. Lower-level discipline inspection commissions and stationed discipline inspection and supervisory teams must report at least once every six months to higher-level commissions or the bodies that dispatched them. These reports must cover how members of party committees or leading party members’ groups, particularly their top leaders, perform their duties and exercise power, as well as how the reporting bodies themselves fulfil their oversight responsibilities.
Chang Chih-chung, a professor at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Taiwan’s Kainan University, told LHZB that the fifth plenum’s reaffirmation of full and rigorous party self-governance was intended to endorse the course pursued since the 18th National Congress and pave the way for the 21st. On the one hand, it requires officials to implement the central leadership’s decisions and plans and consciously align themselves with it. On the other, investigations into disciplinary and legal violations serve as a warning to retired officials to remain aligned with the central leadership.
Chang said that as the decision further strengthens accountability for party governance, it would be worth watching whether the number of full and alternate Central Committee members facing disciplinary action in future exceeds the 34 at this plenum.
