Full text of Hu Jintao's report at 18th Party Congress (13)

XII. Making Party Building More Scientific in All Respects

Rallying and leading the people in completing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects, in advancing socialist modernization and in achieving the great renewal of the Chinese nation is an important mission for our Party. When the Party maintains its strength and close ties with the people, China enjoys prosperity and stability and the Chinese people live in peace and happiness. Facing the new developments, the progress in our cause and the expectation the people have of us, we should comprehensively carry out the great new undertaking of Party building in an innovative reform-driven manner and make Party building more scientific in all respects.

The whole Party must bear in mind that only by taking root among the people and delivering benefits to them can the Party remain invincible, and that only by being on guard against adversity in times of peace and forging boldly ahead can the Party remain in the forefront of the times. Under new conditions, the Party faces complicated and severe long-term tests in exercising governance, carrying out reform and opening up and developing the market economy as well as tests from the external environment. And the whole Party is confronted with increasingly grave dangers of lacking in drive, incompetence, being out of touch with the people, corruption and other misconduct. We should steadily improve the Party's art of leadership and governance; and increase its ability to resist corruption, prevent degeneration and ward off risks - this is a major issue the Party must solve in order to consolidate its position as the governing party and carry out its mission of governance. All Party members must heighten their sense of urgency and sense of responsibility and focus on strengthening the Party's governance capacity, advanced nature and purity. We should continue to free up our minds and carry out reform and innovation, and uphold the principle that the Party should supervise its own conduct and run itself with strict discipline. We should make all-around efforts to strengthen the Party theoretically and organizationally and improve its conduct. We should become better able to fight corruption, uphold Party integrity and improve Party rules and regulations. We should enhance our capacity for self-purity, self-improvement, self-development and self-innovation and build the Party into an innovative, service-oriented and learning Marxist governing party. By taking these steps, we can ensure that the Party is always the firm leadership core guiding the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

1. Be firm in our ideal and conviction and remain true to the faith of Communists

Communists' faith in Marxism, socialism and communism is their political soul and sustains them in all tests. We should give high priority to developing the Party's theory, which is essential for Party building. We should study Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought and the system of theories of socialism with Chinese characteristics and intensively study and apply the Scientific Outlook on Development. We should build learning Party organizations, educate Party members and officials in our shared ideal of socialism with Chinese characteristics and encourage them to unremittingly pursue this ideal. We should intensify education in the Party spirit, which is at the core of Party building, study Party history, and gain a full understanding of the experience and lessons reviewed in the Party's two resolutions on certain questions in its history. We should carry forward the Party's fine traditions and conduct and make its members and officials develop a firm and correct worldview and a firm and correct attitude toward power and career, take a committed political stand and become better able to tell right from wrong on major issues of principle. We should raise the moral standards of Party members, which are the foundation of Party building, encourage Party members and officials to become role models in practicing socialist views on honor and disgrace, and urge them to observe the Party spirit and ethical standards and set good examples for the public. We should encourage Party members and officials to become paragons of socialist ethics, lead in fostering a social trend of honesty and integrity, uphold fairness and justice, and thus demonstrate with concrete actions the moral integrity of Communists.

2. Put people first, exercise governance for the people and always maintain close ties with them

Serving the people is the fundamental purpose of the Party, and putting people first and exercising governance for the people is the ultimate yardstick for judging all the Party's performance in this regard. At all times we must put the people's interests above everything else, be of one mind with the people, share a common destiny with them, and rely on them to propel history forward. To maintain the Party's advanced nature and purity, we should carry out intensive activities throughout the Party to study and practice its mass line, with the focus on the need to serve the people and to be down-to-earth, honest and upright in conduct. We should solve pressing problems of keen concern to the people, and raise our ability to do people-related work well under new conditions. We should improve the system for Party members and officials to maintain direct contact with the people. We should consult the people on governance, learn about their needs, seek their advice, and draw wisdom and strength from their great practices. We should endeavor to bring prosperity to the people and promote national renewal, be eager to blaze new trails and live up to our responsibility, and deliver more concrete services to the satisfaction of the people. We should always work hard and practice economy. We should make determined efforts to improve the style of writing and the conduct of meetings, and reject undesirable practices such as mediocrity, laziness, laxity and extravagance, the practice of just going through formalities, and bureaucratism. We should use the Party's fine conduct to enhance Party cohesiveness, win popular support and improve the conduct of the government and the general public. We should support people's organizations such as trade unions, the Chinese Communist Youth League and women's federations in fully playing their roles as bridges linking the Party and government with the people, voicing public concern and protecting people's legitimate rights and interests.

3. Vigorously promote intra-Party democracy and enhance the Party's creative vitality

Intra-Party democracy is the life of the Party. We should adhere to democratic centralism, improve institutions for intra-Party democracy, and promote people's democracy with intra-Party democracy. We should uphold the principal position of Party members, better protect their democratic rights, and conduct criticism and self-criticism. We should foster comradely relations based on equality and democratic principles, a political atmosphere that encourages democratic discussion, and an institutional environment for democratic oversight. We should ensure that Party members have the right to stay informed of, participate in and oversee Party affairs, as well as the right to vote. We should improve the system of Party congresses, raise the proportion of delegates from among workers and farmers to them, implement and improve the tenure system for delegates to Party congresses, experiment with a system of annual sessions of the Party congresses at the town and township level, proceed with trials of the system of Party congresses with a fixed term in selected counties and county-level cities and districts, and introduce the system for delegates to Party congresses to submit proposals. We should improve the system of intra-Party election, and standards governing multi-candidate nomination and election, and create procedures and a climate that fully embody the will of voters. We should strengthen the decision-making and oversight role of plenary sessions of Party committees and improve procedural rules and decision-making procedures of their standing committees. We should also improve the system for local Party committees to make decisions on major issues and appoint key officials by ballot. We should expand intra-Party democracy at the community level, improve the system for Party members to assess the performance of leading bodies of community-level Party organizations on a regular basis, make arrangements for Party members to sit in on meetings of community-level Party committees and for delegates to Party congresses to attend relevant meetings of Party committees at the same levels, both in non-voting capacity, and thus conduct intra-Party activities in strict accordance with these principles and make them more transparent.

4. Deepen reform of the system for the management of officials and personnel and build a contingent of competent key officials for governance

To uphold and build socialism with Chinese characteristics, it is imperative to build a contingent of key officials for governance who are firm in political conviction, competent and energetic and have fine conduct. We should adhere to the principle of the Party supervising the performance of officials. We should appoint officials on their merits without regard to their origins, select officials on the basis of both their moral integrity and their professional competence with priority given to the former, and promote officials who are outstanding in performance and enjoy popular support. We should deepen reform of the system for the management of officials and personnel so that officials with outstanding performance in all fields will come to the fore in large numbers, and we should tap their potential to the full and put their talent to best use. We should fully and strictly implement the principle of selecting officials in a democratic, open, competitive and merits-based way, make the management of them more democratic, enhance democracy, improve the way of selecting officials through competition, increase public trust in the selection and appointment of officials and ensure that honest people are not disadvantaged and schemers do not have their way. We should improve the system for assessing the performance of officials and require leading officials to view their performance for what it is. We should improve the system for the management of officials, conduct strict supervision over them, strengthen training and selection of officials as heads of Party and government bodies or for other key positions, and improve the public servant system. We should improve the composition of leading bodies and the mix of the ranks of officials, give high priority to training and selecting officials from among those working on the frontline or in local communities, and widen the channel for outstanding individuals from society at large to become Party and government officials. We should reform the personnel management system in state-owned enterprises and public institutions. We should strengthen and improve education and training of officials to enhance their competence. We should make greater efforts to train and select outstanding young officials, attach importance to training and selecting officials from among women and ethnic minorities, and encourage young officials to work and gain experience in local communities and in hardship areas. We should provide full services for retired officials.

5. Adhere to the principle of the Party exercising leadership over personnel management and attract outstanding individuals from all over for the cause of the Party and country

Widening channels to attract talent is important for advancing the cause of the Party and people. We should respect work, knowledge, talent and creation, pursue at a faster pace the strategy of training competent personnel as a priority to build a large contingent of such personnel, and turn China from a country with large human resources into one with a large pool of competent professionals. We should coordinate the training of all types of personnel, implement major projects for training and attracting high-caliber personnel, give more support to the training of innovative and entrepreneurial personnel, prioritize the training of people with practical skills, and encourage the flow of talents to the frontlines of research and production. We should fully develop and utilize human resources both at home and abroad, and actively attract high-caliber personnel from overseas and turn them to good use. We should accelerate reform of institutions and mechanisms for talent development, adopt innovative policies for this purpose and establish a national system of honors. We should form an internationally competitive personnel system that is capable of firing the creativity and talent of people, and thus foster a dynamic environment in which everyone can fully tap their potential and put their talent to best use.

6. Promote community-level Party building in an innovative way and consolidate the organizational foundation for the exercise of governance by the Party

Community-level Party organizations play a key role in rallying and leading the people in implementing the Party's theories, line, principles and policies and in carrying out its tasks. We should implement the system of responsibility for Party building, strengthen Party organizations in both rural and urban communities, step up efforts to establish and strengthen Party organizations in non-public economic entities and social organizations, and carry out community-level Party building in all areas. We should expand the coverage of Party organizations and Party work, fully leverage the role of community-level Party organizations in enhancing development, serving the people, rallying public support and promoting harmony, and ensure that efforts to strengthen community-level Party organizations also spur the development of all other community-level organizations. We should improve the network of community-level Party organizations, enhance the competence of their leaders, further integrate Party building resources in urban and rural areas, and ensure sufficient funding for community-level Party organizations. We should make community-level Party organizations more service-oriented, with serving the people and engaging in people-related work being their main tasks. We should strengthen and improve education and management of Party members, with a focus on enhancing their Party spirit and raising their overall quality, improve the permanent mechanism for encouraging them to excel in their work, and encourage them to be vanguards and role models. We should ensure that Party members participate in Party activities regularly, and improve regular review of Party members' Party spirit and democratic evaluation of their performance. We should improve education and management of Party members among the floating population and provide better services for them. We should recruit better qualified people into the Party, and give high priority to recruiting new members from among young workers, farmers and intellectuals. We should perfect the mechanism for recruiting and disqualifying Party members so as to improve the composition of Party membership.

7. Unswervingly combat corruption and preserve Communists' political character of integrity

Combating corruption and promoting political integrity, which is a major political issue of great concern to the people, is a clear-cut and long-term political commitment of the Party. If we fail to handle this issue well, it could prove fatal to the Party, and even cause the collapse of the Party and the fall of the state. We must thus make unremitting efforts to combat corruption, promote integrity and stay vigilant against degeneration. We should keep to the Chinese-style path of combating corruption and promoting integrity. We should persist in combating corruption in an integrated way, addressing both its symptoms and root causes, and combining punishment and prevention, with emphasis on the latter. We should advance in an all-around way the establishment of a system of combating corruption through both punishment and prevention and see to it that officials are honest, the government is clean, and political integrity is upheld. We should strengthen education about combating corruption and promoting clean government and improve the culture of clean government. Leading officials at all levels, especially high-ranking officials, must readily observe the code of conduct on clean governance and report all important facts concerned. They should both exercise strict self-discipline and strengthen education and supervision over their family and staff; and they should never seek any privilege. We should ensure that strict procedures are followed in the exercise of power, and tighten oversight over the exercise of power by leading officials, especially principal leading officials. We should deepen reform of key areas and crucial links, improve the system of anti-corruption laws, prevent and manage risks to clean government, avoid conflict of interests, prevent and fight corruption more effectively and in a more scientific way, and increase international anti-corruption cooperation. We should rigorously implement the system of accountability for improving Party conduct and upholding integrity. We should improve the system of discipline supervision and inspection, improve the unified management of representative offices of Party commissions for discipline inspection, and enable discipline inspectors to better play their role of supervision. We must maintain a tough position in cracking down on corruption at all times, conduct thorough investigations into major corruption cases and work hard to resolve problems of corruption that directly affect the people. All those who violate Party discipline and state laws, whoever they are and whatever power or official positions they have, must be brought to justice without mercy.

8. Strictly enforce Party discipline and willingly uphold centralized leadership of the Party

Centralized leadership of the Party is the source of its strength and a fundamental guarantee for China's economic and social development, ethnic unity and progress, and enduring peace and stability. The more complexities the Party faces and the more arduous the tasks it undertakes, the more imperative it is for the Party to strengthen its discipline and uphold centralized leadership. Party organizations at all levels and all Party members and officials, especially principal leading officials, must willingly abide by the Party Constitution as well as its organizational principles and guiding principles for its political activities; and no one is allowed to place oneself above the Party organization. All Party organizations and members must resolutely uphold the authority of the Central Committee and maintain a high degree of unity with it theoretically, politically and in action. We must faithfully implement the Party's theories, line, principles and policies and ensure that the decisions of the Central Committee are carried out effectively; and we will never allow anyone to take countermeasures against them or disregard them. We will strengthen oversight and inspection, strictly enforce Party discipline, political discipline in particular, and take stern actions against violations of Party discipline. We must ensure that all are equal before discipline, that nobody has the privilege of not observing it and that no exception should be made in its enforcement. This will enable the whole Party from leadership to the ranks to advance in unison as a great force.