KEEPING FAITH

Xi Jinping has called belief the "master switch" for the CPC. "Ideals and belief are like vitamins for communists," said the president of the second phase of the "mass line" campaign in January this year.

Without ideals and belief the Party will suffer from "vitamin deficiency" and consequently get "rickets". Cultivating belief in every Party member is the foremost task of the mass-line campaign.

It was unprecedented for a CPC leader to take part in the session in Hebei last September where provincial officials talked their problems.

Xi shared his thoughts with the CPC Hebei provincial committee in August: "I don't want to hear fancy words from you when I take part in your sessions. I want real criticisms and self-criticisms."

And the criticisms were for real. They analyzed their own conduct, exposed their failings, analyzed the causes and made plans to set things right. Shortcomings confessed to included obsession with show off work performance, slackness and self-indulgence.

Zhou Benshun, secretary of the Hebei committee believes that frailty of belief and poor theoretical study as the root causes of bad working practices.

Xi told Hebei officials never to waver in their faith and strive for "the common ideal of socialism with Chinese characteristics".

"If you cannot rouse yourself and our Party cannot rouse itself, then who will wake you up?" Xi asked.

The Hebei session was covered by state news institutions nationwide and became a textbook case of how criticism sessions should be conducted.

Previous Chinese leaders have expounded the importance of faith to the CPC and set examples as models of firm belief.

In 1925, Mao Zedong wrote, "I have faith in communism and advocate a proletarian social revolution."

Deng Xiaoping, who orchestrated reform and opening-up, told a CPC national conference in 1985 that: "In the past, however small or weak our party was, and whatever difficulties it faced, we maintained a great fighting capacity thanks to our faith in Marxism and communism. With common ideals we have strict discipline. Now, as in the past and in the future, that is our real strength."

Addressing a symposium in 1999 to mark the 78th anniversary of the CPC, Jiang Zemin, then general secretary of the central committee, said "Communists should adhere to socialism and communism as their fundamental political convictions, as well as Marxist dialectical materialism and historical materialism as their outlook on the world."

In 2006, Hu Jintao, Xi's predecessor, told a ceremony for the 70th anniversary of the Long March that, "a lofty ideal and firm belief should be upheld as a great banner for pooling cohesive force and inspiring people to advance, as well as the source of strength for overcoming difficulties and winning battles."

In the CPC's 93 years, communists have shed their blood and sacrificed generation after generation in their pursuit of national independence and liberation. Faith has guided and supported the CPC through decades of revolution and construction in peaceful times. In the face of temptations and challenges, Xi has called on all Party members to use their faith to make themselves "indestructible."

Once communists cast aside their ambitions, it is easy for them to get lost, become utilitarians and begin to pursue immediate pleasure. Some will use official positions to seek personal gain, the president warned.

The mass-line campaign has taken CPC members and officials on a purifying journey by teaching them to "look in the mirror, straighten their attire, take a bath, and seek remedies."

It has inspired CPC members to face up to their weak faith and spiritual "vitamin deficiency". It has blown the dusty cobwebs from their minds.