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Full Text of Jiang's Speech at CPC Anniversary Gathering (III)
Following is the third part of the full text of an important speech made by Jiang Zemin, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), at a grand gathering marking the 80th founding anniversary of the CPC at the Great Hall of the People Sunday.
III. To strengthen and improve the Party building in accordance with the requirements of the "Three Represent's" To get the 1.2 billion and more people to march toward the target of socialist modernization in a large and multi-ethnic developing country like ours, it is a must to have the strong leadership of the Communist Party of China. Otherwise, the country will fall into a mess and break up. It will not only fail to realize its modernization but also sink into a chaotic abyss. This is a conclusion drawn by reviewing the modern history of China's development and after analyzing the experiences and lessons of many countries in their development course.
To uphold the Party's leadership calls for improving its leadership. We must follow the basic theory and line of the Party, and strengthen and improve the Party building in an overall and profound manner and in accordance with the requirements of the "Three Represent's". This will enable our Party to be in the forefront of the historical process in which profound changes are taking place in the international situation, to maintain its role as the mainstay of the people of the whole country in the historical process facing up to all kinds of risks and tests at home and abroad, and to remain the strong leading core in the historical process of building socialism with Chinese characteristics.
After 80 years of development, great changes have taken place in the contingent of the Party members, their status and environment, and the tasks of the Party. Our Party has evolved from one that led the people in the fight for seizing the power nationwide to one that has led the people in exercising the state power and to a party in power for a long period of time. It has developed from one that led the national reconstruction under external blockade to one going for all-round reform and opening-up.
The number of new Party members has increased by a big margin, while cadres of a younger generation have been replacing the older ones, and a large number of young cadres have taken leading positions. This has injected new vitality in and given new challenges, as well, to the growth of the Party.
All comrades in the Party should proceed from the new realities and, in the spirit of reform, study and solve major theoretical and practical issues in Party building, so as to enable it to retain progressiveness and purity, and be full of creativity, cohesiveness, and fighting power.
To meet the requirements of the "Three Represent's," we must uphold the Party's ideological line of emancipating our minds and seeking truth from facts. We must carry forward and promote the spirit of practicality, truth-seeking and courage in innovation.
We must go about all the work of the Party and the state creatively and keep enriching and developing Marxism in practice.
Marxism is the fundamental guiding principle for the consolidation of the Party and the development of the country. It also constitutes the common theoretical foundation of the concerted efforts of the people of all ethnic groups. The fundamental tenets of Marxism must never be abandoned, otherwise, we would get lost or come to failure in the pursuit of our cause due to a lack of a correct theoretical basis and ideological soul.
That explains why we must always uphold the basic tenets of Marxism. In terms of theory, Marxism develops with the times. If we dogmatically cling to some individual theses and specific programs of action formulated for a special situation by authors of Marxist classics in the specific historical conditions in spite of the changes in historical conditions and present realities, then we will have difficulty in forging ahead smoothly and we may even make mistakes because our thinking is divorced from reality.
That is one reason why we have remained opposed to dogmatism toward the theory of Marxism. Our Party made mistakes and even suffered serious setbacks in some historical periods. The most important cause for that was the guiding ideology of the Party was divorced from Chinese reality at the time. It was after our Party restored and upheld the ideological line of emancipating the mind and seeking truth from facts that the Party corrected its mistakes, overcame its setbacks and forged ahead triumphantly by relying on the strengths of itself and the people.
The experience and lessons our Party has in this regard have been reviewed systematically in its Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of the Party and Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of the Party since the Founding of the People's Republic of China. These are something that we must never forget. All comrades in the Party must uphold the scientific principles and spirit of Marxism, put changes in the right perspective and sum up fresh experience that people have gained from practice, so as to constantly enrich and develop the theory of Marxism.
With the development of reform, opening up and modernization, the working class in China has expanded steadily. The qualities of the working class have improved markedly in terms of their political awareness, moral standards, scientific and technical and educational level. It has become more progressive. All this has made the Party's class foundation more solid. With intellectuals being part of the working class, the scientific, technical and academic level of the working class has been raised considerably.
Now we have adopted the basic economic system under which public ownership plays a dominant role in the national economy while other forms of ownership develop side by side. We are shaping a socialist market economy and introducing strategic readjustments to the economic structure. Consequently some workers have changed their jobs. But this has not changed the status of the Chinese working class. On the contrary, this will serve to improve the overall quality of the working class and give play to its advantages as a group in the long run. The Chinese working class has always been the basic force for promoting the advanced productive forces in China. Our Party must remain the vanguard of the working class and unswervingly and wholeheartedly rely on the working class.
The main criterion to judge the nature of a political party is its theory and program. If they are Marxist and represent the correct orientation of social development and the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people, the party is an advanced one and the vanguard of the working class. Our Party is a product of integration of Marxism-Leninism with the Chinese workers' movement. The emergence of the working class is an essential condition for founding the Party. During the period of democratic revolution, given the social conditions then, most of our Party members came from peasants and other laborers, quite a few from intellectuals and some from other revolutionaries of non-laborers' background. But the theory and program of our Party were Marxist and represented the correct orientation of China's social development. Our Party attached great importance to building up the Party ideologically and persisted in educating and arming all Party members with Marxist theory. It required Party members to join the Party not just organizationally, but first of all ideologically. It gave them guidance as to how to achieve the Party's program and tasks. All these enabled the Party to keep its nature of being the vanguard of the working class.
Since China adopted the policy of reform and opening up, the composition of China's social strata has changed to some extent. There are, among others, entrepreneurs and technical personnel employed by scientific and technical enterprises of the non-public sector, managerial and technical staff employed by foreign-funded enterprises, the self-employed, private entrepreneurs, employees in intermediaries and free-lance professionals. Moreover, many people frequently move from one ownership, sector or place to another, changing their jobs or capacity from time to time. This trend of developments will continue. Under the guidance of the Party's line, principles and policies, most of these people in the new social strata have contributed to the development of productive forces and other undertakings in a socialist society through honest labor and work or lawful business operation. They work together with workers, farmers, intellectuals, cadres and the officers and men of the PLA. They are also working for building socialism with Chinese characteristics.
To build socialism with Chinese characteristics is a great and arduous cause. It calls for the worthy people from all sectors who are loyal to the motherland and socialism to take action and lead other people in pushing forward this cause. The main criteria to admit a person into the Party are whether he or she works wholeheartedly for the implementation of the Party's line and program and meets the requirements for the Party membership. The basic components and backbone of the Party are those from workers, farmers, intellectuals, servicemen and cadres. At the same time, it is also necessary to accept those outstanding elements from other sectors of the society who have subscribed to the Party's program and Constitution, worked for the Party's line and program wholeheartedly, and proved to meet the requirements for the Party membership through a long period of tests. We should try to enhance the ethical standards and political awareness of our Party members through Party education. This will greatly increase the influence and cohesiveness of the Party in the society at large.
The theory on labor and labor value in a capitalist society advanced by Marxist classical writers brings to light the operational features of the capitalist mode of production and its basic contradictions at that time. At present, we are putting in place a socialist market economy. But the conditions we are faced with are quite different from those the founders of Marxism were faced with and studied. In light of the new conditions, we should make a thorough study of the theory on labor and labor value in a socialist society with a view to achieving a better understanding of this theory. It is our fundamental objective of building socialism to ensure our people their prosperity and well-being. With economic development, our people will live a better life and their personal property will increase gradually. In view of this, it is not advisable to judge a person's political integrity simply by whether one owns property and how much property he or she owns.
But rather, we should judge him or her mainly by his or her political awareness, moral integrity and performance, by how he or she has acquired the property, and how it has be disposed of and used, and by his or her actual contribution to the cause of building socialism with Chinese characteristics.
To meet the requirements of the "Three Represent's", we must adhere to democratic centralism, establish and improve the scientific leadership system and working mechanism, give full scope to inner-Party democracy, resolutely safeguard the centralism and unity of the Party, and maintain and continue to enhance its vitality.
Democratic centralism is our Party's fundamental systems of organization and leadership. Our basic requirement and objectives of upholding and improving democratic centralism are to create a political situation in which there are both centralism and democracy, both discipline and freedom, both unity of will and personal ease of mind and liveliness in the Party.
The Party's work style bears on the image of the Party, the trend of public feeling and the life of the Party. It is essential to strengthen in an all-round way the development of the Party's ideological style, study style, work style, leadership style and the cadres' life style. In light of the new realities, it is necessary to carry forward the Party's fine style, namely, integration of theory with practice, close link with the people and criticism and self-criticism. In the meantime, it is necessary to foster a new style on the basis of summing up new and practical experiences.
All practices that run counter to the requirement of the development of the Party's cause or the interests of the people should be resolutely removed. At present, special attention should be paid to overcoming the state of lethargy and seeking no progress, doing away with the grave alienation from the people and standing firmly against the unhealthy tendency of formalism and bureaucracy. Cadres at all levels must stress practicability and real effects at all times and on all occasions, work with a creative spirit, think and worry about what the people think and worry about, and work faithfully for the good of the people.
All the comrades in the Party must fully recognize, from the perspective of life and death of the Party and the state, the major significance of our fight against corruption and advocacy for clean governance and see through the development of Party's style, the building of a clean government and the battle against corruption. It is essential to have a profound understanding of the long-term, arduous and complex nature of the work against
corruption. Not only is it necessary to be prepared for protracted battles, but also intensify our efforts to address the current issues.
We should adhere to the policy of a comprehensive approach to seek both a temporary solution and a permanent cure and build a solid protective dam ideologically against corruption and erosion. At the same time, we should strive to remove the soil and conditions for the occurrence of corruption through creative institutional measures and work harder to prevent and get rid of corruption at its root. The power in our hands is given by the people. Cadres at all levels are public servants of the people and must be subjected to the supervision by the people and the law. We should, through increased supervision within the Party, by the law and by the people, establish and improve a restrictive mechanism and a supervisory mechanism on the exercise of power in accordance with the law. The key to it is the supervision over leading cadres to ensure that they exercise their power appropriately. All the Party members, the leading cadres in particular, must always be clean, honest and just. They must be able to withstand the test of reform, opening up and being in power, as well as the test of power, money and badger games. They will by no means be allowed to abuse power for personal gains, take bribes or bend the law. Party organizations and leading cadres at all levels must take a clear stand to oppose corruption.
All practices of corruption and corrupt elements shall be found out through investigation without tolerance or lenience. The Party does not allow any hideout for corrupt elements within the Party. We must win the people's confidence with tangible achievements in the building of the Party's style and of a clean government.
All in all, in view of the heavy historical responsibility upon our shoulder and given the impact of international and domestic complexities as well as the test of various risks, it is imperative to constantly strengthen and improve the Party building and temper all Party members into firm Communists. This will enable our Party to forever remain the vanguard of the Chinese working class and that of the Chinese people and Chinese nation at the same time, faithfully represent the development trend of China's advanced productive forces, the orientation of China's advanced culture as well as the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people, and serve as the leadership core for the Chinese socialist cause. (to be continued)
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