How a ruling party rules itself -- CPC's perspective

BEIJING, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- With more than 100 million members and the responsibility of governing a country of over 1.4 billion people, the Communist Party of China (CPC) faces an enduring task: identifying and addressing issues within its own ranks.

The task has taken on fresh relevance as the CPC prepares to convene the fifth plenary session of its 20th Central Committee in Beijing on Monday. The four-day meeting is scheduled to deliberate on a draft decision on several major issues on persistently advancing full and rigorous Party self-governance.

As Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, has pointed out, the CPC's full and rigorous self-governance is a great practice in the Party's self-reform in the new era, and has created a new frontier in its self-reform.

WHY PERSISTENT SELF-REFORM?

At a gathering marking the CPC's 105th founding anniversary in July, Xi said the Party focuses on self-strengthening and always brims with vigor and vitality, referring to it as one of its fine qualities with no parallel among other political parties and political forces.

In its pursuit of a better life for the Chinese people, the Party has addressed development challenges through comprehensively deepening reform, while pursuing self-reform to enhance its governing capacity.

Since the reform and opening-up in 1978, China has undergone profound transformations. Having achieved tremendous success from humble beginnings, reform efforts have now entered a "deep-water zone." Xi once compared the remaining difficult reforms as "tough bones that are hard to chew."

As reforms have advanced into more complex stages, the CPC views full and rigorous governance of the Party as an essential guarantee. Under the banner of self-reform, the CPC has made persistent efforts to improve Party conduct, build a clean government and fight corruption.

Haris Bilal Malik, a research fellow at the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad in Pakistan, said the CPC's approach treated self-reform as a continuing responsibility of the governing organization. Internal inspections, disciplinary supervision and anti-corruption measures were intended to identify organizational weaknesses, enforce standards of conduct and strengthen policy implementation, he said.

Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder and president of the Schiller Institute, linked the CPC's concept of self-reform to the Confucian tradition of lifelong learning and self-improvement. She said improving governance capacity required a political culture within the Party that was oriented toward serving the people.

Volker Tschapke, honorary president of Germany's Prussian Society, said the CPC's efforts went beyond short-term campaigns, reflecting a commitment to continuous self-examination.

"This is not for show, this is character," he told Xinhua.

HOW DOES OVERSIGHT BECOME ROUTINE?