China Headlines: CPC achieves self-improvement with Xi's leadership

As the Communist Party of China (CPC) makes reforms to revive the country's past glory, it is also making critical steps for the cause by improving its style of work and building its integrity.

In the three years since Xi Jinping became general secretary of the CPC Central Committee in November 2012, the Party has made great efforts to improve itself with practical actions, and significant changes have been made.

LEADERS TAKING LEAD

On December 28 and 29, the Political Bureau of CPC Central Committee held a meeting to discuss the implementation of the "three stricts and three earnests," a political campaign that urges officials to be strict in morals, power and disciplining oneself; and be honest in decisions, business and behavior.

At the meeting, Xi said members of the political bureau should become models for the campaign and over the past three years, those top CPC leaders have taken the lead to implement a series of new policies and regulations for integrity.

Besides the "three stricts and three earnests", the policies and regulations include the Eight-Point Regulations calling for frugality, the "mass line" that opposes formalism, bureaucratism, hedonism and extravagance, among other things.

Over the three years, the Standing Committee of the Political Committee of the CPC Central Committee convened 27 meetings to discuss the building of integrity.

Xi made comments on the work 61 times, taking the lead to carry out the strategy. He made 28 inspection and visited 23 provincial regions and Macao, with no extravagant arrangements.

His style set an example which other senior officials followed. Over the three years, members of the political bureau made 480 inspection tours in the country.

In the meantime, the Party curbed excessive events as much as possible. In 2013, 40 events senior leaders were scheduled to attend were abolished.

Reports on senior officials' work have been reduced in terms of the number and the length. Documents and briefings submitted to central authority by local governments have been simplified too.

STRENGTHENING DISCIPLINE, CLEANING ITSELF

During the three years, the style of work and life of Party members have both been improved with strengthened discipline and severe punishments.

A number of high-ranking officials have also been punished for their offenses of the Party's regulations and discipline. The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), the Party's top disciplinary body, said earlier this month that 37 centrally-administered officials in 2015, and 38 in 2014, were investigated by the organization.

As of October 2015, over 100,000 cases violating the eight-point regulations had been investigated, with over 138,000 Party members punished, including seven at vice-ministerial level or above.

The changes were praised by the people and benefited the officials. The State Bureau of Statistics found that 96 percent of interviewees were satisfied with the eight-point regulations and about 95 percent of them are satisfied with the results of the regulations.

Many officials believed they have more time to study and share with their families, instead of attending excessive banquets and events. They also felt free from excessive meetings and cliches so that they can focus more on their work.

PLACING SYSTEMS TO CONTAIN POWERS

Building systems is the key to discipline in the Party, Xi said in a comment in February 2013, calling for building a system covering all aspects of work with strong supervision and punishment mechanisms to contain policy violations and law offenses in public fund spending.

He said in another comment that corruption should be prevented from the very beginning, urging officials to reduce loopholes and obstacles in systems.

In October 2015, the CPC issued two new regulations, one is about clean governance and another new rules for punishment. The two regulations were widely viewed as milestones building the integrity of the CPC.

Experts believed the two regulations institutionalized all policies and regulations put forward in a series of political campaigns after the new leadership assuming office in 2012.

Over the three years since the Eight-point regulations were made, the CPC issued 47 intra-Party regulation and a network of systems has been formed.

The regulations cover use of government buildings and offices, receptions with public funds, management of training fees and conference fees, and others.

The Party is considering making further improvement in the future, as building integrity is a long battle.

During the political bureau meeting at the end of December, Xi urged officials to continue the efforts in a bid to achieve the normalization of implementing "three stricts and three earnests" in the long run.

He also called for continued anti-corruption and frugality work, making adjustments to changes to address new situations. Endi