Self-reform maintains Party's vitality: China Daily editorial

How to break the pattern of being full of vitality at the beginning then becoming gradually corrupt and impotent is a pertinent and constant question for the Communist Party of China, which has ruled the country for 73 years.

That is why Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, stressed at the opening of the sixth plenary session of the 19th CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection on Tuesday the need for the Party to constantly carry out self-reform in order to continually renew itself.

The great lengths some corrupt elements within the Party have gone to in abusing the power they hold in their hands for personal gain verifies to the necessity of this. That there are always bad apples within the Party, who allow their own interest to get the better of themselves over the Party's original aspiration to serve the people points to the need for the Party to continually cleanse itself. As Xi said, the whole Party must demonstrate the courage to scrape the poison from the bone in carrying the anti-corruption campaign through to the end.

It is a never-ending task to make sure that the Party members, those in leadership positions in particular, bear in mind that the power they hold is not for them to line their own pockets and not for them to ride roughshod over the people, but for them to serve the interests of the people wholeheartedly.

Chairman Mao Zedong said in the 1940s that supervision by the people was the way to keep the Party clean and competent. Now Xi, who is the core of the Party and the country's top leader, has emphasized the importance of the Party also disciplining itself from within. The key to self-reform is the courage to confront problems squarely and cut to the heart of the matter in fixing them. The arduous fight against corruption is part of that. Xi called on all Party members to adhere to the spirit of self-reform, and avoid any slacking in the exercising of strict self-governance. It is not that the supervision by the people from outside does not carry enough weight for the Party to keep its vigor. It is that the oversight from outside is not enough.

In his speech to the CCDI session, Xi said that the self-discipline within the Party must be stringent and there must be zero-tolerance for any abuses of power by Party members and government officials. He stressed that whatever acts to infringe on the interests and rights of the people must be rectified.

Xi also emphasized the importance of self-cultivation for Party members, which, along with the increasingly heavier pressure of discipline, will hopefully cement the Party's original mission of pursuing a better life for the people in the minds of Party members. This is also essential for the constant self-reform of the Party. Only by carrying out self-reform will the CPC keep itself invigorated as a ruling Party.