(3) Expanding Democracy in Cadre and Personnel Work
Over the years, the CPC has continuously reformed its
cadre and personnel system and intensified efforts to make its cadre and
personnel work more scientific, democratic and institutionalized.
First, establishing and improving a scientific mechanism
for selection, appointment, management and supervision of cadres. In 2002, the
CPC Central Committee issued the Regulations on the Work of Selecting and
Appointing Leading Party and Government Cadres, which contained comprehensive
provisions on all links in selecting and appointing leading cadres, thus further
improving work in this regard.
Second, introducing the system of open selection and
competition for leading posts. The Regulations on the Work of Selecting and
Appointing Leading Party and Government Cadres, as well as the Provisional
Regulations on the Open Selection of Leading Cadres of the Party and Government
and the Interim Provisions on the Work of Competition for Posts in the Party and
Government, both of which were issued by the General Office of the CPC Central
Committee in 2004, all included clear provisions on the scope of application,
procedure of selection, and methods of examination and review, discipline and
supervision regarding open selection and competition in this field, thus making
the work more regularized and institutionalized.
Third, improving the mechanism of democratic
decision-making by Party committees regarding the selection and appointment of
cadres. On the basis of summing up past experience, the Voting Methods for the
Plenum of CPC Local Committees Concerning Candidates Nominated and Recommended
as Head of a Party Committee or Government of an Immediate Lower Level, issued
by the CPC Central Committee in 2004, clearly stipulates that the would-be head
of a Party committee or government of a city (prefecture, league) or county
(county-level city, district or banner) shall be, in usual circumstances,
nominated by the standing committee of the Party committee at a higher level and
submitted to the plenum of the said Party committee for a secret vote. If an
urgent appointment is needed while the plenum concerned is not in session, the
plenum members shall be consulted.
Fourth, introducing the civil service system. Since the
Provisional Regulations on Civil Servants of the State was put into effect in
October 1993, a large number of outstanding young talented people with higher
education have been recruited as civil servants through open examination and
selection. In April 2005, the Law of the People's Republic of China on Civil
Servants was deliberated and adopted by the NPC Standing Committee, and
announced to take effect as of January 2006. The implementation of this law
symbolizes an important step forward in pursuit of a scientific, democratic and
institutionalized practice for cadre and personnel work, and has a great bearing
on the execution of the strategy of ruling the country by law and the building
of socialist political democracy.
(4) Tightening Restraints and Supervision over Use of
Power
With the goal of establishing a mechanism for the
exercise of power featuring a rational structure, scientific disposition,
rigorous procedures and effective restraint, the CPC has combined reinforcing
the building of the system of restraint over power with effective supervision
over cadres. First, it has augmented supervision over leading organs and cadres,
especially principal ones in leading bodies at all levels. The supervision
covers the implementation of democratic centralism and the rules of procedure
for leading bodies, and the implementation of the system under which leading
cadres report on major matters, their work and their efforts to perform their
duties honestly and the system of democratic appraisal, instruction and
admonishment, and the system that requires leading cadres to reply to letters of
inquiry from Party organizations. Second, it has beefed up supervision over the
use of power at key links and sectors, such as the selection and appointment of
cadres, the operation of financial funds and the management of state-owned
assets and finances. Third, it has given full scope to various supervisory
bodies to raise overall efficiency. This means strengthening inner-Party
supervision, and supporting and guaranteeing supervision by the people's
congresses, special government organs and judicial departments, democratic
supervision by CPPCC organizations and the supervision of public opinion.
After long-term unremitting efforts, the CPC has
developed a set of systems, mechanisms and methods to restrict and monitor the
exercise of power, build a clean government and combat corruption, that are in
accord with the national conditions. In January 2005, the CPC Central Committee
promulgated the Implementation Outline for Building and Improving the System to
Punish and Prevent Corruption with Equal Stress on Education, System and
Supervision, which represents an overall arrangement in line with the principle
of addressing both the symptoms and the root causes of corruption, taking
comprehensive measures to rectify both and trying both methods of punishment and
prevention, with priority given to the latter.
In recent years, the CPC has, in line with the principle
of democratic centralism, gradually introduced transparency into Party affairs,
and set up and improved a set of systems regarding the circulation of
information among Party members, soliciting opinions on important decisions and
reporting on major matters and their own incomes by leading cadres, thereby
making the systems play an important role in building a clean government and
combating corruption. The CPC will continue to battle corruption by improving
its institutional and legal instruments, improve the relevant leadership system
and working mechanism, and work out overall medium- and long-term plans for the
institutional building of laws and rules to build a clean government and combat
corruption, so as to put the use of power under institutional and legal control.
It will urge the state legislative organs to expedite the legislation procedures
regarding the building of a clean government, study and formulate specific
anti-corruption laws, and amend and improve relevant provisions in the Criminal
Law and the Criminal Procedure Law. It will continue to deepen the reforms of
the cadre and personnel system, judicial system and administrative examination
and approval system, as well as the financial and monetary system, investment
system, and supervision over and control of state-owned assets, so as to reduce
and finally eliminate the soil for and root causes of corruption.
The CPC deals severely with Party members and cadres who
violate discipline and laws, and is resolute in removing and punishing corrupt
members. From December 2003 to November 2004, the Party's discipline inspection
organs and the government's supervision departments at all levels had put in
file 162,032 cases of corruption, wound up 160,602 cases, and disciplined
164,831 persons with Party and administrative discipline penalties. Among them,
5,916 were cadres at county (division) level, 415 at department (bureau) level,
and 15 at provincial (ministerial) level. The cases of 4,775 people, or 2.9
percent of the total punished, were transferred to judicial organs for criminal
investigation.
