New stage of Party building

The recent promulgation of a five-year (2013-17) outline for the Communist Party of China regulations building, the first document of such kind in its history, signals the construction of Party regulations has entered a new stage.

Based on an overall strategic layout mapped out by the 18th Central Committee of the CPC, the outline is aimed at strengthening Party regulations and its institutions to promote the scientific construction of the ruling Party and raise its governing capabilities, a People's Daily editorial said.

As a document that offers a guiding ideology, the working aims, basic requirements and main tasks for strengthening Party regulations, the outline is a substantial step toward the institutionalization and standardization of Party regulations and will promote scientific, democratic governance.

The outline demands the establishment of a set of Party regulations and institutions with scientific content, strict procedures and efficient operations by the Party's 100th anniversary in 2021. The Party is yet to address some outstanding problems, such as the lack of some needed high-quality regulations and institutions, and the systematic fragmentation and conflicts that exist among some regulations. The newly unveiled outline, which focuses on a top-level design, will help push forward the construction of comprehensive Party regulations and systems.

To meet the requirements for further reform, the Party should race against time to make and revise a batch of important Party regulations, in a bid to construct a basic framework of regulations and systems that can cover Party construction and all of its major working areas within five years. Such a systematic framework can facilitate intra-Party supervision and power restraint and consolidate the systematic foundation of the Party.

The outline also offers a sound systematic guarantee for more sweeping reforms in this direction in the years ahead. As part of efforts to firm up its foundations as the ruling Party of the world's most populous nation, the promulgation of the outline is also a necessary move for the CPC to adapt to ever-rising calls within and outside itself that the Party should exercise stricter self-governance and self-restraint.

The concrete targets the outline has drawn up for the construction of the Party's regulations and systems will inevitably improve the Party's governing style and help it lead the country confidently into the future.

(China Daily 11/29/2013 page8)