Raise original commitment with creativity

It seems his style: top leader Xi Jinping would raise some new point or catch line in his public speech on every important occasion. But in his speech on July 1, to mark the 95th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, he was impressive not only in style.

He called for the 88 million members of the Party, certainly the largest political organization on Earth, to "stay true to the mission". It is a point that carries a lot of significance in the Chinese language, and in the country's political realities.

Literarily translated as "original heart", this is a phrase with a familiar ring among the young, which may mean their first solemn expression of mutual affection.

The expression also has a deep root in China's classical literature. In Confucianism, it may mean never relenting one's effort in public service, and in Buddhism, keeping one's mind as pure as it originally was.

A search on Baidu.com, a Chinese language search engine, would gather around 65.5 million results under "original mind", and 4.5 million results under the phrase "not forgetting the original mind".

Such powerful language was used by Xi to remind the Party members of the oath they took when they joined the organization, when they were ready to give their lives on the battlefield in the time of revolution, or to lead their coworkers in achieving new growth targets in the reform era.

All the 88 million men and women are urged to set examples in public services.

On a higher level, it was used as a pledge to the public of the Party's resolve to stick to its goal declared 95 years ago, to socialism, or society's general welfare or fare distribution of wealth and opportunities.

And in doing so, the Party is expected to continue to be active in its social ties and social development programs, rather than to reduce itself to a stratum of administrative bureaucrats isolated from the rest of society and nonchalant to people's pressing needs.

Xi's audience at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing reacted to his "stay-true-to-mission" call with passionate applauses. Some Party members described it as the "manifesto in a new era" in exploring the Chinese version of human progress.

It is a sign of an evolving new consensus, at a time when the clean government campaign has been going on for more than three years to have rounded up some once high-placed officials who obviously betrayed the Party's ideal to build socialism with Chinese characteristics.

Now Xi has made it clear: The clean-government effort is not to be relaxed so that the Party will always stay true to its original commitment to the people.