New ideas and practices of governing the country: strictly administering the party and governing the power according to law

  [New Ideas and Practice of Governing the Country]

  Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, remarkable achievements have been made in strictly administering the Party in an all-round way, but the building of a clean and honest party style and the struggle against corruption still have a long way to go. In his speech at the Seventh Plenary Session of the 18th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the Supreme Leader pointed out that to further promote the comprehensive and strict administration of the Party, we must treat both the symptoms and the root causes. The key to cure the problem is to innovate institutional mechanisms, improve laws and regulations, strengthen inner-party supervision, establish and improve institutionalized and legal governance mechanisms, comprehensively promote the rule of law, and strictly manage the party and power according to law.

  The essence of strictly administering the party is to strictly govern power and rule power according to law.

  The Communist Party of China (CPC) is the ruling party. To ensure our party’s long-term governance, we must adhere to the principle of strictly administering the party and governing power according to law. The key to strictly administering the Party lies in strictness and governance, which requires strengthening the awareness of the rule of law and rules, standardizing the operation of power according to law, and strengthening the supervision of power. The Sixth Plenary Session of the Eighteenth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China pointed out that it is necessary to improve the restriction and supervision mechanism of power operation, and form an institutional arrangement in which the right must be responsible, the use of power must be responsible, and the abuse of power must be held accountable. This is actually the concrete embodiment of the thought and important concept of the supreme leader comrade about putting power into the system cage. Montesquieu once pointed out that "all people with power are prone to abuse their power, which is an eternal experience". If the dam of laws and party rules is broken, the abuse of power will be like a flood. Strictly administering the party in an all-round way and strengthening power supervision means institutionalizing and legalizing supervision. Specifically, we should do the following two things.

  Power should be bound by the Constitution and laws. Article 5 of the Constitution stipulates: "All state organs and armed forces, political parties, social organizations, enterprises and institutions must abide by the Constitution and laws. All violations of the Constitution and laws must be investigated. No organization or individual may have privileges beyond the Constitution and laws. " Constitution of the Communist Party of China also emphasized in the general program: "The Party must act within the scope of the Constitution and laws." Our party is the ruling party. Whether we can adhere to the rule of law, correctly lead legislation, take the lead in abiding by the law and ensure law enforcement is of great significance to comprehensively promote the rule of law. Therefore, governing according to law is the key to governing the country according to law. The implementation of ruling by law first requires the party to govern the country according to the constitution and laws. Adhering to the rule of law means that the supervision of power must be ruled by law and form a long-term mechanism of supervision, which will not change with the passage of time and personnel changes.

  Power should be bound by the laws and regulations of the party. In order to manage a big party with more than 88 million party member, the traditional management method has many unsuitable places. In the new historical period, the internal and external environment faced by the Party is becoming more and more complicated, and the task of self-construction is becoming more and more serious. These changes have put forward higher requirements for the Communist Party of China (CPC)’s leadership style and ruling style, and objectively it is necessary to govern the Party according to the internal laws and regulations of the Party. State-owned laws, the party has party rules, and governing the country according to law requires the party to govern the country according to the Constitution and laws, and also requires the party to govern the party according to the internal laws and regulations of the party. Comrade Supreme Leader pointed out that it is necessary to "respect party constitution and strictly implement norms and regulations". Inner-party laws and regulations require the behavior standards of all party member and Party organizations, while laws require the behavior standards of all social members, and the behavior standards required by inner-party laws and regulations are stricter than laws. The Communist Party of China (CPC)’s Code of Integrity and Self-discipline and the Communist Party of China (CPC)’s Regulations on Disciplinary Actions, which came into effect in January 2016, have clearly defined party member’s high standards and the discipline of managing the Party. The Constitution and laws are the basis for ensuring the Party to be in power according to law, while the internal laws and regulations of the Party are the rule basis for managing and administering the Party. Only by organically combining laws and party rules can we provide institutional guarantee for the comprehensive and strict administration of the party and lay a solid foundation for comprehensively promoting the rule of law.

  The core of strictly administering the party and governing power according to law is to safeguard the central authority according to law and ensure the smooth flow of central government decrees.

  The leadership of the Party is the most essential feature of Socialism with Chinese characteristics and the greatest advantage of the Socialism with Chinese characteristics system. To strictly manage the party and power according to law, we must adhere to, improve and implement democratic centralism, and organically combine centralism on the basis of democracy with democracy under centralized guidance. To establish a normal order of inner-party life and ensure the unity of will and actions of the whole party, we must adhere to the fundamental principles that individuals obey the party organization, the minority obeys the majority, the lower organizations obey the higher organizations, and the whole party obeys the central government. The basis of this fundamental principle is that the minority obeys the majority, and the core is that the whole party obeys the Central Committee.

  To uphold the party’s leadership, we must safeguard the authority of the central government, ensure the centralization and unity of the party, ensure the smooth implementation of the party’s central government decrees and orders, and prevent and overcome acts that are unorganized and undisciplined, have orders that are impossible, have prohibitions, and go their own way. We must resolutely put an end to the phenomenon that there are policies at the top and countermeasures at the bottom. We can’t "you have your closing plan and I have my jumping over the wall". If the party wants to be in power according to law, it must ensure that the central government decrees are smooth and the decision-making takes root by legal means. This is to be good at making the party’s ideas become the will of the state through legal procedures, formulating laws and regulations, and ensuring their strict implementation. In our country, the constitution is the concentrated expression of the will of the party and the people, and it is the fundamental law formed through scientific and democratic procedures. The party leads the people and formulates laws and regulations through legal procedures in accordance with the Constitution, which is to implement democratic centralism, safeguard the authority of the central government and ensure the smooth implementation of government decrees. Because in a society ruled by law, the law is supreme, the law has the highest status, and the rule of law includes equality before the law, and its rules have universal applicability. Compared with the rule of man, it is more certain and predictable. The ancient legalists in China compared the law to the size, rope ink, rules, balance stones, bucket hoops, angular measurement, etc., which was intended to emphasize the unity, fairness and universal applicability of the law. Therefore, to ensure the smooth flow of central government decrees, we should establish and improve the guarantee mechanism of rule of law. At present, in order to maintain the authority of the central government and keep the government decrees unblocked, we must improve the construction of relevant systems with the rule of law, and establish a linkage system between the deployment and implementation of policies at the higher and lower levels.Ensure that the lower-level policy suggestions can be fed back to the higher level in time, and enable the higher-level policy deployment to be effectively communicated to the lower level. At the same time, it is necessary to establish an assessment and inspection system for policy implementation, and evaluate and inspect the policy communication in all links. Organizations and individuals that hinder policy communication should be held accountable according to law.

  The key to strictly administering the party and governing power according to law is the leading cadres in party member.

  Our party is the ruling party, and some leading cadres not only hold positions within the party, but also take charge of public power. In order to ensure their exercise of power according to law, public power must be restrained by law, which is also the proper content of regulating public power with the rule of law. The key point of strictly administering the party and governing the power according to law is "the key minority", which requires leading cadres in party member to firmly establish the awareness of the rule of law, cultivate the ideas and habits of advocating, respecting and acting in strict accordance with the law, always have awe of the law, bear in mind that the legal red line cannot be crossed and the legal bottom line cannot be touched, strictly exercise their functions and powers within the scope of the Constitution and laws, and no one can enjoy privileges other than those stipulated by the Constitution and laws. Must adhere to the administration according to law, the law does not authorize, and the statutory authority must be. Leading cadres in party member should take the lead in abiding by the law, set an example in obeying the law, and play an exemplary role in the whole society. Strictly administering the party and governing power according to law also needs to solve the problem of supervision by the top leaders. The top leaders in leading bodies at all levels are the "key minority". The more important the responsibilities and positions of leading cadres are, the more important it is to strengthen supervision. China’s revised Administrative Procedure Law stipulates that "the person in charge of the accused administrative organ should appear in court to respond to the lawsuit", which strengthens the supervision of the chief executive from the legal point of view. In order to ensure the leading cadres in party member to exercise their functions and powers according to law, we must also improve the accountability mechanism, and insist that the responsibility must be asked and the accountability must be strict.Without clear responsibility, implementation and accountability, it will be difficult to truly manage the party strictly.

  At present, China is in the stage of social transformation, with profound changes in economic system, social structure, interest pattern, ideas and concepts, and various social contradictions constantly emerging. The basic function of law is to settle disputes and stop disputes, and the law will program the schemes and ways to solve various disputes, providing the most stable and effective solutions for the settlement of social contradictions and disputes. Resolving social contradictions and disputes through law can avoid arbitrariness and differences in dispute resolution and ensure fairness. In practice, some leading cadres are indifferent to the law and lack the consciousness of exercising their functions and powers according to law, which is not only not conducive to resolving contradictions, but may lead to further intensification of contradictions. In this context, it is more important for leading cadres in party member to establish the rule of law thinking and be good at using the rule of law.

  Strictly administering the party and governing power according to law must guarantee party member’s democratic supervision rights according to law and regulations.

  Strengthening inner-party supervision focuses on daily life and perseverance. Strengthening party member’s democratic supervision right is an important measure to effectively prevent decision-making mistakes and abuse of power. In reality, some party member cadres, bending the law, constantly touch the legal bottom line, the most fundamental reason is the lack of supervision. Therefore, it is necessary to unblock the channels for party member to participate in the discussion of inner-party affairs, broaden the channels for party member to express his opinions, and create a political atmosphere for democratic discussion within the party. Comrade Supreme Leader pointed out that some party organizations and party member lacked the courage to use the weapon of criticism and self-criticism, which ultimately hurt the party’s cause. Making good use of criticism and self-criticism to safeguard party member’s democratic supervision right is an important way to improve inner-party supervision.

  To strengthen inner-party supervision, we must establish and improve the effective mechanism of inner-party democratic supervision, and effectively protect the rights of democratic supervision in party member according to law. According to the provisions of the Constitution of the Communist Party of China, every party member enjoys the right to criticize, report and demand recall. In recent years, our party has attached great importance to the construction of the inner-party supervision system and established a series of specific democratic systems, such as the democratic life meeting system, the democratic appraisal of party member system, the inner-party reporting and accusation system, and the rights protection system in party member. The two inner-party laws and regulations that came into effect in January this year are both the guarantee and the basis for institutionalizing democratic supervision. On the one hand, supervision must be carried out in accordance with laws and regulations, which requires the full protection of party member’s democratic supervision rights through party rules, so as to realize the institutionalization and legalization of democratic supervision in party member. At the same time, practical measures should be taken to ensure that party member’s democratic rights, such as democratic participation, democratic election, democratic decision-making and democratic supervision, stipulated by party constitution, are fully exercised. On the other hand, in order to further play the role of democratic supervision in party member, it is necessary to institutionalize supervision and establish comprehensive, systematic and operable procedures and rules. We should constantly broaden and improve the channels of inner-party democracy, so as to realize party member’s extensive participation, effective management and effective supervision of inner-party affairs. In addition, we should broaden the channels of reporting, exposing, appealing, accusing and petitioning in party member, formulate a specific and strict system with strong operability, and expand the scope of party member’s participation in the management and supervision of cadres.

  The key to strictly administering the party and governing power according to law is to punish corruption according to law and ensure equality before the law.

  Strictly administering the party in an all-round way and punishing corruption must be firmly grasped. Comrade Supreme Leader pointed out that anti-corruption should be carried out with no forbidden zone, full coverage and zero tolerance, and efforts should be made to curb the spread of corruption and punish unhealthy practices and corruption around the masses. To punish corruption, we must insist on investigating every case and correcting every mistake. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the anti-corruption campaign has been "fighting tigers" and "swatting flies" simultaneously, severely punishing corruption, promoting the implementation of responsibilities with serious accountability, showing a new atmosphere in the political life within the Party, winning the hearts and minds of the Party and providing an important guarantee for creating a new situation in the cause of the Party and the country. Judging from the anti-corruption cases that have been disclosed, it has truly achieved "no forbidden zone against corruption" and "zero tolerance" for corruption. This shows that there is no special citizen in our country, and there is no special party member in our party, which truly implements equality before the law and party rules. However, it must be noted that the anti-corruption situation is still grim, and we must always maintain a high-pressure situation against corruption. We must prevent corruption fundamentally by strictly administering the party and the country according to law and relying on the system. In accordance with the requirements of comprehensively administering the country according to law and strictly administering the party in an all-round way, accountability and investigation of cases of violation of law and discipline should be carried out in strict accordance with the law and regulations. Dare to investigate and handle cases, dare to be disciplined and accountable, and dare to touch the truth. At the same time, it is necessary to carry out organizational and institutional innovation, promote the reform of the national supervision system, comprehensively integrate anti-corruption resources, expand the scope of supervision, and establish a centralized, unified, authoritative and efficient supervision system and mechanism.

  Comrade Supreme Leader pointed out that "popular support is the greatest politics, and justice is the strongest force". Governing the country must first govern the party, and the party must be strict. To strictly manage the party in an all-round way, we must govern power according to law and comprehensively promote the rule of law, which can provide long-term and effective institutional guarantee for strictly administering the party in an all-round way.

   (Wang Liming is the executive vice president of China Renmin University)