The Communist Party Of China In The New Period Anti-corruption Construction Basic Experience Research

Anti-corruption work is not only important for the survival of the Party and the state, it is also crucial for the development of the nation and the progress of society. How to improve this work is one of the most important strategic tasks facing the contemporary Chinese Communist Party, and it is an important element of the general task of improving and purifying Party mores. The Party's indispensable role in reform and opening and the building of socialism imposes on it a heavy historical responsibility where the fight against corruption is concerned, and makes the improvement of Party mores an important item on the Party's current agenda. Improving anti-corruption work has important practical significance and far-reaching historical significance in maintaining the Party's advanced nature and purity, its vitality and its fitness for the fight, and in keeping it in the vanguard of the working class. For the contemporary Party the fight against corruption is a historical process, using an examination of the course this fight has taken to achieve a comprehensive understanding of the internal logic of current ideas on combating corruption and how these ideas developed, and to understand and take account of the main lessons learnt from experience and current insights about that experience.The Introduction discusses the significance of basic empirical research on the fight against corruption, reviews the current state of academic research, describes the basic framework and main contents, and sets out the research method of this study and its main findings.The main body of the study, following a chronological sequence, divides the Party's struggle against corruption since reform and opening vertically into three historical stages; horizontally it investigates the Party's work in these three stages and sums up the main lessons learnt and insights gained.Part One: The internal logic of current ideas in the Party on combating corruption and how these ideas developed by sorting through the Party's anti-corruption experience in the modern period, we analyze the importance and significance of that struggle; by a targeted analysis of the Party's experience , we elucidate and evaluate the lessons learnt by the ruling Party in seeking out an anti-corruption road with Chinese characteristics. The main points include: deepening understanding of anti-corruption work, raising consciousness of it; deepening thinking about it, having acomprehensive grasp of all aspects of it; favoring new methods and broadening the approach; promoting implementation and striving for effectiveness. Part Two: The main lessons learnt from experience. The Party's educational efforts in anti-corruption thought are systematically reviewed, summarized and expounded, and this enables us to give a comprehensive description and analysis of the Party's experience in reinforcing anti-corruption ideological work and improving educational prevention structures. From the perspective of historical development, the deployment of ideological and political education measures in which long-term mechanisms for anti-corruption education are the main content constitutes a fine tradition in the Party's anti-corruption efforts and is a main political strength; from a theoretical point of view, of the three main tools, education, system and supervision, long-term mechanisms for anti-corruption education are the basic link and primary means for anti-corruption system-building; from the point of view of the intrinsic features of long-term anti-corruption education mechanisms, deepening such mechanisms is the most important route to completely preventing corrupt thinking from taking root; from the point of view of the way such mechanisms operate, improving them is the fundamental task of anti-corruption practice; by exploring the logical implications of the Party's anti-corruption mechanisms, by summarizing their theoretical underpinning and by drawing together the lessons learned from experience, we arrive at a general practical basis for the Party to renew its anti-corruption systems and implement mechanisms in which power is exercised effectively. Renewing anti-corruption systems involves working on their scope, norms and implementation to strengthen their ability to constrain and circumscribe power, so that corruption does not emerge and spread. From the perspective of historical development, since reform and opening the Party and the state have consistently given prominence to building anti-corruption institutions and a framework of laws, making this the fundamental policy against corruption; from the theoretical point of view, of the three main tools, education, system and supervision, anti-corruption institutional systems are the key link in anti-corruption system-building; from the point of view of anti-corruption institutions, the basic experience of the anti-corruption clean government effect should be extended;mechanisms for monitoring anti-corruption should be established, rooting out the causes of corruption, rationalizing the allocation of power and strengthening its supervision and control - these are the fruits of the Party's practical experience in combating corruption. From a historical perspective anti-corruption monitoring mechanisms primarily directed towards enhancing the control and supervision of power are the decisive factor in combating corruption effectively; from the theoretical point of view, of the three main tools, education, system and supervision, anti-corruption monitoring mechanisms are the key link in anti-corruption system building; from the point of view of the intrinsic features of anti-corruption monitoring mechanisms, strengthening such mechanisms is an important guarantee of their effective operation in new situations; from the point of view of the way such mechanisms operate, sturdy mechanisms are an important part of the basic experience of the struggle against corruption.Part Three: Practical insights from experience. The fight against corruption is a long, complex and arduous project. The contemporary Party's basic experience in this struggle is very rich, and the insights to be gained from contemplating this weight of accumulated experience are very profound. These insights are most evident at three levels: at the micro level, the importance of improving correctional and preventive systems in the continuous intensification of the struggle; at an intermediate level, the importance of aiming at a general structure for the Party in which anti-corruption considerations are a key element; at the macro level, the importance of taking the struggle against corruption as a driving force in pushing forward the construction of socialism and a harmonious society. This means upholding the leadership of the Party to ensure the right direction is taken in combating and preventing corruption; it means that the guiding ideology must continue to move with the times, applying a developing Marxism to the purification of Party mores and to the new praxis of anti-corruption work; it means focusing intently on the first great national duty of the Party in government, that of providing a political guarantee of building a moderately prosperous society and accelerating socialist modernization; it means continuing to run the Party for the sake of the public and the government for the sake of the people, rooting out unhealthy practices that damage public interests; it means deepening reform and renewing institutional mechanisms and systems, focusing on the prevention and resolution of corruption at source; it means upholding and improving the leadership system and work structures of anti-corruption efforts, ensuring that the struggle against corruption is vigorously pursued all round.In this study the research method used throughout is textual interpretation and analysis. From a reading of classic texts and of policy and regulatory documents we derive a comprehensive sketch of the contemporary Party's history of anti-corruption work and describe how it has evolved. A deeper reading of the texts which brings out their ideological essence, their theoretical implications and their philosophical spirit makes their content more substantial, their ideas richer, their methods more specific, their direction more complete and their theory more systematic. Through the use of inductive analysis, this study follows the vertical thread of the history of the contemporary Party's anti-corruption work to arrive at a synoptic analysis of the anti-corruption theory of successive generations of core leaders; following the work principles, orientation, strategy and tactics of the struggle as a horizontal thread, it draws together the basic lessons, discriminating between different historical periods and loci; in overview it draws together the horizontal and vertical approaches to arrive at a systematic analysis of the basic lessons of the struggle, from which it is possible to see fully the most important insights derived from the contemporary Party's experience and their practical value.This study draws comprehensively on the theoretical results of relevant academic research, and using them as a basis attempts to introduce new ideas and approaches through research into the relevant texts. Seeing the anti-corruption struggle successively as a problem in strategic engineering, systems engineering, structural engineering and government democratic responsiveness engineering, the study describes the contemporary Party's basic experience of anti-corruption work systematically, scientifically and in detail. The fight against corruption is a long, complex and arduous project. It requires always tackling anti-corruption work as a major political task on which the survival of the party and the country depends, and resolutely fighting against all kinds of negative and corrupt phenomena; it requires always making anti-corruption institution-building an important part of the great project of Party renewal; it requires persistence in deepening and improving long-term anti-corruption operational mechanisms in which supervision, leadership and work mechanisms are coordinated and reinforce each other; it requires consistent, resolute and thorough implementation of the Party's ideals whereby the Party is for the sake of the public and the government for the sake of the people, ideals which hold that"our power is from the people, we feel with the people and we plan for the people". In this way national and Party construction can be protected and kept on track.