Tongfang Academy
Micro Party Class · Issue 309
Promote the integration and coordination of intra-party supervision with other types of oversight.
“Theoretical cultivation is the core of the comprehensive quality of Party members and cadres. Theoretical maturity is the foundation for political maturity, and political steadfastness stems from theoretical clarity.” For Party members and cadres, fostering a fine academic ethos and strengthening theoretical training are both fundamental requirements for cultivating Party spirit and an inescapable political responsibility.
Tongfang Law Firm provides all its lawyers with learning opportunities in the form of micro-party classes, thereby enhancing their ideological and political awareness as well as their spirit of learning and inquiry. By establishing a long-term educational mechanism, the firm has created a new platform for self-education and self-improvement.
The 20th National Congress of the Party emphasized the need to “improve the supervisory system under the Party’s unified leadership, ensuring comprehensive coverage and authority and efficiency; refine mechanisms for overseeing and restraining the exercise of power; take intra-Party supervision as the leading force; promote seamless integration and coordination among various oversight mechanisms; and ensure that power operates in the sunlight.” The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Party further stressed the importance of “improving the Party and state supervisory system,” “perfecting supporting systems for strengthening oversight over ‘leading officials’ and leading teams,” and “deepening reform of the grassroots-level supervisory systems and mechanisms.” These strategic deployments, made by the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core on the basis of a profound summary of the achievements and experiences gained in comprehensively enforcing strict Party governance, provide fundamental guidance and an action blueprint for improving the Party and state supervisory system and perfecting the institutional framework for the Party’s self-revolution. In this new era and on this new journey, we must always adhere to the important thoughts of General Secretary Xi Jinping on Party building and on the Party’s self-revolution as our guiding principles, firmly grasp the practical requirements of strengthening political leadership, establishing sound working frameworks, focusing on key areas of oversight, and improving guarantee mechanisms, thereby promoting the seamless integration and coordinated efforts of intra-Party supervision and other types of oversight, forging synergies in oversight, and unleashing the full effectiveness of oversight.
I. Strengthen Political Leadership
As our Party assumes comprehensive leadership and long-term governance, one of the major challenges it faces is ensuring effective oversight of power. To remain invincible forever, the Party must continuously advance self-revolution, uphold intra-Party supervision as the leading force, and integrate the Party’s centralized and unified leadership into every stage and aspect of the comprehensive and coordinated oversight system. We must deepen and strengthen political oversight, enhancing its rigor, synergy, and effectiveness. First, we must uphold the Party Central Committee’s centralized and unified leadership. The Party’s leadership is the most essential feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics and the greatest advantage of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics. Unlike the Western system of “separation of powers” and checks and balances, the most fundamental characteristic of China’s unique oversight system is its steadfast adherence to Party leadership. To follow the path of oversight with Chinese characteristics, we must firmly grasp the “key link” of Party leadership and adhere to Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as our guiding ideology. We must deeply understand and implement the Party Central Committee’s requirements for promoting the integration and coordination of various oversight mechanisms and strengthening the implementation of the Party’s overall and strict governance responsibilities. We must enhance overall coordination so that all oversight entities—both within and outside the Party—remain firmly committed to the correct political direction in decision-making, deployment, command, resource integration, application of measures, and sharing of outcomes. They must always align their efforts, work synergistically, and achieve high efficiency, thus fostering an integrated oversight framework characterized by seamless vertical connections and horizontal coordination, ensuring that all oversight efforts move in unison. Second, we must uphold the fundamental positioning of political oversight. Political oversight is a vital guarantee for realizing the Party’s political line; it is a powerful measure for urging the entire Party to uphold the Party Central Committee’s centralized and unified leadership. It also represents a profound summary of our Party’s over-a-century-long historical experience. To follow the path of oversight with Chinese characteristics, we must firmly maintain the positioning of political oversight, regard “the Two Upholds” as our fundamental political task, intensify supervision and inspection of the implementation of the Party’s theories, lines, policies, and major decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee, focus on matters of national importance, and promote the concretization, precision, and normalization of political oversight. We must ensure that wherever the Party Central Committee’s major decisions and deployments reach, political oversight will follow closely behind. Third, we must give full play to the leading role of intra-Party supervision. The Party’s position as the ruling party determines that intra-Party supervision is the most fundamental and primary form of oversight within the Party and the state. Only by using intra-Party supervision to drive other oversight mechanisms and improve the overall oversight system can we provide robust institutional safeguards for comprehensively enforcing strict Party governance. To follow the path of oversight with Chinese characteristics, we must firmly grasp the “crucial point”—intra-Party supervision—and regard strengthening and improving intra-Party oversight as the top priority. We must earnestly enforce the principal responsibility of Party committees (Party groups) at all levels, the supervisory responsibility of discipline inspection commissions, the primary responsibility of Party committee (Party group) secretaries, and the “dual responsibility” of other members of the leading bodies. At the same time, we must enrich and refine oversight methods, strengthen organizational oversight from top to bottom, improve democratic oversight from bottom to top, leverage mutual oversight among peers, and intensify daily oversight of Party members and cadres. By taking intra-Party supervision as the guiding force, we must coordinate and drive the organic integration and mutual coordination of all other oversight mechanisms.
II. Establish a Comprehensive Supervision Framework
The integration and coordination of intra-party supervision with other forms of oversight embody a profound internal logic. We must strengthen the inner core circle, solidify the central circle, and build up the outer circle, thereby fostering a comprehensive oversight framework led by intra-party supervision and characterized by seamless, coordinated, and closed-loop integration among various oversight mechanisms. First, we must strengthen the inner core circle and promote the integrated and coherent operation of disciplinary supervision, supervisory inspection, stationed supervision, and巡视 (inspection) supervision. The “four types of supervision” are specialized oversight bodies under the centralized and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee. Among them, disciplinary supervision, supervisory inspection, and stationed supervision constitute the fundamental forms of discipline inspection and supervision, while inspection supervision is an essential component of the Party committee’s (Party group’s) comprehensive oversight. At their core, all four types of supervision are political in nature. These four types of supervision are interconnected and organically unified. On the premise of firmly upholding their respective oversight responsibilities, we should take disciplinary supervision and supervisory inspection as the foundation, fully leverage the “sensing” role of stationed supervision, and effectively harness the “sharp sword” function of inspection supervision. This will further reinforce oversight responsibilities, better integrate oversight resources, and enhance oversight effectiveness, thus promoting the integration of mechanisms, processes, and resources across the “four types of supervision” and ensuring that the inner core circle plays a leading and pivotal role. Second, we must solidify the central circle and foster synergistic collaboration between intra-party supervision and oversight conducted by other functional departments. Oversight conducted by departments such as organization, publicity, united front work, political and legal affairs, letters and visits, confidentiality, auditing, finance and accounting, and regulation of public resource transactions constitutes an important part of the Party and state’s oversight system. On the basis of fully leveraging the specialized oversight functions of each department, we must improve and refine mechanisms for collaborative work, strengthen overall coordination, highlight departmental characteristics, avoid redundant and overlapping oversight, and genuinely reduce burdens on the grassroots level. We should pay particular attention to incorporating into oversight activities issues related to personnel selection and appointment, construction of grassroots Party organizations, implementation of the ideological work responsibility system, ethnic and religious policies, crackdown on organized crime and evil forces, resolution of long-standing and prominent petition cases, rectification of problems identified through audit feedback, management of fiscal funds, government procurement, and project bidding. By deepening and strengthening departmental oversight, we can ensure that the central circle plays a crucial and supportive role. Third, we must build up the outer circle and promote seamless integration and coordination between intra-party supervision and oversight conducted by the National People’s Congress, democratic oversight, mass oversight, and pPublic opinion oversight. At their essence, oversight conducted by the National People’s Congress, democratic oversight, mass oversight, and public opinion oversight all take “the people overseeing power and the people overseeing the government” as their fundamental value orientation. We must support people’s congresses at all levels and their standing committees in exercising their powers according to law, safeguarding the unity, dignity, and authority of the rule of law in the country. We must support the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in conducting democratic oversight in accordance with its charter, and attach great importance to the opinions, criticisms, and suggestions put forward by democratic parties and non-party individuals. We must comprehensively advance openness in Party affairs and government affairs, make full use of modern information technologies such as the Internet and big data, weave a dense network of oversight, and keep the “searchlight” on 24 hours a day, ensuring that power operates in the sunlight and that the outer circle plays a vital oversight role.
III. Focus on Key Supervision Areas
To promote the integrated and coordinated approach to various forms of oversight, we must closely focus on the Party’s missions and tasks in the new era and on the new journey ahead, adhering to the unity of the “focus theory” and the “dual-point theory.” We should use breakthroughs in key areas to drive overall progress, tackle tough challenges through comprehensive advancement, and leverage targeted oversight to foster holistic oversight. First, we must focus our oversight on the implementation of the Party’s theories, guidelines, policies, and major decisions and deployments made by the Party Central Committee. Key areas of inspection include whether the supervised Party organizations uphold and strengthen the Party’s overall leadership, safeguard the centralized and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee, thoroughly study, understand, and put into practice Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era—especially the spirit behind General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important speeches, instructions, and directives. We will also examine how these organizations learn, publicize, and implement the Party’s theories, guidelines, policies, and strategies; how they adapt to the new stage of development; how they fully, accurately, and comprehensively implement the new development philosophy; how they accelerate the establishment of a new development pattern; and how they strive to promote high-quality development. Furthermore, we will inspect how these organizations fulfill their duties and responsibilities, advance major reform tasks, balance development with security, and prevent and resolve major risks, thereby ensuring that the Party Central Committee’s major decisions and deployments are effectively carried out and yield tangible results. Second, we must focus our oversight on the implementation of the main responsibility and supervisory responsibility for comprehensively enforcing strict Party governance. Key areas of inspection include whether the supervised Party organizations fulfill their main responsibilities and whether disciplinary inspection and supervision agencies carry out their supervisory duties, maintaining a firm and rigorous tone, improving the system for comprehensively enforcing strict Party governance, and promoting the integrated advancement of the “three no-corruption” mechanisms. We will identify prominent problems in Party management, governance, and the political environment. We will also examine how the organizations address issues identified through inspections, audits, financial and accounting reviews, and statistical oversight—looking for instances of inadequate implementation, perfunctory responses, or superficial rectifications—and push for the improvement of institutional mechanisms and the deepening of both symptomatic and root-cause treatments. Third, we must focus our oversight on the implementation of the Party’s organizational line for the new era. Key areas of inspection include how the leading bodies of the supervised Party organizations strengthen their own building, identifying prominent problems in implementing democratic centralism, enhancing team cohesion, and strictly regulating intra-party political life. We will also examine personnel selection and appointment practices, identifying shortcomings in implementing the Party’s principles of managing cadres and talent, meeting the standards for good cadres in the new era, encouraging cadres to take responsibility and act boldly, and strengthening grassroots Party organization building and Party member development. Fourth, we must focus our oversight on the supervision of “leading officials” and leading teams. We need to gain a deep understanding of the “leading officials’” performance in terms of political loyalty, political commitment, political responsibility, political discipline, and political integrity. We will pay particular attention to identifying prominent problems in fulfilling their primary responsibilities, performing their duties and exercising their powers in accordance with regulations and laws, taking responsibility and acting boldly, and practicing integrity and self-discipline. We will urge “leading officials” to get used to working and living under conditions of supervision and constraint, truly practicing strict self-discipline, assuming clear responsibilities, and exercising tight control over those under their jurisdiction.
IV. Improve the safeguarding mechanism
Institutional issues are more fundamental, holistic, stable, and long-term in nature. To promote the organic integration, mutual coordination, and efficient synergy among various oversight mechanisms, it is essential to establish and improve supporting mechanisms for seamless coordination between intra-party oversight and other types of oversight—including information sharing, transfer of leads, collaborative linkage, and sharing of outcomes. First, we must refine the mechanism for information sharing. We should set up daily communication platforms for oversight information, conduct lead assessments, and facilitate the exchange of public opinion and intelligence. These platforms should leverage functions such as information exchange, data sharing, comprehensive situation analysis, and analytical judgment. We should also enhance support provided before oversight—such as policy documents and complaint reports—and during oversight—by conducting thorough situation analysis and providing expert technical assistance. After oversight, we must make good use of the outcomes and strengthen mechanisms for evaluating effectiveness, thereby forming a closed-loop system for the entire flow of oversight information. We should make effective use of big data analytics tools to break down “information silos” and “data barriers” among different oversight entities. Second, we must improve the mechanism for transferring leads. Each oversight entity should clearly define the scope, content, and procedures for lead transfers. Any leads discovered during inspections, disciplinary enforcement, or supervisory audits should be promptly and properly transferred to the competent authorities according to regulations. The responsible authorities must handle these leads seriously, promptly, and in strict accordance with laws and regulations. We should enhance the accuracy of lead quality and the identification of the nature of issues, thus ensuring that leads are transferred, received, handled, and followed up on in a timely and comprehensive manner. Third, we must refine the mechanism for collaborative linkage. Each oversight entity should fulfill its oversight responsibilities in accordance with Party rules and discipline, laws and regulations, and their respective duties. Adhering to the principle of “centralization where appropriate, decentralization where appropriate,” we should strengthen coordinated oversight efforts for similar matters. For oversight matters involving multiple entities, we can negotiate joint oversight initiatives to effectively enhance oversight effectiveness. For oversight projects involving multiple departments and levels and characterized by significant complexity, we can adopt a combination of administrative oversight, disciplinary oversight, inspection oversight, financial and accounting audits, and statistical supervision measures to carry out comprehensive oversight of duty performance, exercise of power, and implementation of systems. Fourth, we must improve the mechanism for sharing outcomes. We should report common and deep-seated problems identified through various oversight activities to relevant functional departments, put forward work recommendations, and urge them to intensify investigation, research, and analytical judgment. For key areas where risks and hidden dangers are prominent, public complaints are strong, and problems frequently occur, we should organize specialized oversight forces to carry out targeted rectifications, fully expose existing problems, focus on plugging loopholes, addressing root causes, promoting reform, and fostering development. By integrating oversight, rectification, and governance efforts and sharing outcomes, we can comprehensively enhance the quality and effectiveness of oversight.
Source | People's Daily Online, Official Website for Party History Study and Education
Prev:
Tongfang Academy Micro-Party Class, Issue 310: Always Uphold the Important Principle of Adhering to Fundamentals While Promoting Innovation
Next:
Tongfang Academy Micro-Party Class, Episode 308: The journal “Qiushi” Publishes an Important Article by General Secretary Xi Jinping—Supporting Chinese-style Modernization with High-Quality Population Development
