The document, the "Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Strengthening and Improving the Building of the Party Style," contains about 14,000 Chinese characters in 11 parts.

The decision looks at the "extreme importance and urgency" of improving the Party style. It says that the style of the ruling party is directly related to the Party's image, whether or not the Party will win the support of the people, and the fate of the Party and the state. In general, the CPC has a good style, but certain problems need to be immediately tackled. All CPC members should be watchful in times of peace.

Party members should have a thorough knowledge of the Party's present situation, the decision says. It is wrong to be pessimistic while ignoring the main trends, and it is dangerous to neglect the seriousness of problems, lose concentration and make no effort to solve the problem.

According to the decision, in this new phase of development, the guiding principle and overall requirement for improving the Party style are to bring the Party style to a new level by carrying on good traditions, enhancing ideological education, accelerating system building and tackling outstanding issues, and in doing so, the CPC should stick to Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought and Deng Xiaoping Theory and follow the important theory of "Three Represent's", focus on the central task of economic development and the country's overall situation of reforms, development and stability, persist in the Party administering the Party itself and in exercising strict self-discipline, further cement relations with the people, maintain the Party's advanced nature and purity, and enhance its creativity, cohesion and fighting ability.

The decision points out that now and in the future, efforts must be centered on key issues in the Party's way of thinking, studying and working, and on its leadership and on the lifestyle of cadres. The main tasks will be:

-- to adhere to the principle of emancipating the mind and seeking truth from facts, so as to prevent old ways of doing things and refrain from being contented with things as they are;

-- to uphold the principle of combining theory with practice, and fight against bookishness;

-- to keep in touch with the people, and fight against formalism and bureaucracy;

-- to maintain democratic centralism, and refrain from acting arbitrarily or despotically and prevent laziness;

-- to keep to the Party's disciplinary rules, so as to prevent liberalism;

-- to promote justice and honesty, and to fight against the abuse of power for personal gain;

-- to work hard, and fight against hedonism; and

-- to promote officials according to their ability and merits, so as to prevent unfair and corrupt appointment of officials.

The decision then made detailed explanations of the above- mentioned eight tasks.

To improve the Party style, priority must be given to improve the style of thinking. Adhering to the principle of emancipating the mind and seeking truth from facts is the fundamental requirement for the party to advance with progressive tides of the times and always keep advanced.

The whole party must consciously emancipate the mind from outdated ideas, practices and systems, from wrong and dogmatic understanding of Marxism and from the shackles of subjectivism and metaphysic, continuously push for innovations in theories, systems and science and technology, strive to explore a new stage in the development of the Marxist theories, and create a new situation in the development of the cause of the Party and the country.

Combining theory with practice is the key to the Party's maintaining strong creativeness. To carry on such a style of study is a kind of basic work in improving the Party style. All Party members must be diligent in study in accordance with practical work and conduct their work in a creative way, with theory unified with reality, study integrated with practice, and words matching behavior.

Standing at the core of improving the Party style is maintaining flesh-and-blood ties between the Party and the masses. The biggest threat faced by a ruling Marxist Party is that it would deviate from the people. Cadres at various levels must observe people's living conditions, listen to people's opinions, accumulate people's wisdom and treasure people's work. They should always take into consideration the dangers and sufferings of the people and work for their benefit wholeheartedly. Party members should be diligent in their work and serve the people. They should tell the truth, report real information and guard against haste and boasting.

Democratic centralism makes up the Party's fundamental organizational and leading system. To fully practice democracy and safeguard centralization is an important part of improving the Party style. In the course of reforming old and establishing new systems, working out policies and making decisions on major issues, democracy should be practiced so as to mobilize the enthusiasm of all walks of life. In the meantime, the trend of decentralization should be prevented and corrected. It is not allowed to disobey orders and violate bans, to fabricate countermeasures and act against policies, and to implement protectionism in some areas and departments.

Strict discipline is a vital guarantee for carrying out the Party's lines, maintaining the Party's unity and completing the Party's tasks. Political discipline is the most important discipline of the Party. All Party organizations and members at various levels must stick to the basic lines of the Party, consciously keep in line with the CPC Central Committee, safeguard the committee's authority, and ensure that the committee's decisions are carried out unimpeded.

The Party is established for the people and its governance of the country is aimed at serving the people. The facts are decided by the nature and purpose of the Party and are the fundamental goals of improving the Party style. Supervision inside the Party should be strengthened and channels of democracy should be expanded, the masses should be relied on, and the exercise of power should be put under effective supervision. Cases involving power abuse for personal gains must be investigated and treated seriously, and efforts should be focused on major cases in an effort to give severe penalty to corrupt ones. The Party should win confidence from the people by way of improving the Party style and keeping clean government and from the practical results of fighting against corruption.

Hard work and perseverance are the Party's fine traditions and are great spiritual force for the Party to unite and lead the people to build a strong country and realize national revitalization. It is of great significance to combat various decadent thoughts and maintain the nature of the Party and the power of the state. Party members and cadres should form a revolutionary outlook of life, raise their ideological and ethical quality and foster a positive way of life.

The decision emphasizes the need of appointing Party cadres according to their ability, so as to provide the organizational guarantee for improving the Party style. The selection of officials for leading posts plays a significant role in improving the Party style. Efforts should be made to quicken the reform of the Party's personnel system and continue the successful practice of selecting officials with a good method and selecting officials who have a good working style.

The decision points out that the Party must work effectively and implement the main tasks so that the style of the Party will attain new and obvious progress, the ties between the Party and the masses and ties between cadres and the masses will have new and obvious improvement, and the people will see a clear-cut improvement and become more confident.

China is witnessing economic prosperity, unity among all ethnic groups and social stability, and the country has entered an important period of full-scale development, the decision notes. With a scientific theory and correct line, with fine style and valuable experiences during 80 years of struggle, with firm determination and concerted efforts to improve the Party style, with the confidence and support of the people, the Party is absolutely confident in and capable of pushing the building of the Party style to a new level.

The decision calls on the whole Party to rally closely around the CPC Central Committee with Jiang Zemin at the core, hold high the banner of Deng Xiaoping Theory and further implement the important theory of "Three Represent's", blaze new trails and do a good job to achieve more success in building socialism with Chinese characteristics.

(Xinhua News Agency 10/07/2001)