Forge Strong and Powerful Grassroots Party Organizations
■ Zhang Yao, You Jingwen
Military grassroots Party organizations, as the "nerve endings" of the Party's body, are the foundation of all the Party's work and combat effectiveness in the armed forces. Chairman Xi has emphasized: "We must attach great importance to strengthening grassroots Party organization building, forge every grassroots Party organization into a strong fighting fortress, and drive comprehensive progress and across-the-board toughening (全面过硬) in grassroots building." To achieve the centenary goal of army building (建军一百年奋斗目标) on schedule and advance the modernization of national defense and the armed forces with high quality, we must place grassroots Party organization building in a position of importance, further strengthen its political functions and organizational functions, and ensure that the Party's absolute leadership over the armed forces reaches directly to the grassroots and directly to officers and soldiers.
Strengthen political guidance. Strong and powerful grassroots Party organizations must be capable of exercising political guidance, running the Party's will and positions through every domain and the entire process of force building, and ensuring that officers and soldiers unwaveringly listen to the Party and follow the Party. We must persistently use Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era to unite hearts and forge souls (凝心铸魂), thoroughly implement Xi Jinping's thought on strengthening the military (习近平强军思想), guide officers and soldiers to deeply comprehend the decisive significance of the "Two Establishments" (两个确立), strengthen the "Four Consciousnesses" (四个意识), firm up the "Four Confidences" (四个自信), achieve the "Two Upholds" (两个维护), implement the system of CMC Chairman responsibility (军委主席负责制), and ensure that they always maintain a high degree of alignment with the Party Central Committee, the Central Military Commission, and Chairman Xi in thought, politics, and action. We must drive the meticulous and thorough implementation of education systems, and in conjunction with the practice of political rectification training (政治整训), continuously reform study and improve study conduct (学风), guiding officers and soldiers to deeply comprehend the connotations and essential meaning of scientific theory and accurately grasp the positions, viewpoints, and methods embedded within it, thereby firmly establishing a scientific worldview, outlook on life, and values. Strengthen political tempering (政治历练): in conjunction with major exercise and training activities, urgent and difficult high-risk tasks, and similar opportunities, educate officers and soldiers to hold firm to their political stance and distinguish political right from wrong in complex environments, continuously improve political judgment (政治判断力), political comprehension (政治领悟力), and political execution (政治执行力), so that political capability matches and is suited to the political responsibilities they bear.
Consolidate organizational building. The Party's strength comes from organization; when organization is strong, the armed forces are strong. At the CMC Political Work Conference, Chairman Xi distilled and summarized the strategy of political army-building (政治建军方略) in the new era into "Ten Clarifications" (十个明确), one of which is "clarifying that the Party's strength comes from organization and that the cohesion and combat effectiveness of the forces come from organization." To consolidate organizational advantages, we must further optimize and standardize the establishment and operation of grassroots Party organizations. With the overall reshaping of the organizational structure of the People's Army, the systemic structure, type configuration, and functional allocation of our military's Party organizations have undergone correspondingly great changes. We must implement the Party's organizational line for the new era, further emancipate the mind and keep pace with the times, focus on new situations and new problems in grassroots Party organization building, practically identify the correct functional positioning, optimize organizational setup, improve institutional mechanisms, and reform leadership methods, continuously exploring standardized organizational setup and operational methods, and persistently weaving tighter and building stronger the Party's organizational system. Grasp the key of building a strong secretary corps (书记队伍): reinforce the orientation toward political solidity, outstanding capability, solid conduct, and clean self-discipline; through institutional training, mentoring and guidance, and on-the-job tempering, continuously elevate the organizational leadership capability and war-preparedness and combat capability of the secretary corps, using the "lead-goose effect" (头雁效应) to stimulate the "vitality of the flock" (群雁活力). Improve the deliberation and decision-making mechanisms of grassroots Party organizations: both fully develop intra-Party democracy and strengthen centralized and unified leadership; by maintaining close ties with officers and soldiers, relying firmly on officers and soldiers, and resolving the urgent, difficult, worrying, and anticipated problems (急难愁盼问题) of officers and soldiers, continuously strengthen the Party organization's cohesion, centripetal force, and combat effectiveness.
Strictly implement systems. Scientific systems are an important guarantee for the routine operation and effective functioning of grassroots Party organizations. We must take the strict implementation of intra-Party rules and regulations as an important handle for grassroots Party organization building; using regulations and systems such as the Regulations on Party Building in Military Party Organizations of the Chinese Communist Party (《中国共产党军队党的建设条例》) and the Outline for Grassroots Building in the Military (《军队基层建设纲要》) as the basis, continuously improve a scientific, complete, effective, and practical institutional system, so that all work in grassroots Party organization building has laws to rely on and is grounded in regulations. Strengthen rule-of-law awareness and reinforce rule-of-law thinking; organize Party member cadres to study intra-Party rules and regulations in depth, deeply recognize the important significance of institutional building, strengthen the political consciousness, ideological consciousness, and action consciousness of respecting, studying, abiding by, and applying the law, and cultivate the good habit of making decisions and conducting affairs in accordance with rules and regulations. Focus on rectifying problems: targeting the weak links and shortcomings in grassroots Party organization building, use institutional implementation to drive problem rectification, and use institutional innovation to resolve contradictions and difficulties, continuously elevating the level of standardization and normalization of grassroots Party organization building. Strengthen supervision and discipline enforcement: clarify supervisory responsibilities and refine supervisory measures; conduct routine supervisory inspections of the implementation of systems; strictly pursue accountability for situations where orders are not followed and prohibitions are not heeded; use the rigid constraints of systems to continuously drive quality improvement and increased effectiveness in grassroots Party organization building.
(Authors' unit: People's Armed Police Force Research Institute)