A Rocket Force Brigade: Change Begins with the 'Three Half-Hours'
A Rocket Force Brigade Conducts 'Three Investigations, Three Examinations' to Clean Up Regulations and Institutions—— Change Begins with the 'Three Half-Hours' ■ Hu Jinxiang, PLA Daily Special Correspondent Han Zhilin, Special Reporter Zhang Xinkai
On a scorching summer day, inside a tent dining facility at a Rocket Force brigade's field training site, officers and soldiers of one company ate lunch while watching a news program rolling on television.
"We adjusted the time for watching the news to midday because training is scheduled for this evening," Company Political Instructor Wang told the reporter. Since the field training began, training intensity has increased and various tasks must be adjusted at any time to suit the actual conditions of the training site. They have made full use of fragmented time to organize the "Three Half-Hours" (三个半小时) activities, both fulfilling the regulatory requirements and broadening the officers' and soldiers' horizons—an arrangement welcomed by the troops.
"After the regulations and institutions cleanup was carried out, some previously overlapping and ambiguous requirements became clear and explicit. We now know what we are doing when we implement them, and execution has become smoother and more efficient," Political Instructor Wang remarked.
For a long time, the "Three Half-Hours" has been an important institution for conducting routine ideological work (经常性思想工作) in the troops. Several years ago, the brigade's headquarters issued a notice requiring grassroots units to strictly implement it on a daily basis: half an hour of radio listening in the morning, half an hour of newspaper reading at midday, and half an hour of television watching in the evening. In practice, however, some individual grassroots units simply understood "implementation" as "filling the time and having everyone present," and the forms of organization were relatively uniform.
Last year, in accordance with relevant higher-level requirements, the Rocket Force issued a notice specifying that grassroots units' radio listening and newspaper reading could be flexibly and independently arranged in conjunction with morning exercises, mealtimes, self-study, and other occasions.
During implementation, however, Political Instructor Wang found himself in a difficult position: the brigade had neither rescinded the earlier regulations nor provided further clarification on how to implement the new requirements. What exactly should be done?
In order to "avoid making mistakes," they could only continue following the previous requirements. Over time, individual officers and soldiers grew listless while listening to or watching the news, and the subsequent discussions and exchanges were empty and insubstantial, leaving the "Three Half-Hours" activities with less than satisfactory results.
Some time ago, grassroots officers and soldiers raised the issue of contradictions and conflicts between such new higher-level regulations and the unit's own older requirements. Brigade leadership studied the matter and concluded that in recent years, regulations and institutions covering areas such as combat readiness training and ideological and political education had been issued at various levels, with much of the content adjusted to reflect the characteristics of the new-era situation and tasks. Yet some of the unit's own older requirements had not been rescinded, resulting in overlapping content that left grassroots units at a loss during execution and undermined the quality and effectiveness of grassroots development.
The brigade immediately convened the relevant functional sections to sort through and analyze the contradictions and problems, and to pool their wisdom to break through the bottlenecks and sticking points. They adopted a comprehensive, case-by-case inspection approach to systematically review all regulations and institutions. Using the method of "Three Investigations, Three Examinations" (三查三看)—investigating timeliness to see whether provisions are outdated, investigating basis to see whether they are compliant, and investigating implementation to see whether they are effective—they categorized all regulations and institutions into three situations: "to be rescinded," "recommended for revision," and "to remain in effect," and established a classified ledger accordingly.
The reporter reviewed the cleanup ledger and found that for each item requiring action, the specific situation, basis for execution, and proposed disposition were recorded item by item. For example, regarding the organization of "Three Half-Hours" activities, the relevant department specified "innovate the methods, organize flexibly."
Cleaning up regulations and institutions is not simply a matter of rescinding and revising; more importantly, it lies in guiding officers and soldiers to carry out their work using rule-of-law thinking (法治思维) and rule-of-law methods (法治方式).
"Comrade, hello. Please present your relevant credentials and vehicle dispatch procedures..." At a guard post within the garrison area, sentry Xiao Wang was inspecting multiple vehicles entering and exiting the garrison in accordance with regulations. Recently, officers and soldiers cross-referenced the relevant content in the newly revised Internal Affairs Regulations (内务条令) and the Provisions on Several Matters of Troop Management issued by higher authorities, compiled the latest duty standards and requirements into a reference volume, and strictly implemented them accordingly. Everyone now feels more confident when standing duty.
Sergeant First Class Wang, a squad leader serving as duty section leader for a certain company, told the reporter that previously, officers and soldiers on duty still referred to notices issued by the brigade headquarters. After the regulations and institutions cleanup was launched, the headquarters carefully studied and compared the latest higher-level regulatory requirements and found that some provisions were outdated and vague, and did not interface smoothly with higher-level regulations. Adhering to the principle of rule of law first and benchmarking against standards (对标对表), they promptly rescinded a number of outdated notices. In recent weeks, key elements such as the configuration of the brigade's guard and duty posts, standardization of sentry movements, and emergency response procedures have been re-sorted and codified.
"To strengthen officers' and soldiers' rule-of-law thinking and promote the comprehensive implementation of governing the military according to law (依法治军), we must write the 'follow-on chapter' of regulations and institutions cleanup," a leader from the brigade's political-legal commission (政法委) explained. At present, they are sorting through opinions and suggestions reported by grassroots units. For unreasonable content arising from insufficient understanding of regulations or misinterpretation, they will provide targeted explanations and guidance to lead officers and soldiers to truly study and thoroughly understand the regulations and institutions, promote performance of duties according to law at all levels, and ensure that regulations and institutions take root at the grassroots level and produce visible results.