Reflections on Two Online Messages from Officers and Soldiers: A Report on an Air Force Brigade's Ongoing Deepening of Political Rectification Training
Reflections on Two Online Messages from Officers and Soldiers
— A Report on an Air Force Brigade's Ongoing Deepening of Political Rectification Training
How much supervisory power and influence can online messages from officers and soldiers have over a Party committee and its organs? Since last year, a certain Air Force brigade has used the Strong Military Network (强军网) to launch a message platform called "Sunshine Military Affairs — All Questions Answered" (阳光兵事 有问必答), encouraging grassroots officers and soldiers to supervise and evaluate the work of the brigade Party committee and its organs, and to consult and provide feedback on problems in daily work, training, and construction, as well as to offer opinions and suggestions. Since the platform was established, officers and soldiers have enthusiastically submitted hundreds of messages, many of which contain feedback on the brigade Party committee and organ work that has deeply moved the brigade Party committee.
Using the opinions of officers and soldiers as a mirror to reflect on the details of their work, and then conducting discussions and analysis — this has become a powerful handle (抓手) for deepening their political rectification training (政治整训). In recent times, two messages from officers and soldiers have again moved them deeply.
Message from Officers and Soldiers ①
During the period when an organ cadre was stationed at our company to assist in its development, he was very attentive to several high-profile tasks — upgrading the honor room and building the culture wall — and pushed them forward quickly. However, he has repeatedly failed to respond to issues we raised multiple times, including the gap in the cultivation of company backbone personnel and the lack of unified standards in daily management. We do not know when progress on these matters will be made.
— Xiao Lin, Party branch committee member and grassroots atmosphere supervisor, a certain guard company
After Receiving the Message
When he first saw this message, the person in question — Staff Officer Zhang from the organ — was somewhat indignant: "The renovation of the honor room was a debt owed to this company for many years, and the cultural activities were something the soldiers themselves had asked for. My time helping the unit was short and the tasks were heavy — I prioritized solving these problems. How can the grassroots still be ungrateful?"
But on reflection, Staff Officer Zhang found his confidence somewhat lacking. Asking himself honestly, he had to admit that during the assistance work he did harbor a mentality of emphasizing visible achievements (显绩) over hidden achievements (隐绩).
At the outset of his posting, he had investigated and identified the deep-seated, prominent contradictions constraining the company's development — irregular implementation of organizational life (组织生活) systems, rote Party member education, and a severe gap in the backbone of specialist personnel. At the time, he had also thought about settling in and resolving these issues one by one. But when he privately calculated the "time account" and "energy account," he found: upgrading the honor room and building cultural highlights could produce results in a month or two and generate experience, making them immediately visible to leaders and comrades. Whereas regularizing the company's organizational life and cultivating a tiered backbone — these routine, foundational tasks were slow work, requiring at least half a year before any improvement would show, by which point his own assistance assignment would already be over, and the results would inevitably be invisible and intangible.
After weighing the options, driven by the mentality of "producing results quickly and leaving a good impression," he placed these problems that could not show results quickly into the "long-term planning" folder, and directed his main energy toward advancing the two "quick-win" (短平快) high-profile tasks. When the assistance period ended, Staff Officer Zhang returned to his department with his "results" and received praise from his department leadership. For a time, he even felt that his approach to work showed both vision and effectiveness.
During study and education sessions, this message caught the attention of the brigade Party committee. When organ cadres were organized to discuss it, some frankly admitted that in the past, when evaluating the effectiveness of organ-linked assistance to grassroots units, they sometimes focused primarily on whether there were immediate results and whether highlights had been produced. With that orientation in place, it was inevitable that some comrades would exert effort in that direction.
"The grassroots criticism is correct. Reflecting on myself, the old thinking of 'station at a unit, leave a highlight' (蹲点留亮点) is, in essence, an unwillingness to put in effort on latent achievements (潜绩), a reluctance to gnaw on hard bones, and insufficient courage and initiative in taking responsibility." Staff Officer Zhang voluntarily stepped forward to conduct self-criticism. "Placing the satisfaction of superiors first and putting combat readiness and grassroots needs second — at bottom, this is a mentality of seeking quick gains and instant benefits (急功近利), and my outlook on political achievements (政绩观) has gone off course."
As the discussion deepened, a consensus became increasingly clear: when the outlook on political achievements is misaligned, the exercise of power will inevitably go astray. Deepening political rectification training means rectifying this utilitarian thinking of "emphasizing appearances over inner strength, emphasizing short-term effects over long-term effects," and keeping the focus on the ability to fight and win, genuinely placing the foundation of assistance work on things that lay a solid foundation and serve long-term interests.
Once thinking was unified, rectification was promptly launched. The brigade Party committee revised the "Detailed Rules for Evaluating Grassroots Linked-Assistance Work" (基层挂钩帮建工作考评细则), further increasing the weight of foundational work such as organizational development and education management, reducing the proportion of bonus points for highlights, and stipulating that assistance work without a problem checklist and without officer-and-soldier evaluations would not be accepted upon completion. A mechanism was established to close out assistance work ledger items, with effectiveness tracked and assessed for a full year.
Not long ago, Staff Officer Zhang returned to the guard company with a rectification checklist, advancing item by item the foundational work of regularizing organizational life, cultivating a tiered backbone, and unifying management standards, with progress publicly posted on the platform throughout for supervision.
Party Committee Reply: Thank you to Xiao Lin for the feedback identifying this problem. We have begun to rectify issues such as organ assistance to grassroots units "emphasizing highlights over foundations," and have ordered the relevant responsible party to return to the company for a "re-do" of the assistance work, striving to complete several routine and foundational tasks that officers and soldiers care about and are watching. Please continue to follow up with supervision and actively offer opinions and suggestions.
Message from Officers and Soldiers ②
At a "Soldier Reception Day" (士兵接待日) event at the beginning of the year, a brigade leader took ownership of the problem we raised — that the allocation of merit citations and commendations was not sufficiently scientific. Everyone was very pleased and felt there was hope for the problem to be resolved. But at several subsequent events, the reply we received each time was "currently being processed." We do not know when this problem will be resolved.
— Squad Leader Cai, a certain company
After Receiving the Message
That morning, when this brigade leader opened his computer and saw this message, he felt his face flush with heat.
At the "Soldier Reception Day" event at the beginning of the year, this brigade leader had attended with organ personnel. During the event, Squad Leader Cai and several comrades from a certain company reported that their specialty had a large personnel base and heavy daily operational and training tasks, but the annual quotas for merit citations and commendations and the indicators for non-commissioned officer selection and promotion were relatively few. They suggested that the corresponding indicators and quotas be increased. After learning of the situation, this brigade leader felt the problem would not be difficult to resolve, so he rose to respond, voluntarily took ownership of the problem, and promised to reply as soon as possible.
But while taking ownership of the problem was easy, resolving it was not. What appeared to be merely a matter of adjusting quota proportions in fact required multiple organ departments to conduct research, demonstration, and coordination, and after a plan was produced it still had to be submitted to the Party committee meeting for deliberation. This leader led the relevant departments through several rounds of research, and just as he was about to produce a preliminary plan, multiple tasks — live-fire exercises, specialty skills competitions, and others — arrived in succession, and the matter temporarily went no further.
During the study and education sessions organized by the brigade Party committee in conjunction with deepening political rectification training, everyone paid close attention to this message from officers and soldiers. When asked about the background and circumstances, this brigade leader explained with a red face.
"At first I thought: since I had made a commitment to the grassroots officers and soldiers, I should explain and respond in a timely manner and overcome difficulties to fulfill my promise. But later, as tasks piled up, I found it hard to keep up. Subconsciously, I felt that live-fire exercises and specialty competitions were 'hard tasks' (硬任务) that superiors were closely watching — there could be not the slightest slackening. Whereas the demands of the grassroots were 'soft tasks' (软任务) that superiors would not pay attention to and no one would press on — it would be fine to set them aside for a while. So I had the relevant departments mark it 'currently being processed' and went off to attend to other work…"
"Behind a leader stands thousands of troops. Whether work is being done and how well it is being done — the eyes of officers and soldiers are all watching. Every action and movement is connected to the image and authority of the Party organization and its leading cadres." After learning of the situation, Party committee members subjected this brigade leader to serious criticism. Everyone felt that while this appeared to be a problem of work coordination, it was in fact a matter of Party member cadres having insufficient initiative and awareness, and an inadequate understanding of the weight of credibility attached to the power in their hands.
In the course of discussion and analysis, everyone placed themselves in the picture and placed their responsibilities in the picture, pointing directly at some common ailments (共性病灶) in the fulfillment of duties and responsibilities. For example: some, feeling unsupervised, exercised power arbitrarily and capriciously, handling or delaying the demands of officers and soldiers as they pleased; some had a weak sense of putting the grassroots first, keeping their eyes only on the "hard indicators" (硬指标) that superiors were watching and implementing selectively, picking and choosing their work; some had not firmly established the combat effectiveness standard (战斗力标准), with work that was showy but insubstantial and of little help in improving the quality and effectiveness of training and combat readiness; and so on.
"We must deeply understand that each broken promise, each delay, consumes the trust of officers and soldiers in the Party organization and damages the foundation of the force." The brigade Party committee further made clear that the power in the hands of leading cadres is connected to the trust of officers and soldiers and bears on training and combat readiness. The more important the post, the greater the responsibility, and the greater the need to proactively accept supervision.
In accordance with the principle of "clarifying responsibilities through lists, enabling free expression through the platform, and maintaining full transparency throughout" (清单明责、平台畅言、全程透明), they established and improved a normalized supervision chain (常态化监督链条). Through the mechanism of "standing committee members taking the lead, discipline inspection overseeing, departments acting in coordination, and implementation being assessed for results" (常委牵头、纪检督办、部门联动、落实问效), they treat supervision as a tightening band (紧箍咒) for regulating the exercise of power and a whetstone for tempering the courage to take responsibility, resolutely rectifying problems of inaction such as "quick to make statements, slow to implement" (表态快、落实慢), and compelling leading cadres to face problems directly in their work and reach directly into the hearts of soldiers (直抵兵心).
After the meeting, this brigade leader immediately led the relevant departments in launching a new round of research, examining commendation indicator allocations for each specialty against policies and regulations item by item; and in conjunction with the realities of soldier selection and retirement work, further revised and improved the detailed rules for selection and promotion assessment…
(This group of articles was compiled by Yao Shiquan)
Party Committee Reply:
Previously, the problem taken ownership of by the brigade leader — "insufficient merit citation quotas and non-commissioned officer selection and promotion indicators for a certain specialty" — was not followed up on and resolved in a sufficiently timely manner. We sincerely apologize and offer self-criticism to everyone here. We have now, based on relevant policies and incorporating opinions from both the grassroots and the organs, preliminarily studied and produced resolution measures, which are being published on the platform for solicitation of opinions and suggestions; once approved, they will be implemented as soon as possible. Everyone is welcome to supervise the entire process and offer reminders at any time.