Internal Security Political Work

A Subordinate Brigade of the PAP Hunan Corps Drives Ideological and Political Education Back to Its Essence

武警湖南总队某支队推动思想政治教育回归本真

PLA Daily (解放军报) 16 May 2026

Summary

A subordinate brigade of the People's Armed Police Hunan Corps, acting on findings by the brigade's Political Work Office, overhauled its ideological and political education program after inspections revealed instructors were prioritizing entertainment metrics—audience 'heads-up rates' and applause—over substantive content, a pattern the brigade leadership attributed to a distorted view of political achievement (政绩观). The brigade responded by revising its assessment criteria to weight behavioral change among personnel and contribution to combat effectiveness over audience satisfaction, while redirecting lesson preparation toward mission-relevant content delivered in soldiers' own vernacular. The report is useful as a ground-level indicator of how the PAP is attempting to enforce Xi Jinping's 'forge the soul and cultivate people' (铸魂育人) standard against formalism in political education, and it documents the specific institutional mechanisms—standards-based assessments, Political Work Office inspections, and revised evaluation indicators—being used to operationalize that standard at the brigade level.

Translation

A Subordinate Brigade of the PAP Hunan Corps Drives Ideological and Political Education Back to Its Essence——

Making Instruction That Truly Moves the Soul More Meaningful

■ Du Jianbing, Ji Haichao

Recently, in a standards-based unit-building assessment (按纲建队考评) organized by a subordinate brigade of the People's Armed Police Hunan Corps, the company where Instructor Wu serves received a high score for outstanding results in ideological and political education. Reflecting on the experience not long ago of being criticized by higher authorities for poor education quality, Instructor Wu stated frankly: "Whether education is effective or not cannot be judged simply by how much applause is received. Only instruction that truly moves the soul has meaning."

Early in the year, Deputy Director Huang of the brigade's Political Work Office conducted an on-site investigation at the company and sat in on a political education class taught by Instructor Wu. On the platform, Instructor Wu spoke with wit and flair, drawing freely on internet memes and popular expressions; below the platform, officers and soldiers laughed continuously and applauded warmly. Yet Deputy Director Huang's brow grew increasingly furrowed. After class, he offered Instructor Wu a pointed criticism: "This kind of instruction puts the cart before the horse—picking up sesame seeds while losing the watermelon."

Instructor Wu felt somewhat aggrieved. In the past, when higher-level organs organized education assessments, personnel satisfaction was an important criterion. Before this class, he had deliberately collected a great deal of material based on the fact that officers and soldiers were interested in popular internet jokes and preferred a "short, direct, and fast" (短平快) instructional format, incorporating it into his lesson plan—only to find the effect was the opposite of what he intended.

Instructor Wu's sense of grievance prompted Deputy Director Huang to reflect. He led the inspection team on consecutive visits to several companies and found that similar problems were far from rare: some organ cadres evaluating education outcomes focused only on "heads-up rates" (抬头率) and cheers, rarely settling down to listen through an entire class; some political instructors, when preparing lessons, devoted the bulk of their effort to finding memes online and producing multimedia presentations, while the content drifted away from the actual needs of officers and soldiers.

"These phenomena appear on the surface to be problems of method and means, but in substance they are the work of formalism (形式主义), rooted in a distorted view of political achievement (政绩观)." Confronted with the inspection team's findings, the brigade leadership took an unambiguous position: the fundamental purpose of ideological and political education is to forge the soul and cultivate people (铸魂育人); it must not emphasize form over content or engage in vulgarized instruction.

To this end, the brigade integrated study and education on establishing and practicing a correct view of political achievement (正确政绩观), organized Party member cadres to study relevant important statements in depth, and helped personnel correct ideological deviations. The brigade organized experience-sharing activities among outstanding political instructors, conducted concentrated lesson preparation and demonstration teaching centered on "building quality classrooms and enlightening the mind and wisdom," and raised political instructors' capacity to prepare and deliver lessons. The brigade also moved the education classroom to the front lines of missions, using the language of soldiers (兵言兵语) to tell compelling stories from within their own ranks, and worked to strengthen the relevance, vividness, and practical effectiveness of educational instruction.

When one company organized registration for non-commissioned officer education and training, few signed up for the command and management specialty, while competition was fierce for dual-use military-civilian skills. In response to this phenomenon, Company Instructor Yang, under the title "A Soldier's Assault by the 'Slash Youth' (斜杠青年)", produced an animated short drama based on the story of the brigade's armorer Li Songge's growth and development, using a vivid and moving story to convey the principle of "whichever field you work in, love it and master it." After the class, officers and soldiers were deeply moved, and many proactively adjusted the specialty they had registered for.

"Everything for victory is the defining characteristic (特质) of ideological and political education in the armed forces." The brigade leadership explained that, in order to improve the quality and effectiveness of education, while urging the grassroots to uphold principled innovation (守正创新) and correct the center of gravity of education, they are continuously improving the education assessment system. In the next phase, the brigade will make the degree of behavioral transformation among officers and soldiers and the rate of contribution to combat effectiveness the primary evaluation indicators for ideological and political education, guiding education to fully exert its force in transforming people through education (以教化人), promoting development through education (以教促建), and promoting combat readiness through education (以教促战).

Original Chinese

武警湖南总队某支队推动思想政治教育回归本真—— 让授课触动灵魂更有意义 ■杜建兵季海潮近日，在武警湖南总队某支队组织的按纲建队考评中，吴指导员所在中队因思想政治教育实效突出获得高分。回想不久前被上级批评教育质量不佳的经历，吴指导员坦言：“教育效果好不好，不能光看收获了多少掌声，只有真正触动灵魂的授课才有意义。” 年初，该支队政治工作处黄副主任到该中队蹲点调研，听了吴指导员讲授的一堂政治教育课。台上，吴指导员妙语连珠，各种网络梗、流行语信手拈来；台下，官兵笑声不断，掌声热烈。然而，黄副主任的眉头却越皱越紧。课后，他一针见血地对吴指导员提出批评：“这样授课是本末倒置，捡了芝麻、丢了西瓜。” 对此，吴指导员有些委屈。以往机关组织教育考评，官兵满意度是一个重要依据。此次授课前，他根据官兵对网络流行段子感兴趣、喜欢“短平快”授课模式的特点，特意搜集了不少素材放到教案中，没想到效果适得其反。吴指导员的“委屈”，引发了黄副主任的思考。他带着检查组连续走访几个中队，发现类似问题并不鲜见：部分机关干部评价教育成效，只看重“抬头率”、喝彩声，很少沉下心来听完一堂课；有的政治教员备课，把大量心思花在从网络上找梗、做多媒体课件上，内容却脱离官兵需求。 “这些现象，看似是方法手段问题，实质是形式主义作祟，根源是政绩观错位。”面对检查组的调查结果，该支队领导态度鲜明：思想政治教育的根本目的在于铸魂育人，不能重形式轻内容，搞庸俗化授课。为此，该支队结合树立和践行正确政绩观学习教育，组织党员干部深学细悟相关重要论述，帮助大家校正思想偏差；组织优秀政治教员授课经验交流活动，围绕“打造精品课堂、启迪心灵智慧”开展集中备课示教，提升政治教员备课授课能力；把教育课堂搬到任务一线，用兵言兵语讲好身边故事，着力增强教育授课的贴近性、生动性、实效性。某中队组织警士教育培训报名，报名指挥管理专业的人不多，军地两用技能选报却竞争激烈。针对这一现象，该中队杨指导员以《“斜杠青年”的士兵突击》为题，将支队军械员李松阁成长成才的故事制作成动漫短剧，通过生动感人的故事讲透“干一行、爱一行、精一行”的道理。授课结束后，官兵深受触动，很多人主动调整了报名培训的专业。 “一切为了胜利，是部队思想政治教育的特质所在。”该支队领导介绍，为提高教育质效，他们在督促基层坚持守正创新、归正教育重心的同时，不断完善教育考评体系。下一步，支队将把官兵行为转化度和对战斗力的贡献率作为思想政治教育的主要评价指标，引导教育向以教化人、以教促建、以教促战充分发力。