VI. Make the Party a Strong Leading Core for the Cause of Socialist Modernization

History has entrusted our Party with heavy responsibilities in the great undertaking of China's socialist modernization. In order to step up Party building in the new period, we have made many fundamental changes in the Party Constitution adopted by the 11th National Congress. The general principle guiding the revision of the Party Constitution is to set more exacting demands on Party members, enhance the fighting capacity of the Party organizations and uphold and improve Party leadership, all in conformity with the characteristics and needs of the new historical period. As required by the new Constitution, we must strive to build the Party and make it a strong leading core for the cause of socialist modernization.

The draft of the revised Party Constitution now submitted to this congress for its consideration has discarded the "Left" errors in the Constitution adopted by the 11th Congress, and carries forward the merits of the Party constitutions passed respectively by the Seventh and Eighth Congresses. The General Programme section in the draft Constitution includes Marxist definitions concerning the character and guiding ideology of the Party, the principal contradiction in our society at the present stage and the general task of the Party, and the correct way for the Party to play its leading role in the life of the state. The ideological, political and organizational requirements this draft Constitution sets for Party members and cadres are stricter than those in all our previous constitutions. In stipulating the duties of Party members, the draft absolutely forbids them to use public office for personal gain or to benefit themselves at the expense of the public interests, and requires that they firmly oppose factionalism and be bold in backing good people and good deeds and in opposing bad people and bad deeds. It sets forth as basic requirements for leading cadres at all levels that they correctly implement the Party's line, principles and policies, oppose erroneous tendencies inside and outside the Party, have the professional knowledge and organizational ability needed for competent leadership, and adhere to Party principles in struggling against all abuses of power and pursuit of personal gain. Most of these are additions, not found in the previous constitutions. In the light of our historical experience and lessons, the draft Constitution emphasizes that all Party organizations from the central down to the primary level must strictly observe the principles of democratic centralism and collective leadership, and it explicitly stipulates that the Party "forbids all forms of personality cult." It makes many new provisions for improving the systems of the central and local organizations, tightening Party discipline, reinforcing the discipline inspection organs and strengthening the primary Party organizations. According to the draft Constitution, the Central Committee is to have no Chairman but only a General Secretary, who will convene meetings of the Political Bureau and its Standing Committee and preside over the work of the Secretariat. Advisory committees are to be established at the central and provincial levels to give our many veteran comrades rich in political experience a role as consultants in the service of the Party's cause. Commissions for discipline inspection are to be elected by Party congresses at the respective levels and, within limits prescribed by the Party Constitution, they are to supervise Party committees and their members at the respective levels below the Central Committee, and they may report to the Central Committee any breach of Party discipline by any of its members. Party organizations at all levels must pay great attention to Party building and must regularly discuss and check up on the Party's work in propaganda, education, organization and discipline inspection, and its mass work and united front work. All these stipulations should help to reinforce the Party's collective leadership, enhance its fighting capacity and strengthen its ties with the masses. It should be said that the present draft is an improvement on all the previous constitutions and is fuller in content. Being a precious crystallization of the Party's historical experience and collective wisdom, it is an important guarantee for making our Party still stronger in the new historical period.

All Party members must study and strictly observe the new Constitution after its adoption by this congress. Whether or not a Party member really meets the requirements set by the Constitution and can fully discharge the duties of membership will be the fundamental criterion for judging whether he or she is qualified to be a Party member. Before the present revision of the Constitution, our Party worked out the Guiding Principles for Inner-Party Political Life, a document which has played a salutary role in that regard. The Guiding Principles will remain in full effect as an important complement to the Constitution. In light of the present conditions in the Party and in the spirit of our new Party Constitution, we must now concentrate on solving the following problems in Party building.

First, improve the Party's system of democratic centralism and further normalize inner-Party political life.

The history of our Party shows that, in the period from its founding to the early years after the establishment of the People's Republic, except for a few years when the Party fell into grave Right or "Left" errors, it implemented the principles of democratic centralism relatively well, and inner-Party political life was fairly vigorous and lively. But from the late 1950s, the personality cult gradually appeared and developed, and political life in the Party and state, and particularly in the Central Committee, grew more and more abnormal, leading eventually to the decade of domestic turmoil. The grave twists and turns of history have taught us that whether there is normal political life in the Party, and above all in the Central Committee and other leading bodies of the Party at different levels, is indeed a fundamental issue bearing on the destiny of the Party and state.