FIRST-HAND INFORMATION: Chen Chuanming (left) and Zheng Xuerong (right), Party officials in Yuxi in southwest China's Yunnan Province, listen to the concerns of Bai Lianying, a visually impaired senior resident in a remote village, on June 26 (LIN YIGUANG)

The meeting also called for efforts to improve the official performance evaluation system and let it drive changes in work styles.

The Political Bureau vowed to stop Party members from pulling strings to get themselves official positions or promotions.

The conference specified major aspects for revamping Party members' work styles, including boosting the efficiency of theory learning, article writing and meetings; controlling expenditures on official overseas visits, public vehicles and official receptions; preventing officials from extorting bribes and accepting high-end membership cards or prepaid gift cards.

According to a statement from the CCDI on June 28, all current staff with China's disciplinary and supervisory organs claim to have discarded any membership cards that had been received as gifts.

Moreover, great efforts should also be made to scrap "face-raising" projects, which were described as short-sighted projects undertaken for the sake of burnishing an official's credentials.

Efforts should also be made to cut back on unnecessary festivities, forums or international conferences, and to curb the construction of wasteful and grand government buildings.

According to the State Council's report on the Central Government's final accounts for 2012 issued on June 27, China's Central Government spent 7.43 billion yuan ($1.2 billion) on receptions, vehicles and overseas trips last year, down about 20 percent from 2011.

During a press conference in March, Premier Li Keqiang said that within his tenure, the government will not use the public coffers to construct new offices, halls or guest houses for government use.

Li also ensured that the number of government employees and the amount of government spending on receptions, vehicles and overseas trips will be reduced.

Regulations should follow

Analysts have deemed the recent Political Bureau meeting an opportunity for the CPC's top leadership to "look into the mirror and straighten their attire" together, as well as an assembly call for the Party's over 80 million members to improve their work styles.

Wang Yukai, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Governance, said that many targets and missions put forward in the latest conference are extension of the "eight-point" rules. For example, the meeting announced that all officials who violated regulations of the Party will be punished. Wang believes such a statement is clearly anti-privilege. "Whether privilege will be challenged holds the key to the success of this campaign on Party members' work styles," said Wang.

Dai Yanjun, a professor at the Party School of the CPC Central Committee, said that officials' luxury housing and cars have attracted a lot of public complaints and senior leadership's attitude toward banning excess benefits can be exemplary.

Dai said that while the demands on Party members put forward in the recent meeting of the Political Bureau follow into the category of moral education, their translation into concrete regulations would be more important.

"Concrete rules are imperative as they can install clear boundaries over government leaders' daily work and life and give the public references to supervise officials," he said.

Moreover, the Political Bureau has vowed to establish a sanctioning mechanism in which officials receive promotions for good work styles, and warned or punished for misconduct. Experts believe that the installation of such a system is significant.

"Correcting misconduct in promoting officials is key to the overall improvement of Party members' ethics," Dai said. He explained that the kind of officials who get promoted gives direction for all other Party members and officials. "People will try to imitate the work style of those receiving a raise. Moreover, if a senior leader becomes corrupt and promote an official after taking his or her bribes, such a decision could cause severe consequences and losses," Dai said.

Yao Huan, a professor at the Party School of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee, said that in the history of the CPC, work style campaigns have been launched whenever the Party is faced with new circumstances and challenges.

Yao said in the past, such "mass line" educational campaigns on work styles often failed for having a fine start but a poor finish. But he believes that it is promising this time as the Political Bureau has learned from past failures and initiated a three-step project of listing ideal results first, then identifying prominent problems and checking implementation measures last.

"These campaigns will end up being completely successful if regulatory loopholes can be closed and integrity of Party members maintained," said Yao.

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